It should be noted that Greg was the 3rd different color guy on the broadcast. I think they are trying to be good ambassadors by bringing in the athlete side of things when it comes to the 2nd person with Barrie. In Tempe they had Parker Spencer, the local ITU coach of the newly formed USAT Podium Project and the other 2 races they had U.S. ITU athlete Renee Tomlin as color commentary.

Commentating is hard as hell, ESPECIALLY when your called in for a weekend race and that's it. But it's why I thought it was a great get in having Barrie Shepley being lead commentator.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

The growth and development in the caliber of athlete and racing has imo been a huge jump forward just in 1 year time from 2017 to 2018 (yes 2016 was the 1st year of the series). This truly has been an small startup style rise in the sport, and getting Vincent Luis....well done to the MLT crew.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I brought my team to the Charlotte race. From a spectator's perspective, it was AWESOME.

I'm curious why ST had coverage of the Tempe event but not this one.

I'm curious why ST had coverage of the Tempe event but not this one.

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ETA: I get it ST is going to cover the events that they want to cover randomly (Swim-Run) and then events that they think likely is interesting and/or industry standard stuff (pro races). I think it's more "frustrating" that this championship race is essentially in the backyard of one of the ST editors but ST didn't choose to write up and/or attend the event. Maybe that simply says more about the perception of that genre. Idk, I just was going to assume that ST would have "covered" it.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I live in Charlotte & was able to watch the final mixed relay event. It was fun to see a few of the top ITU pro's racing, but my wife & I were 2 of maybe 20 people watching. I talked with one of the college team coaches that was there & he said there were more people watching earlier in the day, but I'm sure it wasn't that many. No one showed up to watch because there was no publicity about the race what so ever. Very few local triathletes knew about the race, much less any of the general public that might have come by to see a free event. None of the local bike shops or tri shops (Inside-Out Sports has a local store) had any pre-race info. Maybe there was some, but I never heard anything on the radio & there was nothing in the paper before or after the race (of course it wasn't the Panthers or Hornets). I don't know how you have or can continue to have a so-called "major league" event without any local advertising. Somehow they have some sponsors to have the series of races & pay out prize money (that's another one, the prizes were in bitcoin). "Good on" the athletes for racing hard when there was pretty much no one there to cheer them on (granted they were racing for money).

One comment about the commentary. It was being played thru speakers at the race, but they were doing their commentary watching a monitor. They could only comment on what the TV camera showed. They were positioned under a tent near the finish & couldn't see the transition area. They missed what happened a couple of times in the mixed relay race because the camera wasn't there & they couldn't see it. They only knew that a guy or girl came out of transition with a gap & didn't know why (one guy ran the wrong way just out of transition & all they commented on was that so & so must of had a good transition because he now has a gap. They can't catch everything, but with the importance of transitions in these super-sprint kind of races, they needed to be where they could see the transition area.

If you think that's bad, there's this Greg Welch guy... horrible.
He can't pronounce anyone's name correctly, doesn't know anything about athlete's that live outside of Boulder and San Diego, uses the word "absolutely" about 5 times a minute.

I was at the race as well, congrats to your athlete who earned her pro card! And good on her for racing in the pro women's super sprint race..of the top three in the A wave, she was the only one who went on to race the pro race.

1st place was already a pro that was racing for collegiate conference points, and the girl that got 3rd didn't need to race the pro race, their goal was simply the pro card.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I talked to Annie after the race, and she said her one goal was to get her pro card, and she didn't feel like racing again, which was understandable. I thought that specific Queens girl was on their NCAA team though, not their club team? Can her points even count towards collegiate conference?

Yes I believe she's on the NCAA team, but let's just say this race will potentially make her eligible for collegiate club nationals in april. Any ncaa athlete that exhausts ncaa eligibility in the fall can then race collegiate club in the spring. But she must race an collegiate race before she's eligible for usat collegiate club nationals, and thus this can qualify that. ETA: At that point, she would no longer be an "ncaa" athlete because her ncaa career would finish the day of ncaa collegiate nationals- thus the spring semester she would be free to do as she pleases. I believe this is only available for athletes that have exhausted ncaa eligiblity.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

That's nuts. Queens just became NCAA though, so how would someone who started off at Queens on the club team exhaust their NCAA eligibility after one semester of racing NCAA? Seems like the coach is creating loopholes to make sure that his best athletes can race both NCAA and club.

"If you think that's bad, there's this Greg Welch guy... horrible. "
Now that's just being cruel. You try announcing when you are a non-native English speaker who is required to work with a clothespin on his nose in a helium infused booth. You just try that and see what you sound like!

Well the news for this year is that MLT's only event is going to be AvonFest in Colorado, September 6-8. They're planning on having a full (or fuller) season for 2020, but due to most ITU athletes focusing on Olympic qualification and such, they decided to only focus on one event this year.