No offense, and as I am closer to your age then some I got to tell you:
Unless you live in an enclave, this is no where near where/how Triathlon is positioned in major markets nowadays.
Plenty of newcomers will aim for a full brand name Ironman race asap, as this is the only one you can get some creed on your resume = farcebook. Largely thanks to all the marketing hype about long course racing being the only form of 'real' Triathlon.
I have a couple of 20-somethings in my training group that have done/are training for a WTC event only....and those who have finished, barely stick out on social media.
These are excellent athletes, some collegiate national level. They have the drive, still hard time to keep them motivated to stay in the sport that is so expensive to compete in (if you do not have a trust fund) and that is loosing it's 'uniqueness' rapidly.
So it is one and done once posted on Facebook, just like your bungee jump when you were 12.
The anti-WTC arguments completely miss the point at why total participation is declining. Very few people enter the sport with an ironman as their goal or as their first triathlon. They most likely enter a sprint triathlon. Some will then race sprints and Olympics, move up to Ironman 70.3 and then an Ironman and quit. I know several of them. Others will enter the sport, and do local races only for a number of years and then quit the sport. I know a lot more of these people than the former. The sheer difficulty of the sport, and the constant self-imposed pressure to train eventually wears them out and they decide they would rather sleep in. There has always been a steady flow of people into and out of the sport. And the drain that we are experiencing is not the outflow as much as it is a reduction of the inflow. Ten years ago, triathlon was the in-sport to do. Everyone was flocking to it and newbies vastly exceeded the number leaving the sport. The swim was just as much a barrier 10 years ago. The equipment costs were just as daunting. And race entry fees on an inflation adjusted basis weren't much different either (with the exception of USAT/active fees which have vastly outstripped CPI). This all suggests that the problem is that people have moved on to other sports or activities. The internecine warfare regarding WTC and the rest of the sport is as irrelevant as it is counterproductive to learning why fewer people are no longer interested in entering their first sprint triathlon...the gateway to the sport.
Unless you live in an enclave, this is no where near where/how Triathlon is positioned in major markets nowadays.
Plenty of newcomers will aim for a full brand name Ironman race asap, as this is the only one you can get some creed on your resume = farcebook. Largely thanks to all the marketing hype about long course racing being the only form of 'real' Triathlon.
I have a couple of 20-somethings in my training group that have done/are training for a WTC event only....and those who have finished, barely stick out on social media.
These are excellent athletes, some collegiate national level. They have the drive, still hard time to keep them motivated to stay in the sport that is so expensive to compete in (if you do not have a trust fund) and that is loosing it's 'uniqueness' rapidly.
So it is one and done once posted on Facebook, just like your bungee jump when you were 12.
HuffNPuff wrote:
The anti-WTC arguments completely miss the point at why total participation is declining. Very few people enter the sport with an ironman as their goal or as their first triathlon. They most likely enter a sprint triathlon. Some will then race sprints and Olympics, move up to Ironman 70.3 and then an Ironman and quit. I know several of them. Others will enter the sport, and do local races only for a number of years and then quit the sport. I know a lot more of these people than the former. The sheer difficulty of the sport, and the constant self-imposed pressure to train eventually wears them out and they decide they would rather sleep in. There has always been a steady flow of people into and out of the sport. And the drain that we are experiencing is not the outflow as much as it is a reduction of the inflow. Ten years ago, triathlon was the in-sport to do. Everyone was flocking to it and newbies vastly exceeded the number leaving the sport. The swim was just as much a barrier 10 years ago. The equipment costs were just as daunting. And race entry fees on an inflation adjusted basis weren't much different either (with the exception of USAT/active fees which have vastly outstripped CPI). This all suggests that the problem is that people have moved on to other sports or activities. The internecine warfare regarding WTC and the rest of the sport is as irrelevant as it is counterproductive to learning why fewer people are no longer interested in entering their first sprint triathlon...the gateway to the sport.
Last edited by:
windschatten: Dec 8, 16 23:09