Should rename this to Official 2021-2024 World Triathlon discussion thread (ITU is dead)... I expect that over the winter we'll see the Olympic qualification process documents come out from World Tri, and then the federations will follow with their selection policies, but generally qualification would start June/July 2022 (24month qualification process ahead of the games). Will be interesting to see what changes happen to this, after Tokyo, and see whether rules around relay selection change.

In terms of Knibb, her Edmonton race was impressive (equally so were her performances in Montreal, racing each of the super sprint races uber aggressively, and Flora riding her wheel to victory), but she's still missing a bit of consistency with her swim to be consistently in a place where her bike strength can be dominant. I'd also say that there were tactics at play in Edmonton which gave her a bit longer of a leash than she might have otherwise had (Flora was the big one with the strength to bridge to her or chase her down, but she didn't need to do that in order to win the title, so she just marked her rivals for the overall, and none of them were strong or motivated enough to chase down Knibb). It's still a super impressive performance, but I don't know that I'm ready to assume that she'll fully dominate the next olympic cycle. It'll also be interesting to see if Lucy Charles-Barclay gives Paris a serious run. We saw in Leeds how much her swim changed the game tactically, and could play a serious role in race dynamics when she's around, and potentially puts Knibb in a situation where her bike strength would be needed just to bridge to the break, rather than just to breakaway...

We don't have to wait long for the race to the 2022 World Triathlon Championships Series, since it kicks off in a couple of weeks in Hamburg (although it might be a diminished field, with many choosing to race for the dough on offer by Super League)...

Karlovy Vary World Cup today. Arguably the best course on the World Triathlon calendar. Looking forward to it on triathlonlive.tv

And then followed wit SuperLeague Munich. We’re spoiled today!

Great racing by the women in Munich!

“beverage…anyone?”

---

Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

what is ITU doing? shooting their foot? how is it possible that superleague Jersey and Hamburg world series are set in the same weekend? As far as I know ITU and SL has a deal right? not a good one for ITU, I guess. All the top guys are withdrawning Hamburg to go to Jersey...so as a start for the 2022 wts season...i cannot congratulate ITU....the Hamburg´s fields are even weaker than a world cup...hope they will solve it cause WTS will lose interest in the future... IMO, they are still there because of the olympics, otherwise the athletes get paid much better thanks to PTO, the french grand prix, german grand prix, US Tri Series, etc...
If Challenge or IM are smart snough, they can get a piece of the cake...

---

Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

I don’t think knibb is an inconsistent swimmer. She got boxed out in Tokyo, has she had any other problems? I am genuinely asking…

Changed the title. Hmmm. I think some IM people will be confused ( WTC = IM ) which is why I did not like the name change when they unveiled it…

The conflict of Jersey with Hamburg happened with the rescheduling of Hamburg due to travel restrictions/Olympic conflict. It sucks, because the fields are a bit more spread out, added to that it's also 70.3 Worlds weekend, and people are taking downtime after the Olympics. The fall of an olympic year is always a bit more wide-open with a lot of new names on start lists, as countries start to focus on the next quadrennial (triennial?).

Given that SuperLeague wanted to do a month, there was always going to be a conflict unless they did December, so at least it's only one WTCS weekend, and not a conflict with Bermuda.

Karlovy Vary was interesting racing, it's a great course, with tons of excitement. With the field being a mix of a couple of WTCS racers and then a lot of others who are seasoned World Cup competitors and some making the jump from the continental circuits, it meant for unpredictable racing.

Looking forward to Hamburg, and Jersey.

I think they made a mistake starting the season this year, athletes can never seem to be arsed after an Olympics anyway, add to that the obvious Superleague that's going on, I wonder if its too late for them to switch it to a world cup race?

They wouldn't switch, the host fees and requirements are very different for WC and WTCS, not to mention the points, prize money and everything else. Making a last minute demotion in status would likely have the few top athletes bail in protest.

It'll still be a great race, and they're back to the usual downtown course from the alternate venue they used last year, so it will still be exciting. I'd love to get back to that event one of these years, one of the craziest races to experience (17,000 age groupers, a T-zone nearly 1mile long), 100,000 spectators for the WTCS and relay races, and Erdinger Stands on every corner...

Lots of Tri to watch tomorrow, Superleague Jersey with the early starts, followed by Hamburg. I did notice that a few folks opted out of racing Superleague Jersey to race Hamburg, and then will rejoin for Malibu.

I think some NGBs wouldn’t release their athletes from the Hamburg race.

And unsurprisingly Germany was one of those NFs... I half wondered why they hadn't flipped the Munich and Jersey legs, so that people could have doubled up and maybe been around for the Mixed Relay. But Jersey was likely the first one that superleague had booked...

Its more than a mistake it's friggen ridiculous. 2022 season starts in 2021. I hope they have enough races in the actual 2022 so these races can be not needed series points by the athletes that can't race them. There are still travel restrictions in some countries with crazy flight prices. If athletes had purchased flights home prior to these races being announced, changing plans may not have been possible. 2020 was a no go year for some, 2021 not great for travelling and now they muck up 2022 season as well. That's 3 yrs in an athletes career that world championship series has been messy. I feel for those effected.

That Hamburg start list is terrible, they must be fuming with Superleague and Ironman, this was bound to happen at some point.

1.Bergere
2.Salvisburg
3.Stornes

1.Rapparport
2.Lindemann
3.Kasper

I'm pretty surprised there are enough athletes from both races to have 10 MTR teams.

All those top athletes had already signed their superleague contracts and had no option either.

>
.
Super League has been partnered with World Triathlon (Then ITU) for three years ITU and Super League confirm partnership with signing of MOU — World Triathlon ..They went out of their way to schedule their pre 2020 Olympics SL Series specifically to work with the Olympic programs of the ITU Federations leading up to Tokyo..They now share the media platform TriathlonLIVE and both series are available and feed off each other..There is full disclosure between SL and World Triathlon so I am not sure about any animosity.
.
>

Watch out for my guy, Darr Smith!

Doesn't bother me at all, got a lot more interest in Superleague at the moment than ITU in a post Olympic year.

Might worry the athletes if there aren't enough races in 2022 for this one to not be needed for the points.

Did Stornes race an ironman recently? If so I'll go Benson for 3rd instead.

Is that a possibility?

I would think they would just make it a larger number of races and stick with the usual 5 races plus the grand final. (I think it's 5+1, I could be wrong)

Do you know if he's going to shave his....DYED....mustache for the race?
Good kid. I'm a fan.