Very few athletes actually make a living from competing, so yes it is amateur.
Very amateur compared to most sports.

Brent Mcmahon got sting by a box jellyfish??? I think this deserves more than a line... Box jellyfish can be deadly. holy shit!

My fav: "Sanders finished the 3.86-kilometre ocean swim in 53:41 before gaining ground with a solid 180K bike ride in 4:14:19.

I guess if he had more than a solid bike ride, he could've been a contender?

I didn't know they had those in Hawaii. I though all we had to worry about was sharks. No wonder Brent had a bad day.

---

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Although I am unsure whether climate change is having any effect on distribution, the deadliest sub-species aren't around Hawai'i (no reported deaths due to the sting of a box jelly in Hawai'i, these are mostly Winged Box Jellies - Carybdea Alata). The baddest ones are usually around philippines to australia. Not to say this wasn't dangerous, i think they can be temporarily paralyzing depending on how big they are and it sure must hurt, drowning can be a real concern. Read somewhere the scar can last for years...

---

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

been tagged by those things more than once...and wooo they hurt. That sucks

Thanks for the clarification!! I’m not very familiar with the different sub-species, my knowledge on the subject mainly come from reading Diana Nyad’s book!

Canada's largest daily, The Toronto Star, featured an article on Lionel Sanders' second place finish in Kona. Great! Funny enough, the story was published under the Amateur Sports section. At first I was a bit pissy because Kona was an epic race among the best in the world and they're comparing it to Ultimate Frisbee or archery but on reflection the sport does probably have a ways to go in the social collective.


This is what happens when you live in a country or on a continent that is dominated by Pro Team sports. Any and all endurance sports are shunted to the neither regions of the newspaper.

When Peter Reid won The IRONMAN World Championships it was often just the results in the results/standings section of the paper.

The other thing that has never helped IRONMAN Hawaii is timing and location. Because the race happens on Saturday in Hawaii, it will not make the press deadline for Sunday papers. So it get's pushed to Monday, and what dominates sports news in North America on Sundays and sports coverage on Mondays - NFL Football! And of course, it's old news by then anyway!

The only time that stuff like this changes, is for the Olympic Games - that's why having triathlon in the Olympics was such a big deal. When Simon Whitfield won that first men's Olympic Gold medal, it was not just sports news in Canada it was news-news. It was the lead story on TV news-casts that night and front page news on papers the next day!!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Here's an article that same up Saturday, still not much information but what I find interesting is Brent pushed through mile 31.2 (according to sportstats splits) on the bike before pulling out. I imagine that must have been an awful 31.2 miles of riding!

http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/brent-mcmahon-quits-ironman-race-after-being-stung-by-jellyfish-1.23064953

---

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Agreed, we are very much a hockey nation, followed closely by the NFL and MLB ( some years more than others). I feel passionately about the sport (as does everyone on this forum) so it kills me that when amazing athleticism and sportsmanship get overlooked in favor of what seems like saturation of manufactured drama driven sports - NASCAR, football rivalries etc.

I think the sport and the athletes continue to hurt themselves by not negotiating collectively with WTC; WTC having diluted the pro field with too many races with Pro fields; WTC not taking advantage of online media in a more creative way/race series supportive way. And as others have said, the creation of a tiered pro system that would encourage development and insure that top athletes compete at top events.

At the end of the day, I'm getting on my trainer tomorrow morning (maybe) and I'll pack my running gear and plan to run home from the office. It doesn't impact my life in the short term. In the long term, I selfishly want this sport to survive and thrive so I can keep enjoying racing. Having a healthy and sustainable professional level that promotes and inspires participation does as much or more for the sport than anything else I can think of right now - I could write a whole rant on triathlon advertising that only resonates with the converted and what a short sighted vision that is.

Aside, I didn't know the jellyfish were non native to Kona. They recently arrived in Nova Scotia as well which is unwelcome news for my summer holidays.

The funniest thing is Canadian "news" venues in general.
Newspapers seem to be still sold in volume and the over 50 populace seems to watch "The News" religiously on tv I gather.
Canadian news is dominated by local happenings with barely a hint at what is actually going in the world apart from an occasional feel good or silly story from somewhere. If there is something major going on outside of North America it may get a 45 second piece 40-45mins in.
Coming from a Financial Markets background where news is old after 3-5 seconds (yes extreme, but already priced in) I stick to Bloomberg /CNBC/MSNBC or CNN pending where I am to get the "grown up" news :)

Terry

---

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" - Les Brown
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

canuck8 is alive!

---

_____________________________________________________
"Oh man, it's going to take days to kill all these people!" - Jens Voigt

Newspapers still exist? Stop the presses my pager is going off let me get to a payphone.

yes Jon....rumour has it that the infamous canuck8 is making a geriatric attempt at a comeback !

---

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" - Les Brown
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

hahahaha....love it :)
AND they still sell things in lbs as opposed to kgs or milligrams...even though the country went Metric back in 1973 !
Adverse to change it seems.

---

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" - Les Brown
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

Just googled box jelly sting. I should sleep well tonight... shit that looks painful.

How much do you make?
Well if I finish on the podium something like $5000-$10,000 per race.
What do you do?
I swim 2.4 miles. Bike 112 miles. Then run a marathon.

How much do you make?
10 million dollars a year.
What do you do?
I grab the ball and I'm runnin' back!

How much do you make?
$70,000
What do you do?
Trying to cure cancer.

How much do you make?
10 million dollars a year.
What do you do?
I grab the ball and I'm runnin' back!

How much do you make?
$80,000
What do you do?
Fly a plane full of people around the world.

How much do you make?
10 million dollars a year.
What do you do?
I grab the ball and I'm runnin' back!

How much do you make?
$90,000
What do you do?
Making a better smartphone

How much do you make?
10 million dollars a year.
What do you do?
I grab the ball and I'm runnin' back!

If you want a full account of how they mess you up, you should read Diana Nyad’s book about the cuba-florida swim (it’s a great book), it was one of the big issue she faced during her attemps/crossing!

Kid I went to junior high with was pulled under and almost drowned by a large jelly fish. Granted he was a scrawny 13 year old kid but damn that was eye opening.

I would love to see Lionel get the due he deserves in our country. He's a generational level athlete, engaging personality and has an amazing story.
Instead we get endless stories about early season hockey games.

---

Team Every Man Jack

It's not even sportsball coverage. It is endless interviews, predictions, and opinion pieces, usually proven completely wrong by the time the sportsball game ends, bordering on loud uncivil arguments, between two or three hosts who look like they are old washed up sportsballers turned TV hosts, wearing ill fitting suits over their steroid depleted bodies that once had muscle. "Sport" channels are worse that even the sewer that is reality television. Actually it just might be reality television. The hosts might have been instructed to act the way they act to fill the time between games with more addictive content.

I think it's a hasty to call him a generational athlete. He still has yet to win a major championship race with a deep field, and there are several guys currently racing with that to their name. Not saying he isn't a good athlete, but that implies a level of dominance that he is nowhere near to having.

Thanks for the recommendation. I’m way behind reading, we have a 14 month old but I’ll catch up at some point haha.

Not too surprising...the Star has never been all that big on publishing "facts"...