Does diversity mean representation from all demographics or representation inline with jurisdictional demographics? The NBA is in US/Canada, and as pointed out earlier highly overrepresents black Americans, much more so than triathlon overrepresents white Americans. It's not a stretch to say that triathlons is more diverse than basketball, because it more closely aligns with the population.

Of the big four American sports baseball is actually the most closely aligned to the population demographics. From a quick google: Population/MLB- White 59/57 - Hispanic 18/31 - Black 12/7 - Asian 5/3. That's an amazingly close match, and to my knowledge baseball is a cold and heartless meritocracy, at least compared to subjectivity of most sports. Or maybe I just watched Moneyball too recently.

I was talking more the sports as a whole, while I think you're focusing on elite NBA players. Talking sports as a whole, there is huge diversity in basketball. High school, college, etc.

But if we're comparing elites vs. elites, what U.S. black elite triathletes are there? The NBA is ~17% white with well-known stars, like Porzingas. This is a genuine question because I'm a roadie, not a triathlete, so I only know about 6-7 American elite triathlete names, but none of those are black. A quick but very incomplete search led me to this NYT article from last year about the *second* black American to reach professional status in triathlon in the U.S., though that may be just at the USAT vs. IM classification. 2020 survey by USAT found that 1.4% of USAT members are black.

I'm not sure which "stretch" you're finding when saying triathlon is more diverse than basketball in any measurable way.

Talking about professional sports, sorry for the confusion. From a previous post:


Basically saying that percentage-wise, even with zero black triathletes the triathlon demographics are closer to the population demographic. The question I'm asking is: Does diversity mean having a minimum number or representatives from certain demographics (nominal representation), or does it mean having a demographic makeup that aligns with the population as a whole (equal representation)?

You can take it one step further and ask: At what point is a sport (or any subset) diverse? For simplicity, the US is 60/12 white/black. Would triathlon be diverse if it was 61/11? 99/1? For that matter, would the NBA be diverse if it was 1/99? It's clear to me that representation in line with the population as a whole is a better definition, and by this definition the NBA is less diverse (read: less aligned with the population) than triathlon.

When people say they want more diversity (or anything really) and then fail to define it in a meaningful way it leads to confusion and frustration from all groups.

We will simply have to agree to disagree. I reject the premise you have laid out above. Social mobility in the US is far greater than many other countries. I am proof of it. The US doesn't have and has never embraced a caste type system that truly drives enduring inequality. I and my brother (sample size n=2) have gone from poor (borderline goverment assistance) as children to 1%ers in one generation. Granted, no one is going to confuse either of us with Elon or Bill Gates, but we both have accumulated $M's in our 30 years of working. We did it different ways (one no college... the other through college and grad school). Neither one of us had anything handed to us. No family connections, no family money, no favors called in... nothing. What we did have was a hunger for success, a willingness & ability to grind and the willpower to not give up when we faced setbacks.

I know it is easy to argue that the deck is stacked against the poor and that they can't succeed. While I don't agree with that framing, I will concede that my children will benefit (to an extent) from my connections, money and success. But that doesn't mean that anyone's future is set (for good or bad). It simply means that those families and individuals that truly want to change their position or "lot in life" might have to work a little harder, save a little more, embrace the long game and not focus on instant gratification. But they have the opportumity to change their economic position - and that opportunity means everything if they truly want it and are willing to work hard and grind.

I love it when people who have never been poor... tell poor folks what it is like and how hard it is. I especially love it when people tell me that the poor can't be successful and how there isn't the ability to escape poverty. I truly wonder if these people hear themselves and think about what they are saying.

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

I would argue statements like these... "the number 1 thing that struck me. Not how good the coverage was, not Frodo's win etc. It was how many white people were there. I could not see a single non white person either in the crowd, racing or commenting" or "the color-blindness chatter that immediately pops up when comments like are made is outdated" or even this "color blindness just protects the status quo... " are what prompted the "silliness" (in your words). I would argue that strawman arguments were NOT created, we just cut through the silly new-age wording to try and expose the flawed logic and fallacies underlying said words.

I think most (like me) would simply like to focus on being the best triathlete I can. And not have to worry that I am being a bad person for not caring what color the person toeing the line next to me is. But some seem to think being "colorblind" is bad or outdated.

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

I don't do "Bucket Lists" but if I did,this race and a bike tour after might just be on it..

I have some experience after 38 years of racing triathlon, and at least here in Canada literally being the only minority in the entire field for most of my life (it has barely changed 4 decades later, I just did my first tri in Kingston Ontario again after 38 years and the field looked almost identical).

I gained access to triathlon, because I joined the Armed Forces, and there were facilities for sport everywhere. I am a bit different though in that I am colourblind when it comes to role models, be they cyclists, swimmers, engineers, business people. I just get inspired by people who don't look like me, but like whom I would like to perform. Looking for role models who look like myself I always thought would just hold me back, but there is a strong reality that many want to do what they type do, not something else.





If you look at the Canadian 4x100 track team or our national mens and women's soccer team it looks completely different from any triathlon teams I have been on. Essentially track and soccer are the ultimate "acccess it if you have talent" sports (perhaps basketball too, but as I never played that sport, I won't comment). If we look at Canadian board rooms it does not look like the Olympic Gold medal winning women's soccer team, or the 4x100 track silver medalists from Tokyo 2021.

What I am pointing out is that access is the challenge, When access is high (track and soccer) and the metric is performance, the kids can rise to world stage.

Where access is low (corporate Canada) and you get selected upwards by being a clone of those who are incumbents (even if your performance is there), then you don't rise. One of my classmates is the Canadian Chief of Defence staff. No amount of my personal performance would get me to that top role. I did win the Canadian Armed Forces Championships, when my friend Pauli Kiuru from Finland (who looks nothing like me) was second to Kona. But I had access to sport through my Armed Services. Almost no one in my ethnic group had any parental support to squander money on sport because they were struggling to just keep their jobs as immigrants to a new country. The last thing they had time and money for was to shuttle kids around to sport. I only got to do organized sport when I walked onto high school soccer and track teams and from there, the military took care of my sports interests.

But access is key, and in general minorities have less access because of socio-economic scenarios. The parents just can't afford the time and money to put their kids in sport.

To this day, my dad thinks that I am stupid for wasting so much effort on sport and I should put it in my business life because I have more upward mobility options than his generation, but I don't have the same upward mobility as my Chief of Defence Staff friend Gen Wayne Eyre. It is just the way it is. So i created my own mobility starting my own tech startup.

The beauty about sport is once you enter, the clock does not care if you are black, yellow, white, brown....if you cut under the skin it is the same red blood, same veins, same arteries, same hearts, same brains....largely all originating not far from Rwanda a long long time ago and then migrating outwards. We are all the same and it is just humans categorizing their clan against the others, which in a way is a survival instinct of clans fighting for limited resources.

The question of how we make triathlon more accessible, I don't think gets solved inside triathlon, just like how we make golf more accessible does not happen inside golf. It happens in the rest of society when groups are uplifted on aggregate and also their areas of interest change. In my ethic group, in Canada, the extent of interest in sport, may be limited to watching the Toronto Blue Jays or jumping on an Olympic bandwagon every 4 years, but actually doing sport in adult life, is largely viewed as a waste of your focus on career and family life.

coming back to this thread the nice thing about a triathlon in Rwanda, is that suddenly a number of Rwandans can access a local race. They don't have to get on a plane to go to Dubai or Europe to do a triathlon. Yes, it is likely the more affuent Rwandans who do the local event, but just removing the need to take a flight makes it accessible for so many more. Let's give it some chances.