What is a non drafting Oly distance pro going to do now?

Is there any way for them to make a living?

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I'm hoping Challenge realizes this is a great opportunity to reinstate their prize purses for the olympic distance races. Then Challenge really would become the one brand that truly supports the pros.

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http://trainingwheelsrequired.wordpress.com
@KellyNCollier

Just for clarity....Challenge/Rev has indeed reinstated their purses, though more in the half/full distance

I would imagine this is just one more step for Lifetime before they buy WTC!

move out of the USA.

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JT Multisport | Facebook | Instagram | World Sport Coach

Damnit. I knew I should have opted for one of the Coast Guard jobs in Germany.

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IG: idking90

Don't say I didn't warn you! hah

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JT Multisport | Facebook | Instagram | World Sport Coach

It's not "more" for the half/full distance. It's only for those, whereas when Rev3 had the series it was about 50/50 Oly and half, with Cedar Point being the full.
I would love to see Challenge bring purses back to the Olympic races though. Nondraft Olympic does serve a purpose for athlete development, because it's not like every aspiring ITU guy/girl can travel constantly and it's still close enough.

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IG: idking90

semantics. but yes for now the pro purses have shifted to their half/full distance races. the olympic distance races are still there for the age groupers but not pro's at this time. I would imagine they have their good reasoning for it based on past experiences

This is going to make it harder for the USA to develop ITU athletes too. At least aspiring ITU athletes could jump in and earn some $$ at some of these races in the past. Given the ITU can only have 3 races per country that doesn't leave much to race in the U.S at all.

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JT Multisport | Facebook | Instagram | World Sport Coach

Ehhhh I don't know.
From my perspective, nondraft short course racing has possibly the best potential to leverage pro presence. Unlike ITU, it's not as "foreign" to the AG competitor, but it's still reasonable to make it more spectator friendly by having pros go last or something, even on a modified course like Boulder Peak, Chicago, and Hy-Vee in 2011-2012.
It's interesting, because prior to the development of 70.3 worlds and the proliferation of the half distance in general, nondraft Olympic was THE thing in the USA, even without some of the series.

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IG: idking90

ITU races can have more than 3 athletes per nation racing. This weekend in Abu Dhabi, Spain has 7 athletes and France has 6 on the men's side. You are correct that in the Olympics, you can have a MAX of 3, but that is again based on rankings. If one nation had the top 25 athletes in the world, those 25 athletes would be on the starting pontoon at each race. Maybe this is the final push to making the ITU-route a better option for young talent in the US. No point in going to 70.3 as an 18 year old, and if the non-drafting options are drying up, your option (singular) is to go into draft-legal racing to develop. Sad turn, but could end up netting us a men's contender to go along with our two world-beating women.

No. He said only 3 races, which is similar to what I said. You can have more athletes in any given race, but only 3 events in a country are typically allowed. If one is a WTS or World Cup, you can probably get away with 4, but that's about it. That's why you see Clermont, Sarasota, and Dallas continental cups for the past few years, plus the WTS event moved from San Diego to Chicago. You're not gonna see another ITU race in the USA outside those. Maybe you add Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean to"reasonable travel" and you're looking at maybe 6 races with a very extensive travel schedule. That's not very ideal for a 21 year old budding ITU pro's budget.

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IG: idking90

3 races per country. Not 3 athletes per race. You can only have 3 continental races in each country.

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JT Multisport | Facebook | Instagram | World Sport Coach

I think it's more of a business call though.....

Challenge USA (former Rev) is putting up pro purses in order to ultimately increase amateur participation in their series (as is WTC I assume). With longer distance races you can charge significantly more for entry, without equally significantly more costs incurred to the RD (so perhaps doubling revenue without doubling costs).

So financially much better for them to have say 500 half/full participants, rather than 500 olympic participants. That and I assume the age grouper Olympic distance is probably much easier to fill (lots more first-timers etc) than long course, so better to put their marketing money behind the longer races

It's basically what WTC has done as well, in getting away from short course. Maybe not the best scenario for short course athlete development, but best for Challenge/WTC's business and naturally that's going to be their focus.

That's the impression I get anyway, I could be way off ;-)

I completely agree with this. Ideally I would love to see non draft oly distance races booming. My point was its also a loss when looking at trying to develop ITU athletes in the US.

I disagree with the point that nhoya made saying it may help ITU racing in the states because they are pushed that wayfor your point exactly. After going over costs to get to the Mexican and South American ITU races, it is just far too expensive to make these the only races you are doing while chasing ITU points in conti cups.

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JT Multisport | Facebook | Instagram | World Sport Coach

Any idea where the actual prize purses for each race are listed?

Thanks.

In the first running boom in the 70s & 80s, the 10K may have been the most popular road race distance along with the marathon. Now you rarely see a 10K race.

Will the Oly distance tri go the way of the 10K if the pro prize purses dry up?

Here's a list of most of races confirmed to have a prize purse in 2015:

http://www.usatriathlon.org/...f4c72ab5187f5d3.ashx

Except that without the short course non-drafting circuit that was 5i50 and LTF young ITU talent has nowhere to develop. An 18 year old is better off pursuing ITU, but now they may have to do 70.3 just to qualify for the pro card they need to race Conti Cups. And even then, like iank said you're looking at maybe six races with lots of traveling, which is not ideal for a young budding ITU pro's budget.

Yikes... the initial message had used the word "cutting", which I interpreted to mean "reduce in size" when I should've interpreted it as "eliminating". Thanks for the clarification.

Get a job like everyone else.

Then participate in triathlon as a hobby like everyone else.

Wow dude. Thats a very narrow minded response. I don't like bullshit posts like this on ST and feel a need to call you out on this one.

When I started doing this sport I have very good memories of watching people like Simon Lessing, Tim Deboom, Matty Reed, etc duke it out for a win. Olympic distance races are short and fun to watch.

There is (and hopefully always will be) a market for professional triathletes. It's part of the draw to come watch/do/grow the sport and I think that it does have a place. Yes, this is an indication that the market for the Oly specialist pro in the United States is declining, but hopefully not for long.

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Thank you for posting that list. I was looking for something like this a while back.

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