deh20 wrote:
Power13 wrote:
Why not? As I clearly showed in my revision, it applies equally to women vs. men as Pros vs. AG. The only difference is the same, really....genetics. Why not just have an overall race, no age groups, classifications or divisions based on gender? And the question is not "do women want to race against men" (although some do, I'm sure), or more accurately in this case "Do AG want to race against Pros:, the question should be "why would Pros (or men) want to race against AG'ers (or women)?
Quote:
This world is filled with people that are better than we are, and the scale is mostly continuous. Drawing a line at some arbitrary level and saying someone is too good to compete with average people makes no sense. The reality is, Keinle doesn't want to come out to my local race, but if he did, I'd gladly "race" him. Again, I do see a distinction where the pro has access to different means than the average athlete. If Thomas indeed got an entry to a sold out race with no pro field because he was a pro, then I argue he had an unfair advantage. I'll wait for him to weigh in on that issue.
See above....why not have a single race devoid of any distinctions? Every classification is an "arbitrary" line, it would seem.
The difference between a man and a woman is not arbitrary, it's specifically defined by the presence of a Y chromosome, different anatomy, and (perhaps most importantly for athletic performance), different sex hormones. Apples and oranges.
And as I said, if Thomas' pro status got him into a sold out race that had no pro field (that I could not have registered for last-minute as an amateur) then I do have an issue. Not an issue with Thomas, but with WTC / race director.
There is a lot of reason that can get special individual in a sold out ironman race. The first thing you need to know is a WTC event is never ''sold out''. And it s like this in every aspect of life. I personally think a local pro that support a race is a good enough reason to give him a pass in. WTC as done that for years as it s good publicity etc. Well, in most case! seems like this one was a little controversial!
Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
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