What assistance did she receive?

From the Ironman tracker, it looks like the first female across the line at Ironman Ireland (Svenja Thoes) was DQd shortly after crossing the line for outside assistance. Anyone know the story? That's huge - has a professional winner ever been disqualified before for a non-doping offense?

Tri sutto who coaches her, posted on Facebook yesterday congratulating her on her win...

Again, generalities here, but the process looks something like this:

1.) Officials will other note a potential rules infringement or rules infringement is brought to their attention.
2.) An investigation takes place, and the officials make a determination of whether the athlete has violated the rule and issue the DQ.
3.) Athlete may then appeal that decision.

I learned from this that the German for drafting is Windschatten, which I like a lot.

When I did Norseman I realised the speed bumps in Eidfjord were locally known as fart humps! That put a smile on my face.

Svenja Thoes did draft at Ironman Ireland.

I raced the age group race which started 10 minutes behind the pro field and during the bike section I caught and passed most of the female pro athletes. About 60 miles in to the bike I caught and passed Thoes and thought nothing of it until I noticed her shadow (it was super sunny!) riding very close to me, this continued for a few minutes and I shouted and gesticulated at her to get out of the draft zone. I was incensed that she was using an age grouper to gain advantage and steal prize money from the rest of the fair racing womens field. She took no notice and proceeded to stay in the draft zone for the next 25 miles approximately. It was obvious every time I looked behind and most of the time I could see her shadow. I was 2nd overall age grouper on the road, there was no one else around and there was no athlete congestion or anything that might have been deemed an excuse to mistakenly enter the draft zone, it was deliberate cheating for a significant amount of time. At about 85 miles into the bike the 3rd age grouper caught and passed me, we know each other so we exchanged a few words of encouragement and I used this opportunity to again shout at Thoes and tell the other age grouper that she was cheating. After this she decided to respect the rules, overtook me and pulled away for the final section of the ride entering T2 approximately a minute ahead.

As far as evidence is concerned I'm sure you could compare time splits on the bike, see that I took 10 mins out of her in the first 60 ish miles and then magically she was able to ride at my pace after I caught her. I'm sure there must be photographic evidence of this as well from on course as it went on for a long time. I finished 2nd age grouper overall and 1st 40-44, I don't care if I'm not anonymous, I'd rather the correct female pros receive their hard earned prize money and rule breaking should be punished. I don't know anything about the infringement which led to her DQ for outside assistance I didn't see anything of that nature either on the bike or run.

As an aside I'd suggest a female pro race should have 30 mins head start on male age groupers so that both races aren't interfering with each other. That's a minor point though in the context of the race, I would just like to add that no country could match Ireland for putting on an Ironman, I've raced 16 IMs all over the world and Youghal on Sunday delivered a race and an experience hands down better than anywhere else. If you get the chance, you should race Ironman Ireland, chapeau Youghal.

Did the other thread get deleted?

yeah. i gave you all warning first, so you could get your last comments in. some did. poof. it's gone.

Supposedly it's an arbitration panel under the jurisdiction of Triathlon Ireland. But I went to their site and didn't see any decision posted.

an independent court has since called for the disqualification to be overturned, deeming the outside assistance she received as making no difference to the race outcome

svenja_thoes "outside assistance was accused to me. Which I never got 🤷 ♀️"
So she's still in denial (despite the appeal ruling specifying that outside assistance had occurred) and also implied something to do with gender (see emoticon).

So we don't know the infraction. We don't know the precedent been set until we hear the details of what occured.
My point is simple, until we know why she was originally DQd we can't give an informed opinion on the right or wrongs of the decision. It's pretty straightforward, judgement must have a basis in fact, and stating "outside assistance" so case, as some have is in my opinion at best naive.
It's also curious those willing to believe the athlete guilty based on the DQ received are not willing to accept the new verdict.
Hopefully details will emerge

Is there some kind of allowed outside assistance? When I did IM Penticton there were many sprinklers that the residents put by their lawns and we could run through the water. Anybody could run through but if the owner decides to turn the sprinkler off then it is not available to everybody.

Svenja Thoes did draft at Ironman Ireland.

I raced the age group race which started 10 minutes behind the pro field and during the bike section I caught and passed most of the female pro athletes. About 60 miles in to the bike I caught and passed Thoes and thought nothing of it until I noticed her shadow (it was super sunny!) riding very close to me, this continued for a few minutes and I shouted and gesticulated at her to get out of the draft zone. I was incensed that she was using an age grouper to gain advantage and steal prize money from the rest of the fair racing womens field. She took no notice and proceeded to stay in the draft zone for the next 25 miles approximately. It was obvious every time I looked behind and most of the time I could see her shadow. I was 2nd overall age grouper on the road, there was no one else around and there was no athlete congestion or anything that might have been deemed an excuse to mistakenly enter the draft zone, it was deliberate cheating for a significant amount of time. At about 85 miles into the bike the 3rd age grouper caught and passed me, we know each other so we exchanged a few words of encouragement and I used this opportunity to again shout at Thoes and tell the other age grouper that she was cheating. After this she decided to respect the rules, overtook me and pulled away for the final section of the ride entering T2 approximately a minute ahead.

As far as evidence is concerned I'm sure you could compare time splits on the bike, see that I took 10 mins out of her in the first 60 ish miles and then magically she was able to ride at my pace after I caught her. I'm sure there must be photographic evidence of this as well from on course as it went on for a long time. I finished 2nd age grouper overall and 1st 40-44, I don't care if I'm not anonymous, I'd rather the correct female pros receive their hard earned prize money and rule breaking should be punished. I don't know anything about the infringement which led to her DQ for outside assistance I didn't see anything of that nature either on the bike or run.

As an aside I'd suggest a female pro race should have 30 mins head start on male age groupers so that both races aren't interfering with each other. That's a minor point though in the context of the race, I would just like to add that no country could match Ireland for putting on an Ironman, I've raced 16 IMs all over the world and Youghal on Sunday delivered a race and an experience hands down better than anywhere else. If you get the chance, you should race Ironman Ireland, chapeau Youghal.

Brooks said: *Most* officials "officiate" with pretty good discretion, so I'd have to imagine that some type of "outside" assistance was truly outside assistance.//

I would mostly agree with this statement of yours, but it only takes one bad call. And I would say there are several bad calls out of every couple dozen or so, I have been on the wrong end of probably 3 or 4 in my career, and witnessed dozens others. Officials are just people, with all their biases, flaws, and quirks. I have seen some that are basically blind to the intent of a rule, and the rule is everything to them with no interpretation. . . . there is always two sides to a story.

As a complete aside, I think Tri Ireland have risked jeopardising the future staging of IM Ireland by their recommendation. That risk can be mitigated by laying out clearly the facts leading to DQ and the grounds/rationale for the recommendation.

I wonder if this is an "Al Capone" kind of charge.

she does not talk at lenght about it in fact not at all
i guess it would be a bit hard for her to say what outside assistance she got when she says she got no outside assistance
says lead bike volunteer for the run reported outside assistance to officials after she had crossed the finish line
to me this sounds strange but we will never get the proper answer that is clear as they obviously have signed a NDA agreement .
she also claimed that they did not want to tell her what they thought the infringement was to justify the dq.
Thoes won, this is the only clear thing , and the other side was not thrown under the bus.