As I said - whatever.
The point is, that to the casual outside observer it appears that IMH is the World Championship of triathlon. I have had people, who know nothing about the sport ask me this or refer to the IMH winner as the World Traithlon Champion. To those INSIDE the sport, we know that this is NOT the case that the winner of IMH is the Ironman World Champion, just as the winner of the marathon at the World Athletics Championships, is the World Marathon Champion.
It's not that big a deal really, but when it comes to selling sponsorships or licensing agreements it can have a dramatic impact on the value of the property that you are selling.
I realize that it is a bit of a monopoly, but in just about every other serious sport that I can think of, it's the world governing body that controls the use of the words, "World Championship". Right or wrong, that certainly puts some clarity to the situation.
As I said, where this got off the rails was years ago when ironman ceased being a word to describe a distance within a sport like the word "marathon" in running, and became it's own trademark and business entity.
Fleck
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog