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Triathletes think they are a cut above the rest.

Love it-5 days of bliss.

But Vendee Globe makes me spend 15 minutes every day for 2-3 months watching the tracker the weather forecast and updating the routing of my own virtual boat to see if I can beat the pros. But then again, I am a member of the cult :D

Point being is that in theory you can make things interesting over time, but it takes a lot of effort from the organizers.

I think most spectator un-friendly sport has to be orienteering. You are not even allowed to watch the event outside of the stadium, as spectators might give indications on where the next post is. A bunch of people run into the woods, one comes out of the woods first a while later ;)


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I'd disagree with that - triathletes don't think they're just a cut above the rest. I'm pretty sure most triathletes here don't think they are intrinsically superior to other athletes, and certainly not just better than the top athletes in the other sports, crossfit included. That's def not the message I'm getting here.

However, they DO have a higher bar to entry to most other I\aforementioned more popular sports - in the open water swim, and are right to feel that they've earned the ability to get past that entry bar. It's not some crazy impossible barrier to entry, but for a sport that's aimed to be accepted by the masses, it's a very respectably high bar.

For the general weekend warrior who's a crossfitter, triathlete, or whatever, this barrier of entry is often THE prime determinant of why they get into it, and for triathlon, swimming is absolutely one of the many reasons (but def the biggest one) why everyone isn't just giving it a go - like compared to running or Crossfit,

And when America's (and now the world's) problem is foremost just getting off the couch to do ANYTHING, throwing the wrench of an OWS as the starting requirement of race completion, makes it a lot harder to get done as a newbie or nondiehard weekend warrior.

Obviously this doesn't apply to all us diehards in whatever sport that dedicate large amounts of time to getting good at it - the top guys in any decently participated sport are every bit as accomplished as competitive as the top guys in tri and even noreso.

Compared to crossfit, yes triathlon is way down the list. In terms of Youtube channels I can only answer for myself... but I'm not interested in any of those channels. The only time I'd see a vid is if I'm scrolling FB and see a vid that might be interesting... but it had better be short.

Watching videos about triathlon doesn't even interest me and I'm a triathlete.

Sounds horrific. I think I tried it super fun to play running around with a compass but like u say if u used tech maybe could be fun... As a spectator sport not so much

You can't even get good 'highlight' videos of The Barkley Marathons because cameras/phones aren't allowed on the course, so it's just runners coming into camp, Laz checking the pages, runners eating & changing clothes, then off again

Repeat as necessary/capable

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

As people have already mentioned, Crossfit have done a really great job in creating exciting content and building a strong community, but it has peaked, a bit like OCR - it quickly came to rise and is now levelling off.

But with Super League coming through, you're now seeing the content changing in the triathlon landscape, GTN have been doing a good job too. Triathletes are also really thriving in the 'influencer' market, you just need to look at Lucy Charles and Blummenfelt to see it. And Gustav made headlines in Tawaiin by wearing a cap.

If you're looking for popular triathlon videos and events, Norseman does a really great job. It had over 5,000 entries this year for just 250 places, and it's videos regularly get over 50K views. And Lucy Charles, Tim Don and James Lawrence have produced some very popular videos/documentaries.

So I wouldn't say triathlon is unpopular, it's just growing differently to CrossFit and appeals/engages with a different, potentially smaller audience. The key is also not how many views a brand/person/event has, but how many entries/people engage with the brand and if someone posts something, does their audience buy it. Views and likes etc. are just vanity metrics at the end of the day, another metric to more accurately measure popularity could be how much revenue does each sport produce E.g. last year one girl had 1M followers on IG, but couldn't sell a single tee.

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Adelaide

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https://www.adelaidegoodeve.com/

Triathlon is just not that popular?


It's endurance sports in general in North America that are not that popular.

Pro Team sports and a bit of tennis and golf is what get's covered here. The only real change in the past 10 years, I would say is the emergence of Soccer (football to the rest of the world), Soccer and the MLS has REALLY shot up the dial in terms of the popularity of the coverage.

There is a pattern with Endurance Sports Coverage - surely you have seen it. The ONLY time it ever creeps into the sports media news coverage is usually some controversy or something absolutely crazy/freaky*:

- Anything involving Lance Armstrong (although that is starting to fade)

- Doping busts/Stories

- Nike's Vaporfly shoes

- Maltreatment of athletes by Salazar/Nike

- *Someone running a marathon a day for a year! (Just making up some freakish thing)

There is often a brief orgy of some coverage every 4 years during the Olympic Games if an American does well in an Endurance sport.

Endurance sports (running, cycling, triathlon, track & field, etc . . .) are NEVER EVER just covered as sports - it's either controversy, or some freak-show type of pursuit! So they inhabit this weird odd-ball, and somewhat negative view by a good portion of the population - no surprise is all they ever see, is stories about controversies or freaks!

The surprising thing to me is if you add up the WHOLE of the running, cycling and triathlon populations in the U.S. you are possibly talking north of 50 million total people that actually do these sports/activities. So there is a sizable audience!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog