I don't have a strong opinion for/against NFT's instead of medals. Honestly, I would probably just sell it for some crypto anyway.

There were medals for the podium in each age group, just no finisher medals.

And to be fair, a finisher medal NFT is as useless as a finisher medal... The real issue here was expectation management, in early communications when our national federations took our money, they mentioned medals and I believe asked for shirt sizes, and then when people got to the kit pick-up/read the last versions of the athlete's guide, it changed. I'd personally prefer them knocking a few bucks off the entry fees, and just making medals, NFts, etc. opt-in add-ons with a fee.

And on the eco front, I get the plantable sheets with chamomile seeds as something in the kit for everyone, but they have to realize that it was a world championships, with 60 some countries represented on an island, flying home with plants or even seeds is a no/no in most countries for fear of disrupting ecosystems, so while the intent was honorable, the execution was a bit off (I left my plantable sheet with 5Euros for the cleaning staff at my hotel when I checked out...).

After all, you paid for it!

My mindset is similar. Likewise, when I go on vacation somewhere "special" I or my wife will generally buy something as a physical reminder of the fun we had. Of course we'll also have the appropriate number of photos/videos from the trip. To me the "finishers" medal is that physical reminder or souvenir of the trip my wife (she always goes with me) and I had to some place fun, maybe with other family and meeting other people. We spend a lot of time deciding which two or three events I'll do each year, based on where it is and what we can enjoy around the event.

If I just wanted to do a tri, I can go out this Saturday and do one. I can get my son and son-in-law to do it too and then we'd have an "event". I'd event get third overall.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

I like the NFT medal long term, but kind of dumb right now. It will be cool to have electronic medal/highlights, etc. that stay with you. Assuming in 20/30 years the tech is pretty bonkers and it will be cool to look back st some of these races.

They could have easily made a finisher medal out of wood. Creates employment and wood eventually decomposes. It locks up carbon. They could have got the wood from a managed forest and bragged about that. Embrum man gave us a cup that we used for water stops during the run that has a logo on it etc. Also a nice keepsake and resulted in less waste at aide stations.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

To be fair, I believe the reusable cup stockpile travels with FETRI (Spanish federation) and are washed and used for different events that they do, in which case, my objection is less. They were also washing them and reusing them between races in the festival, so I agree somewhat with the concerns of the actual beneifts of the reusable cups, but at a minimum they reduced some of the waste of the festival to one set of cups, rather than 6 sets across the different events.

It'd be cool if it was put into a 30-second highlight video or photo slide show of you racing, and ended with your overall time and splits on some congratulation screen. Sort of a digital time capsule of each race. I'd be up for that instead of a physical medal. But if it's just a screenshot of my finishing time? I'd rather have the medal (which I write my time on the back of, and hang on my garage wall with my bikes).

We did get a video capsule as well, which is separate from the NFT which is a 3D rotating finisher's certificate

How are you supposed to wear a nft at the office the next week?

So the NFT concept could work if the series gave everyone some kind of internet connected frame/stand with a screen that rotated through all your awards. It's still not as simple and easy as putting a medal on the wall. But it *might* be nice if they spent 60 bucks per athlete once and then streamed all your medals to it. But that would cost more than buying you a medal, and I assume that's what they are really trying to save, not the planet.

I wouldn't want an NFT. Being older and not really tech savvy, this seems annoying to me personally. No interest in learning about them. I'm a retro grouch lol. My husband is tech savvy and would know what to do with an NFT.

I don't consider finisher medals to be "trophies for finishing". To me they are more of a paid memento and souvenir for my race experience. I mostly do a few bigger events per year so it's kind of a big deaf for me (half and full Ironman events). Usually, I have to travel and it's always an overnight deal and many races, I have to fly a good distance (raced in Canada, US, Caribbean, Europe). I hang them up in my office and area where I do stretching and mobility work. I enjoy the reminders of the races I've done. Most have special meaning for me.

For those who throw them away, you could donate them to Home | Medals4Mettle | Your race medal becomes a message of compassion to a brave patient

You could also make them into maybe xmas tree ornaments, coasters or other creative crafts with them. Let your kids use them for arts and crafts.

I have a friend who gives his medals to his nieces and nephews and kids of his close friends. I can imagine they love getting those really nice Ironman branded event medals. They are usually pretty nice in IMO.

As far the environment and climate change we are fucked...kidding, not kidding. No I really do care about the environment. But selfishly I like my finisher medals. Let's reduce waste somewhere else.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.