And those are just the races in the U.S. Globally it has been even worse. There have been multiple races with only 2-3 starters. That's starters, not finishers...

70.3 Otepaa - 2 starters
70.3 Chungju - 2 starters
70.3 Bintan - 3 on start list
70.3 Guyre - 4 on start list

Add to that...
70.3 Ecuador - 7 starters, 6 finished

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_____________________________________________________
Instagram | Team Kiwami North America

It looks like there will be 48 women in Kona based on the front page article....they are all saving their legs for Kona prize money...at least that is what people were saying when I was wondering why the pro women's field was so thin at Tremblant. Also in the same time frame as Vineman/LP/Whistler/Tremblant, there were Pro IM races in Zurich, Maastricht, Kalmar and Copenhagen, so the pros had plenty of local options for Euro or North American pros, so fields would have been spread out between 8 races.

I think the answer, is, 'there are too many pro races'. Or not enough Pro women to populate all those races.

I think the answer, is, 'there are too many pro races'. Or not enough Pro women to populate all those races
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Which is one of the main arguments against the 50 womens to Kona. The mens field seems to be in better shape, numbers wise. This is why I think a percentage of the field to Kona, for both mens and womens, is more logical than a specific number.

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

Or, another angle-- it's an argument in favor OF 50 Women to Kona? After the first Kona cut in July, there were a handful of women still in the running for the final, second cut Kona slots and all of them raced one of those late July or August races. For any pro women NOT going to Kona but looking forward to possibly qualifying for 2017, it really didn't make a whole lot of sense to be racing in late July or August where the points would go towards 2016 KPR rankings and essentially be thrown away.

Obviously this is the same with men, but because only 35 women qualifying to Kona, the reality has been that for women not racing Kona this year, it'll very possibly take 3 Ironmans in the 2017 KPR season to amass enough points to get in. That's how it's played out the past couple years. As a female pro, I've seen a lot of my peers completely destroy themselves racing 3 Ironmans to qualify and then Kona on top of that-- many have lost full seasons afterwards due to injury/ fatigue/ burnout.

If Kona were on my mind for 2017, I wouldn't throw in a August Ironman just for the possibility of a paycheck and no 2017 points because I'd know I possibly had a whole bunch more Ironmans ahead of me starting in September. As it is, I AM one of the female pros who showed up to an August Ironman, but I have no desire to try to KQ next year, don't really even like the Ironman distance, but thought I should do one for "fun" and the possibility of a paycheck. I think a lot of my peers are more focused on Kona. (And a lot are also over in Australia getting ready for 70.3 Worlds)

But, I could be wrong.

Just adding that clarification (my addendum in bold)

This does make sense given that no one is getting rich doing this sport so if the ultimate goal is to do Kona as a pro, then why not save the legs for next year's qualify round. If the goal is to make some prize money, the athletes are missing out on the July and Aug events as opps for prize money.

As a female pro, you should post more often since you can provide a diff perspective to this AG male-dominated forum. Your 18 posts in almost 5 yrs are just not enough. I know you're busy training, sleeping, etc, but surely you could check in on ST for 30 min/day, and post if you feel like it, maybe 1-2 posts/wk. Of course, the problem with ST, at least in my mind, is that it is so addictive that 30 min can easily turn into 90 before you realize it. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

My view is that this post is embarrassing.

Totally agree. Would really be a great addition to dialogue in the sport if any female pros came on here and posted regularly...I have expressed this to a few of them. Not sure why it doesn't happen.

Consider me not embarrassed.

Seriously - post more,'please! That post helps me understand a bit better.

Still surprised that more up and comers aren't going for those, but maybe there just aren't many up and comers?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Great post btw!

To everyone else, in addition to this, when you look at the timing of the Oceanic/Asia races there are often multiple races within a short time span (3-4races in 2 weekends) or even on the same day/weekend. There aren't enough female pros in those regions to support full fields and often the trips are nearly as long as flying US-> AUS or NZ. The trips are expensive trips for EU & NA pros to make for tiny points since many of the races are P500, P750 and P1500 races

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I have some pretty good ideas.

Strong, intelligent women, of which I suspect there are many among the pro set, can hold their own in public discourse, regardless of the audience.

Sure they can. In forums of their own choosing, not the angry-male-age-grouper-obsessed-with-technical-trivia forum like this one.

You sound like a high school geek angry at women for not showing up at your party even though you have a keg of Natural Ice.

And here we go again. Just after a few posts, it starts to get personal, and emotional, rather that everyone has a right an opinion, and should have the respect from others
to stay the high ground, but on ST, never, which is why so many do not post. They have better things to do then deal with bullies.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I think that's fair. No need to turn it on me personally; it's not that I care for my own sake, I am expressing concern for theirs. I am not trying to pick up a girlfriend on this message board.

A female pro who is close to me, one who is quite good but not KQ caliber, is not really able to get sponsors or support herself in the sport in any way...because why? What value does she bring to a triathlon endemic company, let alone a non-endemic one? Who knows her? How will she attract unique visitors to her blog? Well, Slowtwitch is an excellent way to become better known, to express cogent ideas about the sport, to be a very informed brand ambassador, to bring value to age groups of all stripes -- I could go on. Say what you will about Thomas Gerlach and others of his ilk on this board, but their notoriety and representation of sponsors is outsized compared to their results.

I understand it's a bit of a lion's den, and Dan hasn't done much to help that. Olympic hotties thread, anyone? Come on.

I think your intention is great, but the delivery is what would prevent many women pros from posting here. Your points are all good, but maybe present the racing and involvement in the forum as an opportunity for them, that they could jump on rather then coming across as judging them for neither taking the prize money races or using this forum as a means to communicate their message and get involved in the community.

If you look at the growth of fb during the time ST has existed vs the traffic here, I'll point you to one major trend. On FB we create our own custom communities connecting people people who have a relatively positive connection with us. By definition "rightly or wrongly" facebook connections are labelled "friends" (which is inherently BS because they are not friends). Other media channels call these connections "followers". LinkedIn actually treats them objectively calling them "links". In any case, by calling these connections "friends" facebook inherently creates a baseline positive interaction between connections. Humans in general don't want conflict. Pro women will inherently want to communicate through their own channels in customized communities they created in fb, twitter, instagram etc etc because they don't have to get into debating society scenario with anonymous poeple.

One of the inherent drawbacks on ST as we move ahead into the 20th or so year of the actual internet (not the old science geek internet that we used in the early 90's) is that we still allow anonymous posting here. If Dan would consider changing the requirement to having to post your public profile, I believe you will inherently evolve the culture of this place and you WILL have more women and women pros posting when everyone has to identify themselves.

With women still being the biggest growth market for tris, I believe this would be a good move in due course. Anonymity of posters really holds back many from participation....they will interact on the internet in their own custom communities where all of their connections are known entities.

Now for you, if you want to imagine you are in a bike shop talking to men and women athletes including some women pros, just use the tone you'd use in that group to encourage the women pros. It would be an entirely different tone, and I do get that "tone" is interpreted by the receiver, but enough of us read the same "tone" in your post, then the problem is not the demodulation of the receivers, it's the encoding at the transmitter (sorry I could not help the RF engineering geek in me from emerging during philosophy class).

Thanks Dev. I agree with most of what you said except for the above. One of the better female posters on this forum ("thisgirl") probably comes on her because her anonymity is protected -- at least, that is my assumption because she keeps her identity under wraps. I think anonymity provides an option for many to post without fear of social reprisal of any sort.

P.S. I understand you don't like my acerbic delivery, and many others probably do not either, but that's me. I have had several posters PM me recently thanking me for saying what so many others were thinking but nobody had the gumption to say. That those same things disenchant others is not reason enough for me to change my ways. If I were in a bike shop, I would be saying similar things, you'd just be able to better intone that what is caustic is not necessarily malicious. At any rate, we had a female poster above come on here and deliver a mature, eloquent, and reasonable reply. More of that. Oh, and I am judging. All the time. And in the process of sharing my judgment and engaging in this discourse, others are shaping mine.

By the way, I for one am not anonymous by any stretch. I prefer to not have my full name come up in google searches for many reasons, but my identity is no secret.

Knowledge has not killed anyone. Try it.

By the way, this why I added an underscore between my first and last name so that everyone of my 40K posts don't show up on google so I get that. I also see the counter side, and I also understand that you'd make the same message if we were in the bike shop with the same content. The content is fine pretty well on every one of your posts. I THINK 'we" in general can't see you facial and physical gestures that come with it, so don't change the content....maybe add some amplification that gets more of your physical "cues" across.

By the way, doing that in a forum is a great way to practice for when electronic communication at work gets overheated and it always does with big stakes. Here it is zero stakes. In professional life, it matters, so you can use this place as training for when it matters.

I'm sure you can appreciate that this is actually the single biggest impediment to my career success. As my boss will often say: "You have no filter." I have been working on that in the professional realm (especially via email) which might be partially why I feel the need to be so unfiltered here ;)

Perhaps they are smart enough to communicate with each other and spread out the field so most get paid? Nothing wrong with playing the odds.

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Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018

Speaking of communicating together; would a separate slowtwitch category for Pro's to post - help. I know I really like what the pro's opinions are on everything from nutrition, sponsorship, up and comers, products to race results. Using their real name or a fake name we could get some great in-put and in-site. And, if your not a pro - that category is not for you to weigh in on - (read only) for non-pros. Many pros know each other well enough to figure out "who was who" so (seeing each other on occasion) should keep that discourse professional.

Just a thought.

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
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