Sadly, this looks to be true. The only other NA race that WOULD give you possibility to qualify for Kona 2024 (in the calendar right now) would be IM Lake Placid on the 21st of July, but IM Lake Placid is sold out.

Next race in the NA calendar is IM Wisconsin on the 8th of September, which is then too late for Kona 2024.

What happened to all the other NA qualifying races ??

Kinda weird way for IM to say "hey - we know what you want, but we aint giving it to you"

On the good side, IM Texas will have heaps for slots compared to European races ...

Ironman Canada in Penticton??? It's always been a same year Kona qualifier. Has that changed?

Looks like August 1st starts a new qualifying season. So IMC 2024 would be a 2025 qualifying race.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

But is it what we want? The 140.6 distance is dying a slow death. There’s absolutely no growth there. IM knows this. 70.3 is IM’s bread and butter and path to any kind of growth. IM is in a pickle though because their crown jewel and marquee event is at a distance that less and less people care about and want to do. At some point IM is going to have to make the 70.3 WC their marquee event. Likely not happening in the short term but that needs to be their mid to long term vision. The squabble over Kona might be a blessing in disguise as the luster of the IMWC has worn off and diminished. I’m not saying the 140.6 distance and the IMWC will disappear. I’m just saying that the 70.3 distance must become their focal point. Unless there’s some participatory turnaround on the horizon that I’m not seeing.

I said this in another thread related to dwindling registration numbers at some IM races:

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

In most threads on this topic the consensus seems to be that qualifying is too easy, it’s a joke of a world championship and more. Now the thought is it’s a bad thing there’s only one NA race that you can qualify at? I can’t keep up.

Maybe IM realized the only folks that can afford the trip to Kona also have the extra cash to shell out for the trip to Texas to qualify. Kinda them saying it’s our ball so you’re gonna have to play by our rules to get there.

It sorta seems like with them closing so many IMs there’s a bit of a panic going on to fill the pier?

Everyone, we can stop panicking...

This is mostly a function of the calendar. Most IM races are in the fall - so the only spring/summer in 2024 races on the 2024 cycle are Texas and Placid. Everything else is on the 2025 cycle. If you wanted to qualify for 2024 cycle, then September-November 2023 is where most of the slots would fall.

Penticton being on the 2025 cycle means that they're likely harmonizing the cutoff dates for Kona and Nice - it might get confusing if Penticton gave out slots for men 2024 Kona, but because Nice is too close for 2024 women, then the women's slots would then also be for Kona but for 2025. That's far too confusing, so its easier just to move back the qualifying races for both. E.g. anything July 31 and prior is for the WC of the current calendar year, while anything Aug 1 and after is for the WC of the next calendar year. (I don't know the actual date, I'm just hypothesizing)

So will they make Hawaii 70.3 a WC event? It's away from downtown Pier and should require less intrusion to the locals.

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Here's an idea: KQ times remain, but there's also a 'legacy athlete' or 'premier tier' to qualify where all you have to do is sign up for 3 or 4 or 5 IM-brand events in the last year. It's stupid and antithetical to the idea of World Championships, but it would increase their revenue a little bit.

2023 Florida and Arizona don't have 2024 spots? Last I checked Florida was still open.

They do have men's Kona slots. 25 at Florida and 20 at Arizona.

I think that would be a huge mistake. A rotating schedule just like now.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

The post says same season qualifier which FL and AZ are not.

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Not sure how that's confusing? If you're a man it's Kona, if you're a woman, it's Nice.

Not if its a late summer IM.

Nice happens in September - so August races are obviously for next year's WC, but that race is in a different location!. But at the same time, August races have typically gone to the current calendar year's Kona. So if they left August races as is, you'd have the men qualify for Kona 2024 while women qualify for Kona 2025 at the same race.

So all they've done is said the cutoff is July for the current season's WC and August goes to next year. That way both genders qualify for the same calendar year.

Does Placid have Kona slots for men? On the race website when your click on World Championship Slots, this is what you get:

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It seemed like a good idea at the time. . .

I didn't see it mentioned here yet, but may have missed it...there are less slots available this cycle because of the deferrals from the move/split of IMWC this year-for the men. I have no clue how many 2024 slots were already taken from those deferrals, but I imagine it's a substantial number. It seems like the 2025 WC race cycle is when things will start to normalize and we'll see a better distribution of races with WC slots.

I had it planned to try and qualify at IMCdA this year, but deferred when the split happened. Now I'm stuck with getting to TX and needing to do exceptionally well to get a 2024 Kona slot. Thems the breaks, challenge accepted! I should probably start another "One shot..." thread since WX was looking at IMTX!

Will Kona and Nice have the same amount of participants? Like in total, not just qualifiers. In Chattanooga, they had 65 slots for the women and 25 for the men. Will that switch for 2025 and the men will have 65 slots and women 25?

No, the issue is that lots of men who were going to do Kona this year made the decision to defer to Kona next year instead of racing Nice this year. So there are probably only half the number of slots available to go to Kona as more than a 1,000 slots are already gone (it might actually be closer to 1,500).

The date for Nice was driven by the Rugby World Cup, not Ironman. Will be interesting to see what the date is next year.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

This is the reply I got from IM when asked about Lake Placid slots.....this was in mid-August:


"Thanks for reaching out. We understand the importance of this information for our athletes to plan.
The team is working on getting these details updated just as soon as possible."

type-B wrote:

Does Placid have Kona slots for men? On the race website when your click on World Championship Slots, this is what you get:

How is your idea different from the existing legacy program?
https://www.ironman.com/ironman-legacy

I can’t see the date changing much. Nice is a summer resort so it won’t happen until after the return to school which is traditionally around 4th September.

I can see it staying at the 2nd week of September.

  
The date for Nice was driven by the Rugby World Cup, not Ironman. Will be interesting to see what the date is next year.[/quote]
I can’t see the date changing much. Nice is a summer resort so it won’t happen until after the return to school which is traditionally around 4th September.

I can see it staying at the 2nd week of September.[/quote]

Next year’s women’s championship in Nice is September 24, 2024.

https://www.ironman.com/...ld-championship-nice

Yikes. I had no idea they had this. In the mob they'd call that 'soaking the rich'