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Pretty much all of my bitching about WTC involes what they have done recently in Australia and Asia.Some of it has been corporate thuggery,some of it totally disrespectfull and some of it just plain stupidly funny..I've voiced my opinion about them enough here and elsewhere and have been reassured by enough of my friends that I am not alone.

No point rehashing it or worrying too much though as nothing much will change..


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"Thanks to the vision of Ironman founder John Collins, who insisted that a system be maintained to allow the "common man" a chance to compete in this great race, 200 far-from-common age-groupers will join the rest"


As per the founder's vision, they are following tradition. Special interest stories are part of the allure of the event. If you don't like it, tough cookies! Life isn't "fair" get used to it.

When this race was founded, there was no "world championship" tag to it, right? It was just a bad ass long endurance race and than has evolved into this "world championship" tagged event that I think is more self appointed than any regulated actual "world title". For me, and just looking at a "world championship", it initially bothered the shit out of me that we have people in a "world championship" race that really dont deserve to be there, and those same people kinda basically are the "face" of triathlons when we watch the telecasts (although I think the last telecast had more stories of "qualifiers" than ever before).

BUT, this is a private company, who basically can create and do whatever they want with their event (they can basically call the race whatever they want to). So, at first it bugged me, but now I basically take it as exactly what it is, just a for profit company that can and will do whatever it wants with it's race. So I cant really fault how they have their business plan. It is what it is.

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@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

Roughly $40k per slot
I am torn between the 458 Italia and the McLaren MP4/12C

This is good, all of the people who watch biggest looser now will be interested in triathlon and maybe we increase exposure. On relative came to me and said, ''that ironman thing that you have been talking about, is that the same as what the biggest looser is doing?'' suddenly they are interested in the sport and hopefully the networks will mirror the interest, then the publicity goes up. Sound business policy and i think overall good for the sport.

$40,000 is a start, but isn't buying that car. You may get an older 328 or 348 though.

I don't get it. We all work every hard for a slight chance at qualifying, we put stress on our families then you have someone who had a tough life get a spot just for a celebrity slot for TV. Its BS.

Let them qualify and have respect for the race distance.

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Greg C. Moriates
Owner/Coach
GCMendurance.com

I am sure NBC gets multiple slots to assign however they want. As do a number of other sponsors/vendors.

OOHH Buurn!

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-Jason
______________________________________________
Is that all you've got? Are you sure?

Hey don't worry, they just end up looking like fools.

NBC gives them TV coverage and to be honest they probably will not even finish the race, just like the last guy from the Biggest Loser they gave a slot to.

It just shows you can't just lose 100 pounds and conquer Kona or Ironman.

Say what you will about NBC and WTC "giving away" slots, thats an entirely different argument...

But before you go off judging... this is who you are calling a "fat bastard":

Grow up and stop whining.

I get the hang up related to the world championship, but let's extend the logic. Of the 1700 starters, how many deserve to be racing for a world championship? How many of the pros have a legitmate shot at winning the thing? So, using the deserving to be there logic, the field would generously, IMO, be 20, 15 men and 5 women. I'm being really generous stretching it to 20.

Quote:

We all work every hard for a slight chance at qualifying, we put stress on our families then you have someone who had a tough life get a spot just for a celebrity slot for TV. Its BS.

Her being in the race doesn't change the number of qualifier slots.

Thom

So does this mean Kona is only for the professionals and the rest of us are dreamy hopefuls? I think it is a great idea to throw more media attention to these races to promote the sport and exercise as a whole. Don't you think the biggest loser has worked hard to get to this point anyways?

I'll take that bet. Tara is tough as nails.

Thom

Holy biggest loser batman...okay ex-fat bastard..;-)

I imagine her participation in Kona will do more to inspire the average lazy bugger to get off the couch than the girl who wins it..

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Well by deserving I simply mean "qualifying". However they want to have a "qualifying" mark, they have a qualifying mark. So if 60 pro's qualify, they qualify. Of course to WTC "qualifying" is defined as lottery or winning a spot.

I think having a legit chance and "qualifying" are 2 different standards.

Do the Indiana Pacers have a "legit" shot of winning the NBA title? No not really, but they qualified, so they deserve their playoff spot.

Also, seeing that this is a world championship for Pro's and AGers, if we want to go by your logic, I'm guessing the field would be roughly 400ish. Which would be pretty epic, but of course that would never actually happen.

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@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

Never watched the show, but aren't the biggest losers extremely fat? She just looks like a runner

I don't understand the gripe. One more fat guy in Kona won't change my life. Even if I ever qualify for Kona I want to do it the old fashioned way and beat other people in my age group. This Biggest Loser in the race, in theory, should be no where near me (at least I'd hope not).

All businesses, to some extent, should be doing some sort of charity and community outreach. Biggest Loser into Kona fits the bill for me. I actually think it would be fun if they forced the people who weren't the winners of the reality show to do the other IMs and save Kona for the champion. Chronicle the training and experience on the show. Then I'd at lest be interested in watching. Let's see Jillian or Bob teach the aero position. Awesome.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

You're absolutely right. And while we're at it, we should also ask them to keep out people like Dick Hoyt and Charlie Plaskon. Heaven forbid they use a slot that could have gone to the 26th fastest 35-39 male at IM Cozumel who nobody will hear about. I mean, aside from the fact that these slots don't impact the qualifier slots at all.

She handed out medals at IMKY this year. I met her and she was very nice. I gotta say, when I heard her last night, I have to admit, I didn't like hearing here say, " I'm going to compete in the World Championship IM in Kona"..

To me, it's like she is implying she is competing to win. I'd rather she just said she is going to do the IM in Kona and against the clock and/or a goal.

I know, nit picking but, I personally would never tell anyone that. I don't even tell anyone I race IM's because I'm slow :)

here is Tara's marathon article,(not a terrible time)

Tara Costa, the winner of Biggest Loser season 7 is still in tip-top shape after completing the show seven months ago. Once weighing 294 pounds she is down to a size 8 and she just ran the New York City marathon last week. In her interview with Ok! Magazine she revealed her inspiration for running the race and how she trained in order to finish with a time of 4:23:12. She said that after finishing Biggest Loser she needed a new challenge in order to keep herself motivated so she followed an online training program to get ready for the marathon. She said,

“It was definitely a transition to go from weight-loss mode to training mode. Initially, I felt like I wasn’t working hard enough in comparison to the workout plan on the show……. I had two rest days a week when I would do yoga or go to a conditioning class at the gym.”

x2 - Not sure if pulling cars is good for Kona training but it can't be all that bad....

Well done, ST...
Before I open threads like this, I try to guess how they will turnout..

For this one, my guess was that this guy was going to get shredded for either 1. Picking on fat people, 2. Railing on the WTC or 3. Both......

Once again, you didn't disappoint, ST.

Carry on

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"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz

Obviously.

Quick recap: Start of show--fat. End of show--less fat in varying degrees. Post-show--Some stay fit, some gain a little back (kind of like wresting..get to weigh in (show finale) and then ease up to more normal, a few gain all back. No one size fits all, pun intended.

Tara--Pretty damned fit at the end of the show and a pretty good athlete.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com