Good for him. I noticed how Jan seemed to bite his tongue, presumably because he is on the IM payroll as a grandee of the sport. Mark Allen, also on the IM payroll, similarly said nothing provocative.

I hope more of these guys speak freely.

General rule of thumb around here would be to provide some of the quotes here, and a link to the article, rather than just driving everybody off site first.

Please and thank you.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I thought Jan was fairly candid on how one could "read" his instagram post and comments. Especially in response to the PTO comment in which he said...
janfrodeno
Verified
@professionaltriathletesorg the best is that we don’t know when or where (!) we will have W.C.
.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClnrZSlACzI/

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Team RWB Rochester / Team First Knight

i am not on IM's payroll. i am 100 percent in favor of 2 cities, 2 races, alternating. i am 100 percent in agreement with the decision IM has made here, even tho this means that i, personally, will probably have to skip at least 1 of these races. i would have been very happy to keep having 2 races in kona, as with 2022, but that is clearly not a logistical option.

as to IM making this decision based on money, let's stipulate for a moment that this is true. this is opposed to what? braden currie's decisions, which are always based on his love of the sport, and not because they're in his financial best interest? why is it okay for a pro athlete to make his or her decisions based on his or her best financial interest, but IM is supposed to act like the peace corp?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Braden: "Ironman is so shitty, I hate this. Go PTO"
also Braden: "Yeah I'm racing Ironman 70.3 Tasmania, Ironman New Zealand, and Ironman World Championship Nice next year"

These Ironman/Kona obsessed people are so silly.

And when Ironman raises the Pro purse because they have more money coming in, he'll gladly hold his hand out.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

"I’m just on the phone to @ironmantri asking when and where the men will be racing their Ironman World Championships in 2023. I’m currently number 25,789 in queue and I should know in January what the answer will be. As soon as I hear I’ll let you know, awesome thanks. It’s a Sad day for the sport splitting the men’s and woman’s races away from each other."

You might be happy with the outcome, but you should recognize that these master corporate strategists weren’t seeking that outcome! This is the unintended result of their mismanagement of their relationship with Kona. They stumbled into this, and mislead their customers for months along the way.

Let's face it, the pro's aren't going anywhere except to where ever the WC are, be it Nice or the bowels of hell. Neither are the age groupers. Sure you'll get the 5% that don't go in some sort of protest. You know what though? WTC won't even miss them. Not at all.

WTC is the siren song that brings lemmings to the sea even though great whites are sitting right there waiting to devour them. People will still jump off that ledge bc, at least for now, there is no other game that can be played as often or that has the name recognition.

Jump lemmings jump. And they will.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I wonder what the bonus structure for pro’s looks like - does it specify Kona or World Championship in contracts? Given +70% of sponsors market (middle aged white men) are not at Kona - I wonder how if it changes sponsors.

An Ironman WC out of Kona will die… just like Roth died when they left WTC /s

Complety wrong. The rotating 70.3 is the perfect example, how deep do the roll downs for that go.. People want Kona and the atmosphere/experience, no one cares if its a world championship unless they are actually gunning for the win.

I think IM need to try a replicate Kona somewhere very similar that is also wlecoming. I wonder if somewhere like Samoa, Fiji etc woukd be interested in taking it on. The locals in those places love tourists and are some of the nicest people you could ever meet.

What is silly is the lack of logic in your comment. So what, Braden can't be critical of a decision without going on a hunger strike..?

He isn't a employee and is under no obligation to say anything other than what he feels. FFFs he has to pay just to compete via his pro license fee...

Jan is pissed that he probably isn't gonna win another world title. If it is Nice then it is an absolute nightmare for him. And to be fair he has good memories of Kona where the odds are more stacked in his favour.

It is also gonna be the start of a narrative that gets sewn by him and many others, that a WC win outside Kona isn't a WC win. This is a salient point when there are a few people who could win multiple titles going forward.

did they announce the bigger price purse for 2023 you are talking off .

This should be in pink. The prize fund has hardly changed for a very long time. Remember Christie Wellington winning the race 2nd week of October and not getting paid until February/March when the drug tests and all paperwork were complete in October?

That is how IM treats pro’s - with contempt.

Really doubt the price purse will increase significantly although IM Texas has a new 175K total price purse where the winner takes home 28K, a marginal improvement over time past

Could the future location (if Nice confirmed) also play a role in his comment even though he did not alude to it? Unless I am mistaken, he hasn't raced in Europe a lot. Even if he's a pro, I imagine it's way more convenient/cheap etc. for a kiwi with a family to travel to Hawai than to Nice.

This is only me thinking as an age-grouper obviously

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It doesn't get easier, you just get slower
https://mymsracesironman.home.blog/

He is not a heavy racer, but he has done Euro races before. Collins Cup and Roth but there are enough races in ANZ region to keep him busy. He did indicate or say that he has spend his career training around (to win) Kona and being 36, he doesn't have many years left so it's disappointing that it is being moved. It's weird as he equates Kona as World Championships and no Nice if you know what i mean

IM should re-think this. Messick said they tried all options and the island only wants one event/day per year. Maybe that should be it then. One day, 2500 races and 1800 USD entry fee.....

Braden will adapt. He'll suit harder courses better than most. So I'm surprised he's speaking out. But I also get it, it's a serious job and he plans impeccably. Now it's been changed to an undisclosed place, on the back of a cancelled year, then a last minute and six month delayed year, in the same year as a normal year. For someone trying to support a family on this organisation, he's being reasonable

No, it's just one of our standard FAQ items. Give a quote from what you want to discuss about, then put the link in. Makes it easier for people to go through the discussion.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

No, kind of being a smart*ss but I have to assume the only way Ironman can compete with PTO is to bring in more money to offer larger payouts. They won't announce it without the income though and they need more Kona entries to offer more money. Nothing else has worked for them to bring in more money.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I guess you never been to Challenge Roth LOL?
That race is about everything, but death….

Jeroen

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands