devashish_paul wrote:
Is the sport just getting older and the big cohort in 35-50 from 15 years ago is long past the point that the legs work and are walking away from doing Ironman? Maybe Ironman needs to recruit more 25-40 years old (remember when the same cohort 15 years ago was also the biggest group 25 years ago? Is the sport just priced out of viability for 18-30 years ago....or do they not realize that you can do the sport off a perfectly good 10 year old bike second hand tri bike for $500, running shoes for $100, Goggles for $20, a $20 helmet and a $100 wetsuit? Sure, entry fees are high, but at least where I live, local racing which is the feeder is still pretty affordable.
Yeah, I think it's both of the above.
In the insta-world of the <30 year olds today, there are a lot of other (easier) sport-type activities competing for their attention, many of which sound a lot more fun and are a lot more group-friendly than the solitary world of serious triathlon.
Triathlon has also developed an image problem, imo as well, and has become a victim of its own success. It's absolutely true that the cost barrier to entry in tri is too high now. Had I looked at tri today instead of 15 years ago, I probably would have never started, if seeing that an entry-level new bike was north of $2k, and that's with entry-level parts and wheels. Obviously you don't NEED a $2k bike to participate in a tri, but as some who came from a marathon running background, and wanted to take the sport I did seriously, I wouldn't be happy knowing I was compromising by buying a used road bike that I didn't have at least a store fit or recommendation on, and I'd almost certainly have found some other activity to do instead. It was great that tri got popular, which pushed better and greater and pricier products, but it's gotten nuts lately and I can absolutely understand why a 25 year old that's not making much money would say "$2k for a starter bike and I'm not even sure I'll love the sport to begin with? Pass."
We experienced folks also shouldn't take for granted our experience, which allows US to be able to say, "sure, I can spend $600 for used EVERYTHING, and still beat the pants out of all you people on $10k bikes etc. Because I know what counts and what doesn't in terms of equipment." That's nice and all, but of absolutely zero help to the typical newcomer to the sport who doesn't have super-experienced triathlon friends with this sort of knowledge, and would be totally overwhelmed trying to learn it all at once just to get to their first race. It has to be retail-friendly, even if it's not top performance. Kinda like there are entry-level 'guitar packages' or 'keyboard packages' at music stores, where for $100, you'll get a (limited) instrument but which can definitely get you started and help decide if you want to keep going.