Actually, if one graphs (as I have) the age-group world records across the individual swim, bike, and run distances, you find that after the age of 32, there is an almost eerie decline equal to nearly 1.0%/year of the open men's world record time. \\

I wonder what Dara Torres has to say about that??? (-;

The individual sports may tail off, but I think that when you combine them into a seperate race, that pushes the age up a bit. More factors come into play then, like expirence, tatics, base, ect. I wonder for instance, the average age of olympic biathletes, pentahatletes, and triathletes are? Is it higher than their counterparts in the individual sports that make up their multi sport events??? There you go Lew, some homework.....

I think it is pretty cool to get to race next to elite and former pros -
but I do this as a HOBBY.
I race against myself.
It is only my second season, and I came with no background in any of the three sports, so maybe I am naive, but who cares who is getting publicity?

I go out to race the best race I can that day and have fun - isn't that the point? pro or not?

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cat
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I agree with Monty....also the fall off in individual sports may be somewhat impacted by repetitive stress injuries cumulating at a "higher rate" for single sport athletes than multisport.

Seriously Lew, at the FOP in below 45, I see barely any diff in overall race winning times compared to 25-29 or 30-34. Sure, the guys might have some less all out run speed over 5K, and might be a minute or 2 slower over 10K than their youth, however, there are many places in tris to shave down time. I'd be pretty supportive of an open category for 44 and below.

Dev

1. In the modern era of easier access to PED's like HGH & EPO, you might reasonably expect to see an increase of outliers in the data set.

2. As for sports involving craft (entirely or in additional to the faster, higher, further stuff), it would be reasonable to see different results. Think equestrian or sailing. Triathlon, however, seems to be following the base model (which I originally extracted from world age records in the 10k run).

Sports like modern pentathlon and winter biathlon have a different set of problems, the largest being that the data set is just too small to construct any reasonable statistical model. Just as an example, 32 men and 32 women made the 2008 Olympic Games in modern pentathlon - out of fewer than a 1,000 total athletes competing for those positions world-wide. Hard to extrapolate much about human potential from that set of points.

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Lew

That guy, went from a 5.30ish HIM in Canberra mid December to an 8.47 IM in April. Losing 20ish Kgs during the same period.

LEGEND

If their "pro" licence has expired let them into the AG - don't they look stupid when they can't even make the top5 :)

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Trifun

To be average scares the hell out of me

 
"Actually, if one graphs (as I have) the age-group world records across the individual swim, bike, and run distances, you find that after the age of 32, there is an almost eerie decline equal to nearly 1.0%/year of the open men's world record time."
And, at my age, 57, it's falling off pretty rapidly.
(I'm just glad that I'm not in your (and Joe Boness's) AG.)

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Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

I totally disagree with your whole perception of the issue.
Im sure Mr Chapman is just out there doing his best like the rest of us.
I was in the race in his age group, and was smoked by the man.
Unlike yourself i was totally impressed by his effort that day. Awesome time for an AG.(thats what he is)

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TEAM OLD SKOOL

No it doesn't. What about the neurosurgeon vs. the part time pizza delivery boy. Who has more time to train? Should we designate age group categories based on occupation. Maybe the designations should be made on the 35 year old full time single guy and the 35 year old full time guy with 4 kids..who has more time to train. There is no end to it.

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_______________________
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In mountain biking they used to run a category like the one proposed. It was called "semi-pro". Initially it was supposed to be a developement category. They did away with it this season because it basically just diluted the top end of the amateur ranks and ended up largely full of guys like me who were (at best) back of the pack pro talent level, but were looking for more competition than in expert because our fast competitors had left amateur and were racing "semi-pro". Now you either race category/age group or pro.

At the San Dimas Stage Race a few years ago I remember Thurlow Rogers winning every classification and every stage with a TT time that would have placed him near the top 10 of the men's pro field. Despite the fact he beat me like a rug, I considered it an honor to be able to at least race with a racer of that caliber rather than feeling he didnt belong in the masters field.

Kevin

Can I propose a new category "31 year old guys who work 40 hours a week, don't have a competitive swimming background and couldn't run through most of last fall because of shin splints"

'cos that would really make the sport more fair for me. I feel like I'm at a real disadvantage as it is and honestly I can't believe they even let those bastards who were running in November sign up for the races I'm doing this summer.

I have an easy solution to this. Eliminate AG brackets all together.

When I was a decent runner in the 80's and 90's, I don't recall ever hearing of age groups. When I got started in this stuff a few years ago my coach analyzed every race based upon the performances of others in my AG. The idea was to instill the philosophy of being a balanced triathlete instead of a one trick pony. The lesson is / was fine. But I really don't care how I do in my AG...I want to know how I stacked up overall. I'm no super-fast dude either. I only have one trophy for being in the top 5 overall (small shitty dual so no real glory) and a pile of awards for AG stuff. Most of the time, my friends collect them for me, because when I'm done, I'm outta there.

Killing the AG would irritate shitloads of people and I'm not saying it should happen. Kona would be way different too. The top whatever finishers in each race are in (with rolldowns for folks who already qualified) Just saying it would fix your problem. Actually, the more I think about this the more I like it...I just sold myself on it

You could focus on bitching about finishing 211th instead of 8th in your AG.

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ADW

"When I was a decent runner in the 80's and 90's, I don't recall ever hearing of age groups."

Really? Age groups in running have been around for a long, long time. In fact age groups in triathlons are pretty
much patterned after age groups in running road races.

Were you an elite runner in the 80 and 90s? Because that would be the only way you could not go without hearing about age groups.

This is an easy no brainer ...

This sport needs catagories ... just like Mtn Bike racing or Road Racing

because everyone is right the guy who has 3 kids and works 40+ per week shouldnt have to compete with some ex-pro who has a huge base

and "Elite" class is the way to go a step below Pro and a step above age group maybe ??

Then Kona becomes as meaningless as Boston.

This past weekend I did the Sea Otter Cross Country Mountain bike race. They had four skill-based categories of racers (cat 4 to Cat 1), each with age groups at 5-year increments. I raced the Cat 1 40 - 45 race. There were at least 50 guys at the starting line. The Cat 1 waves were spread out in 5 minute intervals. It was a hoot. All of the guys around me were of comparable fitness and skill levels so I was challenged up and down hills. My derailleur exploded so no tales of glory, but it was a great racing experience.

The one catch to using skill levels is the competition for Kona slots, as people could sandbag. Personally, I stopped worrying Kona about that a couple years ago and have been happier for it.

-Marc