I almost always race in the elite wave, when possible, and am 45. So far no issues with scoring of races, including my last race in September, which I won overall male.

Different scoring topic - why would racing in Ibiza count for USAT rankings? I know it was a world champ, but I always thought races to score had to be on US soil.

---

Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

I think they've been scoring Team USA AG events. Kind of miffed because they didn't score an event like 70.3 Worlds, which had a ton of US participants. Think a race like that should get you a rating, since a lot of people peak for that & competition level is high.

I did the Local Elite Wave of the Texas City Triathlon on 2022 (I also am in the M45-49). I assume that is one of the races that you are referring to with a special wave. The conditions were exactly that same for the Local Elite Wave as the AG athletes. That was NOT and invitational wave. You registered for the race the same as any other race just with the option to register for the Elite wave if you wanted to complete for the overall podium instead of signing up for the M45-49 AG if you didn't think you could make the overall top 10.

I agree 100% that if you don't have an Elite Card that you are an Age Group Athlete. Yes, there are guys out there with Elite cards that complete in their AG at local event then jump up to the Elite Pro Division at other races their money races. The USAT rules were obviously written for people with Pro Cards not for people who are joining Wave 1 in a race because they think they can make the overall AG top ten.

I am a front of the pack cyclist and front of the pack runner but middle of the pack swimmer. When I go to races with a rolling serpentine pool swim half the field starts in front of me. On the swim I have to pass a half dozen people while simultaneously getting passed by half a dozen people. On the bike I then pass 1/3 of the people who were out of the water before me and on the run, I pass 1/3 of the people who were off the bike before me. I still manage to make the overall podiums when I have a good race though. When I make the overall podium the guys I am standing next to are usually half my age and they were usually off the bike that morning before I even started my swim. I hate those type of races and would rather do head-to-head racing every time.

USAT had done some really bone headed things over the years, but not scoring AG'er who don't have a Pro-card for competing in a competitive head-to-head race wave is definitely right up there with their dumbest things they have done. Sure, tell all the master athletes that are fast enough to beat the 22 year-old AG winners that they can't head-to-head race at events or their will be penalized by not having their race recorded in the AG standings. And they wonder why participation is dropping at USAT events. I would rather do a local non-USAT event if I am not going to get my results in the AG standings. The Non-USAT events are more fun, more affordable, and give me more options for racing.

No idea why I just know they do, competed in several ITU AG Worlds from Chicago which of course was on US soil up til Laussanne. I got a USAT score for each of those.

Yes - Texas City is one of the races where you could opt into that first wave (with whatever name you want to give it) - and for that race everyone was given a points score by USAT. That was a neat race too.
That was the odd thing that happened this year - out of the various "Insert Name Here" wave races I competed in this year for only 1 race did USAT say "no points score for you" with the reason being given as "we don't score these "special" waves.

Well, I got points for the "Elite" wave as Texas City and I also qualified for the "Elite" wave at the 2023 Woodlands Half Marathon. I didn't get AG awards at either of those races even though my time was faster than the AG winner and AG Master winners at both events. I did however get a USAT score and the Elite Masters in the Full Woodlands Marathon did get Abbot Marathon AG scores.

Your race that didn't get scored sounds like an RD submitted results in a format that was too mind boggling for USAT to figure out and they so they got it wrong and rather than correcting the problem when they were notified of the problem just doubled down on the source of their confusion and instead of taking on more work for themselves to correct things just blamed things on the RD for creating a separate wave and punished the athletes who raced in that wave.

Again, USAT is pushing people away from the sport by doing these type of things. It shows they are out of touch with the athletes and that they place more importance on making things convince for them to administer than the needs of the athletes.

This is very close to my experience when trying to help USAT correct something.

I just found out recently that they don't score foreign location 70.3 Worlds or Nice Worlds. I have know that they scored ITU/World Triathlon AG Worlds and since I have had scores from Kona and 70.3 Worlds in Chattanooga just assumed they always did for the same reason as you; that there will be a ton of US participants racing each time. Doesn't make sense. I wonder if its a casualty of the long feud with Ironman but needed to include those races when in the US because they designated USAT races.

It's probably something as simple as the local federation in France or Finland not sharing that data back with USAT.

Sportstats has the results for IMWC Nice and 70.3 in Lahti on their website. They are the timing company for all the US and Canadian IM races. Not sure their role in Nice and Lahti but surely they could provide the detail for those races, they do for all US based races.

Yeah there's no reason not to score 70.3 Worlds. They can easily reach out to Ironman & have a process for scoring every US based Ironman race. 70.3/140.6 Worlds are two of the most competitive AG races out there. You should be able to get a score rating from those races.

I believe they don't technically score non US IM events is because said events may not require an license/membership from the athlete. USAT *only* scores events that are sanctioned through USAT (WT world championships is basically an usat sanctioned event by way of all US athletes being "members"). So you could have events in the US also not scored if it's not an usat sanctioned events.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II