I think there are ways to do sponsorship without selling your soul but the reality is triathlon is an incredibly small sport. I always think back to someone posting in winter about the size of the triathlon and bike business on an annual basis. Someone said the tri bike business was less than <$10,000,000 in revenue. You think about that for a second. If it is that small how much can they really afford to pay in sponsorship to:

Frodeno
Brownlee
TO
Hoffman
Murray
Mola
Gomez
Butterfield
Van Lierde
Pete Jacobs
Rapp
Starky
Lange
Gambles
Hanson
Russell
Liefermann
Shoemaker
Baucco
Dye
Beals
Chrabot
Brandon
Jesse Thomas
Big Sexy
TJ
McMahon
etc
etc
etc

I know a few names on that list are not paid anything then you think about the rest of the guys not even on the list. The reality is that triathlon will continue to be a labor of love for most and I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. I do try to caution people who are upcoming in the sport to reset their expectations. Do it for the love of sport.