Those are indeed great results. But it has been a while. And yes for me it is a high bar. My “A list” comparable are the Tom Bradys and usain bolts, lance armstrongs, the Michael Phelps. In other sports these are possibly generational athletes, and the hall of famers and all stars are the a list. I don’t think we’ve seen enough depth or history to have a big slate of A listers yet.

Ali Brownlee is most definitely an A lister by that definition at Short course, just not at long.

but he is super good at sports

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

ST the place where the two time Olympic gold medalist who re defined Olympic style racing is B grade

To be fair to ST, it's only the odd contributor who seems to wish to apply such definitions/criteria, not 'core ST', and then reiterate, and dig.

The thing is very few athletes other than Jan in 2019 have actually beaten this mythical “stacked field” at the full distance, none of these other alleged A listers have.

If you base it on times then Ali has the best time ever in a “non-asterisk” race. Only a few mins back from Jan’s tri battle time and faster than Gustav’s time in Florida. It’s even faster than that Texas time given the record despite a short bike.

At the half distance he’s come second in 2 of the past 3 world champs and the other he never entered.

Now at the 100km distance people might have a point.

key point. ali's thrown down some big times on legit courses, twice now. i think the swim at kalmar looked a little fast - maybe 2-3 minutes, but nothing like the 10 minutes at cozumel.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I think the swim in Kalmar was ok in distance, the weather was great and my friends were very happy with the swim and their GPS-loggs point towards correct distance

I'd seen the strava of a couple of friends and the course looks legit. No motos either like so many other courses?

good to hear. i saw that ali and a handful of other guys got out of the water in 44-mid, so i assumed it was a little short or something! looks like a great atmosphere at that race, too.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I'm surprised to hear people have seen the correct distance for the swim leg in Kalmar. Out of the 11 swim files I've seen from my athletes all of them show between 3550m and 3670m except from one guy who went way off course and got 3800m. Gps is notoriously inaccurate for swimming though so who knows but most people went faster than expected.

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BA coaching http://www.bjornandersson.se

I have said this before, Alistair is an F-1 car

When all the conditions are perfect, there is nothing faster

But like an F-1 car he is somehow fragile and unreliable outside the perfect condition !

If you base it on times then Ali has the best time ever in a “non-asterisk” race. Only a few mins back from Jan’s tri battle time and faster than Gustav’s time in Florida. It’s even faster than that Texas time given the record despite a short bike.



I thought Frodo's 7:35 at Roth was legit. What was the asterisk for that race?

AB isn't on your A list of triathletes but that 'cyclist' is on your A list of all timers!

You feel pretty certain Lance is the only one on that A list who got extra pharmacological help?

Those listed are all big winners, however they got there. I think they all have asterisks.

Ali is undeniably an all-time great triathlete and A-list for short course, but he needs at least one championship win to get there for long course. That is my impression of Simon Lessing as well (although he was before my time).

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

And Magnus in Roth this year

Think it's being suggested that Roth is a bit short (not referring to 2021 when it was 13km short) and that the benefit of the legendary Roth motos, particularly to the leader, is beyond 'reasonable': hence the *asterisk.
Commentary in https://www.trirating.com/...an-distance-records/ (not been updated for a while - assume Thorsten accords the PTO Rankings and results more importance (and revenue-generating).

I think the discussion assumes Ironman brand race, although the Tri Battle was not an "Ironman" race.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I'll say it again - this is not a discussion of short course.

Certainly the one that got most pharmacological aid, that had positive tests hidden, and that pioneered electric motors. Other than that, sure, he is the greatest.

Pretty much sums it up.

Ok, agreed he's not A list at Ironman. The thread was called doubts about AB, and went down he's not A. He's not done it at ironman at A list which pretty much means win an IM WC.

But he is most definitely an A list triathlete. As is Lessing, these guys at their respective time went where the best athletes go, which is the ITU and came to IM once that time had passed. In Lessing's case too late and maybe a bit of that for AB as well.

Maybe these guys could have done 70.3 and mopped up those races, bit like Lionel, IM is not for everyone. Lionel and AB do things in their IM sabotaging their own races. Think AB just loves the racing element of being out front pushing, the weekend he got to do it, he seems to lack the temperament to manage and execute an IM where he can't simply ride and run away from everyone.

With Amberger getting his last minute KQ at IM MT, that's a top fish in the front pack to afford Brownlee some feet all or most of the way, back to the pier. All the gang of 5 at St George will be in that front pack too.

I just might assure that Amberger, Brownlee, Laidlow and Baekkegaard will be in that pack.

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

Has Amberger cleared up his visa issues? I don't think he's been back in the USA since he got sent back to Australia in the spring.