grajales won the pan am tri and it was reported that he won an "automatic" rio slot. is that because mexico said the winner gets a slot?

http://www.reuters.com/...dUSKCN0PM0R320150712

No of course not, of course you would send her. But my point, and answering the other question, is that as far as the ITU/IOC is concerned, Switzerland has a spot, not Nicola Spirig. The only time Nicola Spirig has a spot is some time next spring/summer when the individual athletes are submitted. Take the USA men at Pan Ams: the goal was obviously to get McDowell to win, automatically earning the USA a spot, effectively guaranteeing that USA will get 3 men's spots (but they probably still will based on rankings). I couls certainly see McDowell not getting to go to a Rio, even if he had won, though.

---

IG: idking90

Grajales won a slot for a Mexican male. Mexico doesn't have the talent depth of GBR, USA, AUS, etc, so the athletes that earn the spots are going to be the athletes who use the spots. It's a very weird system that individual athletes earn slots for their countries, I think. It sets it up for very confusing selection processes in many of the big time triathlon countries.

---

IG: idking90

it's a common error from the press.

For Nicola Spirig, she got her SELECTION at Cape Town and her spot at Euro games Baku.

Now, she just need to be in the top 140 of one of the 3 rankings...

Also, the swiss criteria are really different from others country. Sven Riederer and Andrea Salvisberg have filled the criteria to get their selection at the end of the year. It's not automatic but they are quite sure to get it.

I can't even imagine the heads that would explode if WTC gave her not only a slot, but a Pro slot that could qualify to win prize money.

Why? That's why they have discretionary slots. They just haven't used them yet.
She is the current Olympic champ and also won euro-games and euro-champs this year plus she won an IM in the current quali period!
If anyone deserves the wildcard it is her!
I am all for equality and 50 women slots (or rather 40-40) but I would bet having 15 additional lower tier pros there would do less for promoting the women's race than adding Nicola.
Also if someone feels robbed because somebody with a wildcard won pricemoney that is just a very bad sign for pro sports and racing a WC. Just ask the top male pros how they would feel about Gomez getting a wildcard. I am sure they would welcome him with open arms! Having the best people there is just exciting racing which promotes the sport and in turn is good for everyone.

Sutton's comments about Verzbicas are supportive to his charge, although a little fanciful I think. When they first hooked up, he said (wisely in my view) that realistically LV should be aiming for Tokyo. I wonder if that is perhaps what he originally said in this interview?

What do people think about his comment, "The move to spring distance is a disgrace. No doubt it's an initiative to appease the sponsors and TV, but it will make the sport even more mediocre" ?

The Hamburg sprint distance triathlon will be staged this coming Saturday, it will be watched by 250 000 people, it makes for great television and the last two races have been among the best adverts for ITU triathlon that I can think of. Next day is the mixed relay world championship which I think is another great event. But presumably Sutton won't be watching!

The women's start list: http://wts.triathlon.org/...thlon_hamburg/270967

The men's: http://wts.triathlon.org/...thlon_hamburg/270966

Just returning to my hobby horse, the Rio bike course! There is some dispute about its steepness and profile because the elevations quoted by Google Maps are at odds with the images from Google Street View. But I thought it was interesting that Mark Buckingham today tweeted a picture of his bike being prepared with a 34 28 "for the 20% Rio hill." The British federation have been to see it, so presumably it really is close to being this steep.

Any news of online coverage?

From what I can tell, Nicola was looking to do Kona in 2016 after the Olympics. Also, that her negotiations with WTC to get a wildcard were more about how she does in Rio.

..

I prefer the oly distance with good coverage and exciting bike courses...than again as a tri geek I feel like 2h coverage is almost twice as good as 1h coverage ;-)
Just more room for tactical moves but that only makes a coverage more exciting if there are good commentators, great live timing and using stuff like live data, gps and other grafics to illustrate that for the less knowledgeable viewers. The best example of that I have seen so far was the 2013 America's Cup. Having never watched Sailing before I was instantly hooked and turned in for the live Youtube coverage every day and that was 1,5h-2,5h each day depending on the wind.
Why don't they add some split-screen interviews during the middle 30' of the bike. Not that hard to fill the time.


I would agree with Sutton that a 3*(500m sw, 13.3k b, 3.3k r) with a 40 people field and sprint semis one or two days before would be awesome to watch.

No I think you got that confused. She wanted to do 70.3 worlds in 2012 and as far as I know she wants to do Kona this year.
If she would get a wildcard this year and comes top 3 I could see her do a early IM next year plus maybe a 70.3 and than she would have easily enough points for 2016

WTC were very clear when they introduced KPRs a few years ago that they wouldn't give discretionary slots to Pro athletes.

This exact scenario came up after 2012 when Ali Brownlee made it clear that he would love to race Kona, but there was no way he could fit qualifying into his schedule, and WTC wouldn't give him a discretionary slot.

That's not to say that WTC can't and won't change their mind, but they have been pretty consistent on this for a number of years, and I don't see it happening unless it was something extraordinary - eg, all 6 Olympics medalists said they wanted to race Kona in 2016/17 - the PR from that would be worth pissing off a few 2nd and 3rd tier long course Pros.

Do you have any statements in that regard for the discretionary slots? All I heard was that they stated that it wasn't the Lance Armstrong slot. I though the idea was to be able to give it to prospect and people who should be there but missed out in the qualli due to injuries or the like. Don't mix up the possibility of pro wildcard slots and the celeb slots.
As far as I know the discussion between Spirig/Sutton and WTC is going on right now so I guess we will just have to wait. Still im my eyes it would be stupid not to give her a slot.

As a fan, I completely agree with you.

But imagine the 35th place qualified woman who had to bust a hump to get 2nd at IM MT in July or some such thing and Nicola comes prancing in without having even validated (she has this year, but who knows if she will in 2016). I would be chapped. Keep in mind, just because you aren't at the top of the points list doesn't mean you don't have a shot at the money. There are injuries that creep up, taking away points early in the year. Some racers schedule races in other series and map out a season to carefully get their points into a comfortable qualifying spot without necessarily being right at the top of the rankings.

I also don't think it is necessarily implicit that the wild card slots are appropriately used for slotting racers into the Pro money race. That race is, essentially, the championship of a circuit which hands out points based on doing certain races on the circuit under a given set of rules all the pros have to live and play by. While I agree it is within WTC's discretion to place someone in the pro race, I think it is a fair argument that they are breaking the "deal" with the pros on the circuit by doing so. It is a lot different than slotting someone into a charity spot or a promotional spot.

I would love to see more of the diverse courses and formats. Barrie Shepley says from time to time on the ITU broadcasts about the diversity of conditions being a hallmark of the sport in general and the series as a whole; ie salt water swims, lake swims, wet-suit, no wet-suit, hilly bike, technical bike courses. I think ITU has experimented with the semi-finals/finals thing (maybe it was in Hungry at a WC event). Of course there was the popular Khitzbuel race. And predating the WTS was the accenture series in Australia with multi lap, so called F1 events. So I think the precedent is there for having a season with lots of different types of racing. This could be a more TV/spectator friendly way to run a professional season and might even lead to a few different winners.

This quote from Sutton says 2016.

http://thenaturegym.blogspot.com/...suttons-opinion.html

the real problem of the wts is the cost. You won't get more exciting course if the host can't afford it. That's why we are losing Auckland.

Kitzbuhel don't have the budget to get it back.

For the semi-finals/finals, it was on their mind after London and was presented during an ITU convention. They quickly kill it. I don't have the details, but right now, ITU is not making progress in TV coverage. A good exemple, it's no more on the canadian TV. Even if we have a WTS.

The more ironic, Cape Town is back on the calendar. Athletes, HP staffs, always been complaining about the cold water... and nothing is changing.

I love a lot of things about ITU racing, however, there are a number of changes that I'd fancy, although I'm not holding my breath.

It is a shame to see Auckland go, as I think it was one of the best courses on the circuit, however, I understand that if it isn't financially feasible, it doesn't make sense.

My preference would be an even allocation of courses between hills, technical, and flat and fast, with the latter being saved for the sprint races (say 3 of each). I watch every race, but a 40 km pack ride on a flat course is only a bit better than watching golf. Guys like the Brownlee's at least try to drill it to split things up, sometimes successfully, but a pack of 60 lads riding into T2 together means only a handful of guys have a shot at winning (this has made for exciting runs though).

If tv coverage isn't realistic, maybe they should look at increasing the coverage for the online races, as it is generally excellent and I'd pay the cost of the season's pass to watch each race!

As far as I can remember they haven't given any discretionary slots to any current pros since KPRs came in. I'm sure they said at the time that discretionary slots were in the rules as a "just in case" but that they would be used extremely rarely, if ever - the issue of top pros getting injured, not being able to get the points in time, but being fit enough by October to race was raised, and WTC said no they wouldn't get slots.

I hope that they do manage to find a way to let it happen - hell, I think that being reigning Olympic champion should be written into the rules as one of the qualification routes - but I have my doubts that they will, and suspect that they would point to what Gomez is doing at 70.3 Worlds as an example of the route to go down if you want to race Kona.

In response to all the speculation over who will earn quota slots for their NOC and the confusion between earning a slot for their NOC and being named to an Olympic Team, I created the below table(the forum wouldn't accept my formatting so I had to take screenshots) to show which NOCs are on track to earning Olympic quota slots. This follows the qualification criteria set forth by the ITU as if the Rio Olympics were to happen tomorrow. For a more thorough description of the qualification process/criteria, and to view the Olympic Qualification List points breakdown for each athlete linked to their name, feel free to navigate to where I posted this on my personal blog, linked in my signature.

Disclaimer: There are two points that I must touch on as they are pivotal to the concept of 2016 Olympic Qualification. Firstly, quota places 1, 2, and 48 are the only ones currently guaranteed based on the qualification criteria. All others listed below represent qualification fulfillment as if the 2016 Rio Olympics were to occur tomorrow. There will be many fluctuations between today and May 15 2016, the end of the Olympic Qualification period. Secondly, each quota slot and corresponding name, represents a quota slot earned for a National Olympic Committee, not a quota slot earned for an individual. Each NOC determines their own criteria to determine which athlete will be selected to compete in the Olympics using that slot. This table shows which NOCs are on track for earning a slot, and which athlete earned it.

Overview
There are a maximum of 55 Olympic Quota Slots available per gender, and a maximum of 8 NOCs can earn 3 slots. No NOC is eligible to earn more than 3 slots, and no athlete can earn more than 1 slot for their NOC. The minimum eligibility standard to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is to earn a slot for your NOC at either a World or Continental Olympic Qualification event, or be ranked among the top 140 in either the ITU Olympic Qualification List, 2015 World Triathlon Series Ranking, or the ITU Points List. As a whole, the thorough Olympic Qualification Criteria set forth by the ITU will ensure that the field of competitors will consist of major-event winners, consistent season performers, and up-and-coming standouts.

You realize you just duplicated the work of the ITU Olympic Simulation pages, right? It's right there with the Olympic points rankings. It assigns "winners" to the future events though, I believe based on who won it last year

---

IG: idking90

For as much time as I spend on the ITU rankings page, I can't believe I overlooked that. That's what I get for thinking I can get one step ahead of the ITU. Thanks for pointing that out.

Word is that Alistair is now out of Hamburg, do you have any insight on this?

Is he opting out to continue training or are there some niggles that he is dealing with?

No way we are going to get detail with Rio in two weeks.

He was still in altitude, so it's possible that he prefers to optimize it for Rio (adaptation period).

The British press have said he is "giving an ankle injury time to recover." Whether that is true is another matter.

It is worth remembering that his season's goal is Rio and even if he does have an ankle or other niggle, it is a race he can win on the bike without his run being so crucial, so skipping Hamburg (which is a hard run) makes sense. I also doubt very much if he would enter Hamburg next year before the Olympics either, so perhaps they are exploring that angle. Or perhaps he has a stress fracture like his brother and is in a boot... In the end, we just have to wait and see what leaks out, if anything. What has been clear is that whatever problem he has, it hasn't been affecting his cycling in St Moritz, judging my twitter.