This has been discussed a bit on the ITU discussion thread. Announcing 9 days before a regular event that it has now changed to a World Champs is crap. Athletes from the southern hemisphere can't get there to contest. Their countries have closed borders resulting in almost no international flights. Daily we are seeing in the media stories of Aussie residents still trapped overseas for months unable to secure flights home. This makes it really hard to obtain govt approval to leave the country, as such we see only one athlete had the capacity to travel to Hamburg to race. She has her partner from Europe so has a base to live and will not be stranded. For others it was too hard and too risky to travel to a race which gave no Olympic or wts points anyway. Suddenly it changes to THE WORLD CHAMPS and it's too late to organise, even if they now wanted to. A real kick in the guts for those athletes, especially with both the reigning Hamburg champions, Birtwhistle and Stanford stuck in Aus. even athletes already on the start list are aware how unfair the change is and many have voiced their opinions on the social media announcement. How can a world championship be declared when so many in the world can not be there. They don't want it.

To me the big issue is the short notice. If this had been announced three months ago, everything you mention would still be true, but would have a different perspective.

Yes they would have had the chance to decide if all the risks and effort might be worth it, now they have no chance.

this is a bizarre description of the facts. hamburg always has been the world championship for the mixed relay and the september date has been on the calendar for months. anyone in a country with tough travel restrictions had months to figure out a way to get to hamburg for the mixed relay WCs. moreover, the individual race was on the calendar all summer and was the only WTS race that was definitive. bermuda and montreal were postponed to future unknown dates so all summer everyone knew that hamburg was on for the first weekend in september and would include the mixed relay WC and that maybe there would be two other races, one of which was in a country that has been fining foreigners $500,000 for not quarantining. so all of these athletes you say are getting screwed were planning on competing for the WC by skipping the only race with a definitive date (which also had a WC attached to it) all summer and then racing (and presumably traveling to despite not being able to travel to hamburg) 2 others with unknown dates (one of which nobody really thought had any chance of happening due to canada's strict measures)? there is no way that anyone who seriously was intending on competing for the WC was planning on skipping hamburg, the only definitive race on the calendar. this is an awful year that everyone is looking to get over with but ITU actually hosting a WC (2 for that matter), unlike nearly every other sport, is something to be applauded (as opposed to attacked).

What is the problem with this.
It is 2020 and ITU is making something happening.

Each country has had the same information about the Corona this year. Yet they have done different things. And the results have been from good/smart to poorly.

But back to the racing.

We get a race in 2020.
That is great.

Having a race? Not a problem. Designating it as a World Championship for 19/20? HUGE PROBLEM

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

would you have preferred for ITU not to have declared it a WC and then kept the prize money at the lower levels? canada and bermuda told ITU that it cannot host races in their countries so hamburg is the only venue left standing. be happy there is a race (actually 2) with beefed up prize money and stop whining.

Not sure how you can applaud them for announcing this 10 days before a race.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Why is it a "huge" problem?

Are you saying that athletes from countries that manged to deal with Corona should sit out due to the lack of capabilities of the government in other countries??

10 Days notice bud.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

the mixed relay was a WC for months so it's not like this venue suddenly became a WC venue. which top athletes other than flora have no interest in mixed relay WC medals or points for tokyo?

ITU was holding on hoping that montreal and bermuda would work out for a mini 3-race championship series. when montreal and bermuda pulled out with only hamburg left, what did you want ITU to do? cancel hamburg too to avoid your whining?

And again. Why is it a problem???

If some countries or athletes do not want to race. Then they should stay away. It is as easy as that.

bud, who would be racing if there had been a 30 day notice? don't tell me the aussies because they knew all summer that it was the mixed relay WC and they are a gold medal contending mixed relay team so they weren't coming no matter how many days notice they had.

Actually, for Canada, it’s an insurance problem. It might be the same for Australia, nz. It would be interesting to know if itu was communicating to theses countries that the race was becoming a world champ.

Also, there is NO Olympic points associated to this race. Several NFS were telling their athletes that if they can race but they will not get their expense covered.

For sure, it’s great to have a race, but calling it world championship is just wrong.

So because of internal problems in Canada. All other countries and athletes hava to suffer???

Maybe Canada should do something about their problem. Instead of expecting the world to be on hold.

Its a bit like the US rounders association deciding their own series of rounders is the World Series when nobody else is playing. 🤔

except it's not a bit like that as everyone was invited and a couple of countries have passed.

canada wasn't going to allow its own athletes compete in montreal if it happened so it's not like canada is the poster child of supporting athletes here.

I just got am email that the WCS Montreal Oct 2-4 is cancelled as Canada extended restrictions on international visitors to Sep 30th.

Good for ITU making Hamburg a world championships. At least we are having one and if you cannot travel, well that is too bad but it's a world's for those who can this year. This year is weird so if you can make it to the start line then you race those who can.

I am Canadian and stuck with no races here but it is what it is.

No, it would be like World Athletics declaring a World Championship insert random country on ten days notice.

MLB isn't a world federation, however, even though many countries compete internationally in baseball, the yearly pinnacle of the sport is the World Series. And it hasn't been done on short notice either.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Hamburg has always been the mixed relay world champs, it has never been an individual world champs. The difference is federations who didn't send teams for all the reasons they decided may still have athletes who would have liked to contest an induvidual world champs and possibly try to get themselves there. Even if there weren't individual world champs is a big deal for athletes, it opens big doors in sponsors, opportunities etc. There are some real contenders who can't be there. As I said a kick in the guts for them to find out at the last minute there will be a world champion and no way can it be them now. Remember they were just missing a series race before, and that is all they should be missing out on. Unless you are from one of these countries you really don't understand the logistics of travel at this moment, We are pretty isolated down the bottom of the world.

Well, with the same reasoning they could call it a world championship retroactively. So instead of 10 days before, 10 days after. No problem according to you.

Its not just want it's CAN'T... big difference.
Not such a big deal when it was just a race but now a world champ will be decided, without all the world athletes, and if there wasn't a pandemic they would be there. That is why it's a big deal.

The race should happen, the athletes should get their money, but when some athletes can not get there due to the shit the world is going through, a world champion should not be crowned. This should just be a race.
So many of the athletes already on that start list are voicing it is unfair, how can ppl here not see that?

It will be the world championships of people who can make it.

In regular years there are kids say in Rwanda or Laos or Sri Lanka who may have the genetics to be 30 min 10k runners off swimming and biking with the top ITU guns but they actually never had a chance to learn how to swim or ride a bike in the first place. The best downhill skier may be from Jamaica or Nigeria but we don't know because those kids never get a chance at that sport. How many black kids from the USA could make the US swim team if they have access to the sport

So being a world champion is all about competing and beating those who have the opportunity to show up and access to the sport. This year covid puts another layer on the access problem, but it is always there. We just don't notice in the developed world. The winter Olympics for most of the world is regarded as some freak side show for approximately 15 countries who do weird sports that no one does. So it's just perspective of who gets to compete or not.

I can get on a flight tomorrow from Canada to Hamburg and go race with zero quarantine in Germany. I have to just quarantine when I get back. From what I gather EU is allowing the internal travel and a list of other countries. If your country did not make the EU cut you don't get to compete for world's this year. It's tough luck what country you are from but tell that to the kid from Rwanda who would like to try our sport but there are no decent pools for her to learn. It's roughly the same problem but for her it's permanent. For some countries whose athletes cannot travel it's just a temporary annoyance this year only.

A very valid reasoning, except for the fact that this is 10 day notice.

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Exactly,this is something people don't seem to understand or don't think is relevant.

If I am a top ITU pro from half way around the world and two months ago I am told about all the hassles of COVID travel I would be thinking, " It's only the regular Hamburg event,Nah I won't go and maybe I'll shift my training in preparation for next year or have a go at some 70.3 races while I have a rare opportunity" (for those in Oz).Then 10 days out they change it to a world champ's and those athletes are like "WTF,you could have told me two months ago and I could have sorted out my training and travel.Thank's for that!"

Yes., but its the year of Covid19, so everything is kind of out the window....so this year, its the world championships of all the athletes who are allowed into Europe with 10 days notice and who can get there. The kid from Rwanda, for her, she's still not winning a medal compared to a regular year. World championships are alway about who can show up given the challenges of access. This year, its a different challenge, but its just a different version of who gets locked out from competing and on the outside looking at those who get to compete. Its actually nothing new, for most of the world, its just new for those of us in parts of the world where we always have access to compete in whatever sport we want.

I don't think it was a surprising move to make Hamburg the WC.
The elites were continuously told that ITU was doing ALL IT COULD to have a WC. And Hamburg was the only race that really fit the mold.
Montreal (had a 0% chance) and Bermuda (Personally I thought it was a low chance) were the only other races on the WTS schedule.
This left an unnamed race or Hamburg. Personally I figured it would be Abu Dhabi in October, and maybe Hamburg.
Either way, If you had any aspirations of racing in 2020 for the WC, you needed to be in Hamburg. Anyone who says otherwise wasn't paying attention.
There was a real chance of a 2-3 race series. If that was the case, would you really skip one of the races? The answer is no, you wouldn't skip.

Does it suck that a lot of people won't make the trip, 100% yes. But that happens every year.
Is it weird it was named so close to the race, yes. But at the same time, no one has raced for months and this was the only WTS on the schedule. I'd think athletes would prioritize it over the 3x upcoming world cups.

I was watching a track meet from Sweden yesterday. It had athletes from
USA
Australia

So I am not sure I se a problem here. Unless triathletes are totally different than track athletes.........

Time, this wasn't going to be an individual world champ event a few days ago. The organising takes time.

So your suggestion is that all other athletes from all other countries should suffer just because some countries have politicians and governments that have no clue how to deal with Corona???

If the USA has a problem that is is USA problem. Why should the rest of the world be on hold just because some countries have no clue???

Also, what is the problem. When I am seeing the president of the USA on TV here in Europe he is saying that the USA is handling this better than any other country in the world.

You want athletes from many countries to suffer just because some countries cannot deal with a virus.
That is a snowflake approach

Actually, you have this very wrong Halvard. The countries I was referring to are from the Southern Hemisphere and some of these areas have handled the pandemic very well. The big problem is that being so far away they have to travel to countries who are still not doing well just to get there. As so many international and even domestic flights are no longer flying it is way harder and takes a lot longer, with more stops than usual to arrive in Hamburg. Might leave home with a negative test but with up to 6 airports to step foot in there is a much higher risk they will not arrive the same way.

As I said. Yesterday you had Australians running in a track meet in Sweden.

So why can track athletes compete but not triathlon athletes?

We already have Australians competing in Europe in endurance sports.
They ran i Goteborg. That is not far from Hamburg.

Why should the rest of the world be on hold for these.
Please give me a reason why??

what are the contreactual obligations the Itu president speaks aobut , that were only known to her 10 days before the event .

i think 10 day is too short at the end of the day isnt it kind of logical that if there is only Wts race in the year that is the world champ race then .... especially if it was already the team really world champs .

at the end its still better field that any LD duathlpn or aquathon itu world champs will ever be. its not great but better than nothing i would say.



halvard as a bit of a fact check i believe usa is sending a full team .

I expect France to have a great weekend. Grand Prix racing is up and running.
If the USA is sending athletes, that is great.

With only one race, making it the world championship is just logical.

I found it interesting that it is in triathlon where people are just trying to find reasons to not make races important.

Any other sport is trying to make 2020 count.

Because it all changed too close to change anything. This race was said to have NO Olympic points and NO wts points, so was just a race for money not for or towards titles. 9 days before the race it suddenly becomes a race for the World Champion. Big difference. Now for the Aus track athletes competing, they had no choice as needed to achieve Olympic qualifying times to compete in Tokyo. Therefore it was imperative the federation found a way around the travel restrictions and hardships to allow them to do this. They had plenty of TIME to do this though as the first race was announced a long time out. Hamburg Individual changed from a race with no olympic or series points, (not worth the huge effort and all the risks to travel for southerners) to something extremely important way too late.

Once more, the problem is the short notice. Not only for traveling, but also for training specifically.

Yes. And if someone misses out on the "World Championships" big deal.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

again, anyone who races WTS knew all summer that at best the series would consist of hamburg plus montreal, bermuda and maybe a 4th unknown race with hamburg being the only definite and montreal almost certainly being a no. you keep on whining about the hypothetical athlete who was planning on competing for a world championship but who was planning on skipping the only definite race of 3 races. there is no such person because anyone who was planning on competing for a world championship had long ago planned on going to hamburg. you also are pretending that it's impossible to fly from australia to europe but there are flights. team usa figured out a way to fly the team there (and avoid a 2-week quarantine) and europe treats americans who fly there nothing short of lepers so where there's a will there's a way. yes, it's unfortunate that birtwhistle and wilde won't be there but be happy that ITU is hopefully going to be able to pull off 2 WCs next weekend. i think the much bigger issue is the extreme variability of who had pool access since march but this is an anomaly year so just enjoy the free streams next weekend and hope the athletes don't pull a florida marlins afterward.

World triathlon announced some time ago that if they managed to hold races they would give no Olympic or series points. Meaning they don't count towards a world series champ. Athletes weren't expecting to be racing for world champ this year. You need to go back through the information from earlier in the year.

Clearly not a USA problem as our best athletes in Hamburg already for this, but they did have to jump through some extra hoops. (As per Tim Carlson's front page article)

The issue is that is not fair to anyone just having the lightbulb go off in your head to say, let's have a World Championship in 10 days even though it will be a relatively weak field.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

No olympic points, yes. That is true.

ITU always stated they would do everything they could to hold/crown a World Champ.
They were super vague and made it sound like there could be a series or maybe a one day event.
Either way, it seemed clear to me that there would be a World champs one way or another. And Hamburg was the only race that was clearly going to play a role in determining the champion.

Where was it stated that there was never going to be a world champs? That is not the information I was receiving.

You can at least acknowledge that 10 days is brutal. Nevermind that any type of training around the race is out the window, but just luck in getting travel visas, flights, etc. When's the last time you started planning a major international trip 10 days out?

So, who would've been the World Champion if this was the only ITU race to happen? I could be wrong, but if this was the only race that awarded points then by default the winner is the World Champion. I don't understand why you are continuing to get upset because they are calling it a World Championship now. Everyone knows that this year is going to go down with an * in EVERY sport. So, stop complaining that ITU is just trying to do it's best to salvage anything from such a disastrous year.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/23685202

In their statement on the 17th July they stated that the elite, u/23 and junior world championships were planned for Edmonton which was postponed. On 26th June Montreal was announced for Oct 5-6th. Why would anyone assume a race before that would be a world champs. On the 25th of may when new dates for chengdu, Karlovary and Hamburg and Hamburg wc relay were announced it stated "These events will not be included in the Olympic qualification rankings. These events will not count for the Olympic qualification rankings or the World Triathlon rankings."
Now put all this together and it seems we are still holding out for a new date for Edmonton to be announced as the stand alone world champ race. 26th August in the southern hemisphere we awake to an announcement that changes everything. Hamburg will now be the World Champs.

Well, Montreal is cancelled. This is the only race. So, it's the default World Championships. No need to cry over spilled milk. 2020 sucks, Covid sucks, and they are doing their best. Complaining about this is kind of ridiculous at this moment. I'm glad that some athletes will have a chance to earn a paycheck. I'm sorry others can't, but it's not ITU fault. It's better than nothing, which is what apparently you are advocating for.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/23685202

Not at all advocating for nothing, Hamburg was always going to be a paycheck, great. The more paycheck opportunities the better, it's just the title that now goes with it on such short notice that I don't like.

Its the title of those who were fit enough and who could show up for a 2020 Covid19 limited world championship. I think everyone will understand it was held in imperfect conditions, but its a win to have a race, and have a championship no matter how different it is from other years. Let's just accept that its better than nothing and roll with that.

My guess is that when Montreal was moved to Oct 2-4 this was the last ditch chance of having a world championships with enough "notice". Except last week the Canadian government extended the international travel ban all the way to Sep 30th (at least anyone traveling to Canada from abroad has to quarantine for 14 days). Even with no quarantine, you can't have people arrive on Oct 1 for an Oct 2-4 event (inclusive of officials etc etc). So Monteal just cancelled their entire event last week.

As it stands, Oct 2-4 was a kind of ridiculous weekend to have a triathlon in Canada. I have been racing this sport in Canada since 1985, and I am not aware of a single outdoor tri EVER in the entire country in October in 35 years. When the travel ban got pushed its not like there is any hope to have this race in Canada even a week or two later.

So ITU is left with Hamburg. Seems like "better than nothing".

I don’t think ‘better than nothing’ is a cogent argument.
Plenty of sports living with no world champs/main event this year.
IMHO ITU looks insecure and reactive, effectively saying that they can’t keep going without a WC, so a WC that excludes decent prep for many competitors through travel, short notice, and inability to train effectively ain’t a real WC and will always have a what-if applied to it.

Like the early 80s largely boycotted Ironman...

It sounds like a lot of Europeans/North Americans have trouble grasping how hard it is to travel from and back to Australia/NZ these days. You already feel kind of insulated most of the time, but at the moment it's magnitudes worse.

Yes with a minimum 2 weeks for travel exemptions to even be looked at and If granted then trying to get the flights it's certainly a nightmare. Out of interest put into sky scanner flights back to Aus.. 1 way cheapest, best, shortest (basically only) was $16002 and 58 hours 35 mins travel time needing an overnight hotel stop to pay for too. Remember this was only one way.. No one was going to book that incase Hamburg went ahead, not when there were no points up for grabs. The travel costs were more than the prize money for the win. It was too late for them to try for travel exemptions once it changed.

You guys are good swimmers figure it out. Haha jk. But really I’ll vouch for the US. I’d be impressed if a majority could point to NZ and Aus on a map.

The Hamburg race was the only sure thing this year.
So if an athlete had any intention to race against the best in the world, she/he had to have Hamburg on the race calendar.
And trained for that race as a big goal.

So you are worried about the athletes who had no plans racing against the best this year. But when the race change to a world championship they suddenly wanted to race??
Why would they race if they are not prepared?

I am so happy we get a world class race in 2020.

Hey from what I have read, Australians can enter Germany the exact same way as Canadians TOMORROW. And from what I gather, Emirates is flying TODAY Sydney-Dubai-Frankfurt. So you really can't say you're more isolated.

https://www.emirates.com/...y&connection=dxb

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I really wish you people would stop pretending you know what the travel restrictions out of Australia are and just how hard it is to get back.
https://www.news.com.au/...5856435417681ff5c032

"Airlines warn flying back 100,000 stranded Australians will take six months unless travel caps eased
Airlines say they have been forced to prioritise customers who pay more for tickets, with one flight carrying as few as four economy passenger "
https://www.theguardian.com/...ss-travel-caps-eased

the itu president spoke about contract obligation, i would assume that means no world champ race , less sponsorship money for the itu. and i assume when the original world champ location was cancelled they transferd it to hamburg. i guess you can complain about it , but at the end money makes the world go round is the most likely case and since hamburg was already the team worlds i cant see why it is completely wrong also holding the single worlds there.

it sucks for the countries that cant go there , but its not the first time in sport moscow and LA come to mind.

Honestly, I think it’s a bigger problem that they arrange the worlds rather than the notice. Slowly But surely travel restrictions even between European countries are being reinstated. I guess, that unless you can prove you’re a Pro, many aren’t even allowed into the EU, that’s one thing, But not potentially a Big problem, But generally gathering people from all over the World to race to risk spreading the corona virus even more is a bad idea.
You could say the same for all sports, But most Pro cyclists live and train in Europe and they could just isolate themselves for a few weeks in a hotel and drive home

Nick, its not about the travel restrictions OUT of any country. You can't organize anything based on the restrictions every country around the world puts on its citizens. You can just organize based on who is allowed in. Germany is allowing Aussies in, its just that Aussies are making it hard on themselves to get out.

Nothing in the world that involves some international cross border collaboration can start back up if we have to hold back the rest of the world because of the limitations set by specific govts on their own citizens. Now we can debate if anything international should start back up, but that's a different challenge.

Hey Caleb Ewan just won the TdF stage in Sisteron, so that's one example of an Aussie who is over in Europe doing international sport but in fairness he did have more notice.

To be fair to Montreal, that LOC was working their ass off to make the event happen. The province of Quebec has been running races for a few weeks already, with adaptions for COVID related guidelines, but still successful events. Ultimately the cancellation of the event only came due to the extension of the international travel ban (to Sept 30, meaning even if the ban is lifted Oct 1, athletes wouldn't be able to arrive 2 weeks ahead to fulfill quarantine requirements, prior to racing).

That said, Canadians can leave and could get to europe to race, the issue would be coming back (limited flights would be expensive, and then a 2 week quarantine upon arrival, with $500k fines if you violate)... I am not sure whether if an athlete actually wanted to go, Tri Can would support them or not in terms of entry.

that said, it's not a shocker that with there only being 3 WTS races listed for the last few months and then Montreal and Bermuda cancelling, that they mad Hamburg a one and done. The biggest obstacle with the short notice is for those who have to travel the furthest to get there, and comply with all of the COVID related restrictions. Given that prize money is relatively limited, for the Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians, looking at the probably of earning a decent payday vs. the expense of going over for the race, it probably wasn't worth it, especially with no Olympic points on offer. I assume most of the americans who made the strip are sticking around in Europe to race a couple of the World Cups that are going ahead to at least get their money's worth out of the trip (even those are listing stacked fields because people are desperate to race).

Also, i am not sure about the people saying it should have been anticipated. Hamburg is logical, because it was going to be MTR worlds anyways, but a month back it got dicey as to whether Hamburg was even going to happen, in order to pull it off, they had to cancel the AG races and go Elite only and move to a venue where they could control spectator traffic.It was touch and go for a bit before they got things sorted.

It sucks for the athletes who can't make it, but those who could can only race against those who show up. Save for a few Canadians and Aussies, most of the top15 in last year's world rankings are on the start list...

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Dev,you must know very well that all of the Pro Tour level cyclists from Australia are based in Europe for the duration of the northern season every year.There are only two Aussies in the TdF this year and none on the Australian Michelton-Scott Team but all the others are in Europe as normal preparing for other events including the next two Grand Tours.

Wouldn't be allowed on that plane without a travel exemption approval which takes a minimum of 2 weeks to obtain, if it is judged you meet the tough criteria.
Aus is a big place, depending on where you live, you may need to travel to another state to get that flight, we have some states with boarder restrictions too meaning is also difficult to travel within our own country. Even so getting out is the easy part.
Then there is the getting home.. as I stated in an earlier post that is even harder. With many 1000s of expat Aussies still trying to get home the minimal flights are heavily booked. Out of interest I did a search on what it would take for the Aus athlete I thought most likely to have been there, Birtwhistle the defending Hamburg champ. Lives on an island state with no international airport so took some work to figure out. But all sky scanner could find for the days after Hamburg race is 1 flight a day at a cost of $16002 aus $19182 US. Due to minimal flights in stopover places also it stated 58 hours and 35 mins travel time. But as I know the Aus rules it would be a fortnight longer because he would have to spend 14 days hotel quarantine where the international flight touches down, at own expense before he can fly to his home state. I believe that as he had left the airport and is flying from a "hotspot city" he may actually need to hotel quarantine again on his arrival. This is as long as he is granted a g2g pass to re enter his own state. 30 days and 10hrs after leaving Frankfurt he potentially lands home.
So please, tell me again how easy it is to leave Australia.

You are aware that the athletes don't pay for their travel? You think the US athletes paid to jump through all of the hoops and to travel there? Why does he have to immediately fly home after the race? He is part of Joel's crew so he is used to not being home almost the entire year anyway. You now are just grasping at straws here making nonsensical strawman arguments. Again, blame your national federation for not supporting its athletes -- not ITU for actually hosting a WC. USAT made it work and it's not like europe embraces anyone flying in from USA right now.

btw, traveling to Hamburg to race the WC meets 3 of the 6 criteria to leave australia: urgent and unavoidable personal business, compassionate or humanitarian grounds, and travel in the national interest.

you are in the very small minority of people who thinks that ITU should not be hosting a WC this weekend because a few athletes chose not to go there.

Actually I was giving this information to show why Aus wouldn't have been rushing to enter a race with no Olympic points and no wts points. Once it changed, with the short notice given, it would been too late for them to obtain approval to leave.
I believe NZ is similar. Ok, not ITU fault all the other races had to be cancelled with short notice, i get that, we go in and out of lockdown here with short notice too, things are forever changing.
I might be the only one on here bothering to still be voicing my opinion, but look at the number of athletes on social media, not including those missing out, who are saying it's not right to call it a world championship. Many other titles could be used, if they can see the issue, when it could be their title, you just choose not to.
On a semi side note, I don't think the Joel Filliol group are actually together at the moment.
Anyway, now let's hope all arrive healthy and ITU covid plan is successful and all leave still healthy.

The main point is that the ITU or any sport federation can't specifically care about the athletes from Fiji, or Bostwana, or Australia, or Canada or Estonia or any SPECIFIC country.....they just have to put on an event where they can, and then its up to the athletes from different nations to show up. Some athletes may not even be able to enter the host country because where they are from.

For example in normal times its almost impossible for an Iranian athlete to travel to and race in the USA. Every year there are athletes who cannot travel from their country to a world championship destination country just because where they are from for VISA reasons. Its an imperfect world out there. ITU is doing the best with what we have. If its inconvenient for Aussies, or Kiwis or Canadians, its just one year. We can count our blessings for being from where we are. Most of the time we can get into any country at any time with an easy Visa application and compete anywhere we want. That is not today, but its really temporary this year. For many friends around the world, they are not blessed with the same access to rest of the world. So if its tough for us now. But its a short duration toughness, not life long.

I wouldn’t be so sure at this point, that 2021 season won’t be affected.
Aside from Russia and what the orange American man is telling us, most experts dont Think a vaccine will be widely available this year

Yeah, you are probably right. We are all likely looking at playing relatively local not just in triathlon but across the board in biz and leisure. It is hard to believe vaccine that is guaranteed to have no long term effects manages to get to market and deployed in such a short period. Although I am hopeful, it will be interesting to see what really rolls out in what time frame.

The olympic games should be an interesting test. You would assume that they will try to run that with athletes only, no fans, so the question is how do 5000 athletes and support get in and out of Japan for an international competition, and how do some sports even have a lead up to the Olympics given some sports have qualifying series for countries to have slots/berths in the actual Olympic competition.

Anyway glad we are having a Tour de France for now, and ITU is having a one off World's in a rather stunted capacity, but its live racing, so let's just take it an enjoy.

I'd be reluctant to state that they don't care, because the access is uneven to the event, they are not awarding olympic qualification points at the race, which is at least one thing. That said, it's crappy that not every country can access worlds (For Canada, a big factor is actually an insurance thing, the ITU rules states that the NF's must guarantee that they have insurance in case anything happens with participating athletes, Tri Can's insurer is currently not covering people who travel right now... this is one of the reasons Tri Can has stated that they wouldn't be supporting athletes even if they could make their way to Hamburg), but there are access issues for certain countries in any given year, so I understand holding it.

I understand why it was short notice, because of the cancellations of the other two WTS events, but the short notice was a bit of an issue, because it didn't give the federations time to try and sort out ways to get athletes there (either by exploring other insurers, or getting exit permits, etc.).

Hopefully there's a more normal calendar in 2021, but we'll see how the situation unfolds in the coming months. I am less vaccine skeptical than a few of the others, because I have seen the preliminary publications for a few of the stage 2/3 trial which are looking positive (no, not that Russian one, Putin declaring victory and vaccinating his daughter based on preliminary results would technically invalidate an RCT in most western nations...), that look on track to wrap up before the end of the year, so towards the end of Q1 of 2021 we could be at a point where there's broader distribution of a vaccine. That said, there's a reason why results are preliminary, so there's no guarantee that they will end up successful, but at least there are positive signals on a couple of trials, and many of the manufacturers have already started scaling up for rapid production in anticipation, which will help cut that turnaround to get it out more broadly.