I know someone who trained with Paula back then. He told me "Paula is the most driven person I have ever met", and this is from someone who's been around more than a few elite triathletes. Apparently she was (don't know about now) one of those athlete's that need to be reeled in by a coach all the time. I think she overtrained herself with secret training.

I think she seems to have found a balance these days? Anyways, Simon was way out of line.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Olympic qualifying has already started (this summer) both for individuals and MTR. With the MTR being an olympic sport, Tri Can benefiteed by the Top 8 finish at Hamburg 2017 for some increased funding for the program... As a country, we're currently well positioned in the MTR rankings to gain a berth and with that at least two spots for men and ladies (it'll be interesting to see the competition for that second women's spot... Jo Brown is a shoe in, and the current betting would probably be on Des Ridenour for the second spot (because she seems to keep getting the second MTR spot), but there's also Kretz, Jamnicky, Findlay, Boutin among others who could still emerge and make a case for them... on the men's side, the money would be on Mislawchuk and Sharpe, although Paquet might have a shot, as well as Lepage, Taylor Forbes, and possibly John Rasmussen as long shots).

In terms of the international stage (ITU), Mislawchuk and Brown are on the edge of breaking through. Matt Sharpe is a wildcard, and if he can get a bit more consistency, he'll be up there as well... We definitely punch above our weight in terms of hosting... What other country hosts two WTS races? Let alone has done so for numerous years... Those events are largely successful too, with decent age group fields and spectator support (despite not the best of luck weather wise some years...)... While there's the ebb and flow of events, in Ontario, Quebec, BC & Alberta, within a reasonable drive, you can find a race most weekends throughout the summer if needed. We've also got a number of great 70.3 and Ironman races, as well as non branded events like Barrelman.

In terms of the general public, most people whould know what a triathlon is, they probably don't know the distances, and beyond Simon Whitfield (a lot of people knew Paula Findlay for her London olympics finish as well, but that has faded a bit from memory), most folks would struggle to be able to name anyone. So certainly, it's not like the UK where the Brownlees are household names... In the media, we used to have more races on TV (TSN/Sportsnet, used to do 1hr highlight shows for some of the ironman races years ago, often they would air months later and in the middle of the night, but they were on, and CBC used to do highlight shows of the World Cups (before the WTS existed), but CBC has at least started to offer free streaming of most of the WTS events live on line, as well as Superleague, so in some ways that's re-emerging... I'm not sure how much that breaks into the mainstream market, but it's a start.

So I guess all of that to say that it's pretty much the same in Canada as it is in many other countries, it's a niche sport, with a devoted following, we've got pretty solid racing options (although with a very large and spread out country, there are many places with less access to racing), but it's not dominating sports coverage on the TV, and the athletes are not household names amongst most of the general population...

I live in Toronto, where there are four or five Tri's in the middle of the City. One a Sprint, on Center island in Lake Ontario in the middle of the City, often sold out and the other shuts down 20K of the main, elevated highway (for the bike leg) thru the city. It's also often a sellout or close to it. It's an Olympic and a Sprint. Of course biking on a highway, in this town, may be the safest place to bike. The Last two or three (seems to change each year) is a winter indoor Tri series, done in the complex built for the Pan American games.

Add to that at least 5 other Tri's within a hour (and a bit) from the City.

I would say we have a pretty good scene.

The hockey obsession is pretty absurd. It reminded me of the cruise I just got back from. The ship had one sports channel and it was 24 hour soccer, although they did show Monday night football. It was English based from what I could tell, but I was like WTF... Talk about oversaturation. I’d be bored to tears with 24 hour triathlon and I love my sport.

Funny thing about this thread where Joanne Brown was mentioned in your post....so I am at the pool today and the the only other person cranking out an IM set in the other lane was a Joanne Brown. I think she is actually tall enough and heavy enough to be better at Long Course racing to be a good TTer. She's around 5'9" and almost 60 kilos. Kind of the same size and Daniela Ryf.

Don't disagree with you at all, If she ever decides to make the switch to Long Course, she definitely has the build for it, not to mention the longer distances tend to be a better fit than the ITU format for the strong bike-runners, who are a bit more borderline in the swim in terms of making the main chase group... That being said, if she can get a bit more consistent with her swimming, she can do some damage on the ITU circuit...