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Historical Kona Qualification Procedures
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Hi all, new to the forum... my son is a teenage runner/swimmer starting to get excited about reading all things triathlon, and asked me an interesting question about the history of the Kona race -- how was qualification for the Kona race accomplished in the very early years, and how have the qualification procedures changed over time to what we ultimately have today with the KPR system. Can anyone provide a historical overview of the evolution of Kona qualifying procedures from the inception of the race to today (or provide a link, if that's already posted somewhere else). Thanks!
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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Surprised that 100+ people have viewed this, and no responses. Not sure if the question is so rudimentary folks are looking at me like a clueless newbie, if the question lacked clarity, or if the Slowtwitch forum members have a patchwork memory but not composite recollection of qualification procedures from 1978 to present.

For clarity, we were most interested in the historical requirement to race the Hawaii Ironman as a professional from 1978 to present. I know the first several years there was no qualification requirements, just sent in the application and $ and you could race. If anyone can provide their patchwork memories of qualifications at a specific point in time, that would interesting too... if someone can chime in from the Scott/Tinley/Allen era, someone else can chime in from the Van Lierde/Reid/DeBoom era, etc. maybe we can piece together the historical professional qualification requirements.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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Frankly most slowtwitch members don't know.

A long time poster here is someone who has been posting for 8 or so years. Most much less than that, and a few much longer.

I'd try to send a direct message to monty, though he would know from the pro end of things. There are a few others who have been in that game long enough to remember hopefully they'll chime in soon.

All I can say is that in the recent past, since say 2003 or so it has been qualification at an Ironman branded iron distance race or a few select half ironman races. The half iron races I can recall having had kona slots were:
Eagleman - right up until 2014, though maybe not next year.
Half Vineman - until around 2011 I reckon
Buffalo Springs Half - until 2012 or so
St Croix - until last year and maybe next year as well

I have heard that at one time you could qualify at olympic distance race or two - I think the Chicago Triathlon was where but I could easily be wrong on that one.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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First of all there were no professionals in 1978, i think it was 83 or 84 before ironman put up some $$. There was only your check to get you in til about 82 i believe, then they instituted the first qualifying process in 83. For pros then it was an overall process. Races would put most their slots overall in their races, so top 20 would get to go with a smattering of one off AG slots. SInce many races still had just the one start, it was anyones spot to grab.

And you could qualify at olympic/ 1/2 distance, as well as the couple iron mans around at the time. Most were given out at shorter races as there just were not that many iron mans at the time. That is a brief synopsis of what i remember, if you have more specific questions, i may be able to answer those too.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [Kevin in MD] [ In reply to ]
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I have a friend that, I am told, qualified at wildflower oly. I know Wildflower had slots for a while (not sure which distances) and would sell out pretty fast.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [Kevin in MD] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks. We were most interested in the composite history of how professionals qualified, but if you also have info on the composite history of amateur qualifying that would be great too. Fun to learn about the history of a sport you are getting into.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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For use we started timing WTC events in 1997 with Ironman Canada as it was the only qualifying race in North America with 130 spots for Kona back then. I will try to find out what was the first year of qualifiers world wide.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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Hey - I've been around for 33 years of triathlon racing, and 1st applied for the lottery in 1985...I think it started in 1984. Has anyone else applied for the lottery every year for 30 years?!

Qualifying was much much different in the 80s and then 90s than it is now. Remember that there were very few worldwide IM races in the 80s - Hawaii, NZ, Aus, Europe, Japan, and Canada . . . that's it. And, no 70.3 series. So, there were many fabulous races that applied for IM spots. For example the "Warriors Path Triathlon" in Kingsport Tennessee was a qualifier when I 1st did it in 1984, and for a few years. It was a "Tinman" (1/2 IM) and the overall winner got a Kona spot. Folks came from everywhere for that 1 spot!

Then in the late 80s/early 90s slots started to get consolidated into qualifying races around the country (most triathletes were from the US) and there were age group spots at select races. Some of these were Olympic distance (Memphis in May), some were 1/2 IM (Muncie Endurathon), and some were odd distances (Bay State in Boston). All were independent races. Slowly qualification became more standardized but rarely in the US would you have to do a full IM to qualify. However, it was extremely hard to qualify. Everyone showed up at every qualifier! And, if anyone from California showed up, well, game over! There were fewer races, fewer spots per race, and you had to be fast! At Oly races you had to be under 2 hrs to have any chance at all - and we didn't have all the tech/aero stuff.

They also had at the race lotteries where after the awards ceremonies they would pull 2 names out of a hat. Sometimes this was rigged (I witnessed it one time) but was usually just chance with lots of roll downs...eg Chicago USTS in about 1990.

All of that started to change in the late 90s/early 2000s when IM started expanding in North America (IMLP 1st), and then the 70.3s becoming standardized and taking over races like Muncie. And has slowly progressed to what we have today.

I believe you will see this continue to evolve. The changes to me haven't been good or bad, just change.

David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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I qualifyied at Wildflower probably from 83 to the early 90's. They always gave away about 12 to 15 overall slots, so mostly pros got them early on, and later when there was just a pro wave, the kept about that many for us. It was the first real big race of the season, so nice to get it out of the way early. I think for a couple years the allowed the top 10 from the previous year back too, but that was short lived. They figured out very quickly that they could sell those slots, and for a lot of money. At the height i heard they were getting $1000's per slot. It was a huge revenue generator for them.

Now that they own most the races it is not as important, but the slots still drive a lot of athletes to those races. Other races i can remember from the early 80's, Memphis in May olympic, Panama city 1/2, Canada/NZ iron mans.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [sportstats] [ In reply to ]
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"it was the only qualifying race in North America with 130 spots for Kona back then"
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It was the only full IM that was a qualifying race....there were lots of other Kona qualifiers in NA.

-

David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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"most interested in the composite history of how professionals qualified"
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Pros initially just got in. Then in mid 80s there were pro slots at races. Interestingly, many times it was easier for pros to qualify than age groupers. Pros many times had as many slots as competitors in the race, and there was no point system. Just one race (Oly, Half, whatever) and then in. Not really to hard. I was always a bit ticked when I would beat pros but not qualify in my age group.

Pro qualifying then tightened up and drew better competition making it tough.

Of course this is MUCH different now. A few years back they started the Kona points for pros and that has been a real game changer.
-

David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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Age groupers and pros competed for spots at certain races. If Ironman florida in 1999 had 100 spots, 90 were distributed to age groupers similar to how it is now and 10 were for pros, usually 7 for men, 3 for women. Bigger age groups had 12 to 13 spots, roll downs were rare though. Once Ironman started adding more IM's in 1999 the Oly and Half qualifiers started disappearing.

Here are a few a I remember from the early to mid 90's. Mrs. T's Oly in Chicago, St Anthony's Oly, Memphis in May Oly, Muncie Half, Springfield Ironhorse (less than half), Mike and Rob's, Fairmont Park Half, New England Tri Festival Half, Wildflower Half, Vineman Half, Muskoka Half, Eagleman Half, Gulf Coast Half, Desert Sun Half. IM Races were Lanzarote, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Roth and Canada.

MC
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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Let's see...
Through 1982 (both races), there was no qualifying procedure, as you have noted. Starting in 1983, the top finishers from the Ironman U.S. Championship (in May in Los Angeles) were qualifiers (not sure of exact placings needed). Two more qualifier races were added in 1985 (Auckland, New Zealand and Lake Biwa, Japan). The next two qualifiers are Penticton, Canada pops in 1986 and Roth, Germany (BRD, at the time) in 1988. WTC forms in 1990. The Australia qualifier opens in 1991. After a bit of a gap (through some lean triathlon years), Austria and Lake Placid are added in 1998. Florida shows up in 1999. Somewhere in there the Japan qualifier went away, but returned at Fukue Island in 2001. IMMOO in 2002. In 2003, Coeur d'Alene is added, but 20 slots are also auctioned off on Ebay. In 2004, there were 1800 qualifying spots available and 200 lottery spots (150 in the US, 50 international).
(Thanks to Lardman for all of that.)

The numbers of qualifiers per race has fluctuated a lot over the years as races were added/removed/moved.

The lottery started in 1983 (always with 200 slots?). An additional lottery entry was made "purchasable" in 1990. In 2010, WTC created and killed within a day the Access program: pay $1k, be eligible for early race reg...though not for Kona, IIRC. In the second half of 2010, KPR was released to something like it stands today. After the 2011 race, there was a big shake up in qualification and lottery (Legacy entries) procedures.

There are now, what 39 full iron distance qualifiers with 73 halves and 12 5i50s added in. Quite a few of the original qualifiers are no longer under the IM umbrella (either now under competing organizations or defunct).

That's all I've got. Anyone else?
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [monty] [ In reply to ]
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i do believe the great Mrs.T's in chicago (olympic distance) had kona slots too, as recently as the early-mid 90s.

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [david] [ In reply to ]
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I know a guy locally that qualified that the Ironhorse triathlon in Springfield, IL in the mid 90's in the one of the 50 y/o age groups. There used be a lot of regional qualifiers that were usually roughly 1/2 iron distance. Fields weren't nearly as deep since the sport wasn't as popular, so a much larger percentage qualified.


TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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Up to about the mid-80's there was no qualification - you just signed up. I know this sounds bizarre to modern triathletes, but that's the way it was.

Starting around that time they started to have qualifying at the other Ironman events around the world ( Roth, Penticton, Japan, New Zealand) and then selected other events, even right down to Olympic Distance races. I think the way it work is these other races had to buy the slots, and then they would use them as promotion for their event. As an example I qualified for Ironman Hawaii, my first Ironman, in 1989 at the Tupper Lake 1/2 iron distance event.

In total there were not a huge number of these qualifying events and at each of the 4 other IM race around the world, the spots went really deep in each Age Group.

The lottery was started in the mid to late 80's as well, and my understanding was this was a nod to Ironman Founder John Collins and his request when he sold the right to the event, to "always have some spots on the starting line for the every-day athlete" - whatever the heck that is??!!

Thinsg stayed pretty much like that until the late 90's when there started the expansion of full Ironman races first in North America, and then elsewhere around the world. The number of other events that had spots was greatly diminished to the point that it was ONLY Ironman branded events including for a time some of the 70.3 events.

Then just in the last two years or so, I believe they have shifted to a model of only full Ironman events and the lottery of course.

Note all of the above is for Age-groupers.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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I think independent 70.3 races like St Croix and Buffalo Springs also bought their Kona slots for promotion. It will be interesting to see how registrations are impacted in the ever evolving qualification process.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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For clarity, we were most interested in the historical requirement to race the Hawaii Ironman as a professional from 1978 to present.//

By the way, who are the we here? You writing a book or paper on the subject? I have some old magazines from 83 on and there are a few stories here and there in them about the "new" qualifying process. I can look them up later if you need something exact, but pretty sure it all began in 83..
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [monty] [ In reply to ]
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Cmon monty, its in the OP
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [btmoney] [ In reply to ]
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DOh!!!
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [monty] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks everyone for all of the replies, this was great reading... we spent the day down at the National Czech Museum in Cedar Rapids today, and got back a little bit ago and had fun reading everyone's recollections, stories, and historical knowledge... appreciate everyone's effort, it was really neat to read everyone's input... a lot of yall's inputs were so vivid we could almost envision the culture and atmosphere of triathlons in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s... there was an "American Flyers" or "Running Brave" aura to many of your descriptions... very cool... my son starts college next month on a full-ride athletic scholarship (swimming) at a nearby Big Ten DI school next month, so that's the challenge/fun for the next four years... figuring out the balance of the athletics, academics, and social life is exciting... he ran track and cross country through high school also, and basically loves all things endurance related -- swimming, running, cycling, triathlon... loves the training, friendships, competition... and most interesting to me (and fun for me since we get to learn these histories together), he loves learning about the history of all these endurance disciplines... thank goodness for internet forums, youtube, Google, etc.! From Vladimir Salnikov and Mike Burton and this history of distance swimming in the Olympics, to Abebe Bikila and Billy Mills and the history of distance running in the Olympics and World marathon majors, to Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx and the history of Grand Tours and the cycling Classics/Monuments (we loved the recent ESPN 30 for 30 on Bernard Hinault/Greg LeMond rivalry), to Dave Scott and Mark Allen and Paula Newby Fraser and the history of Ironman triathloning... I hope he continues the passion for the history of sport, as much as his passion for the participation in the sport...

Thanks again everyone, appreciate and loved everyone's input.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [david] [ In reply to ]
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Hate to ask, but we have another related question on this topic. Great explanations above for how professionals qualified for Hawaii IM through the years... but how did a triathlete become a "professional" in the 80s/90s? Was is similar to today's elite qualification process?
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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Back in the 80s when I was *trying* to see if I could make it as a triathlete (NO!) you had to apply through TriFed, the predecessor to USATriathon. There was a formula to get your pro card. I don't remember exactly but it was something like you had to have 3 top 3 finishes in races with 500 or more people, top 10 in 1000 or more, etc. I don't remember exactly but it was something like this. I would have qualified for a pro card, but then you had to stay pro for the registration cycle and/or any races you qualified for. So, big back then was the USTS (United States Triathlon Series) championships and that was important to qualify for.

David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [HawkeyeMike] [ In reply to ]
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the problem is that those of us old enough to have been around then don't have the mental faculties to remember. :) IIRC, in the early 80s when I was aware and contemplated it (never seriously as i totally blanked on teh running part) you had to be under 14hours (I think) from a doubled half IM time. again, my memory SUCKS but that is what i remember.

http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
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Re: Historical Kona Qualification Procedures [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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That is TRUE. I got one at Chicago Sun Times Oly race one year on a roll down. How easy things were back then when fewer tried to get to Kona & there were fewer world-wide Ironman races. Now, if you get a slot, you've definitely earned it more than if you showed up & got a roll down being way down the list like I did in Chicago.
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