Agree on the initiative as well Bryan. I was fortunate to have three athletes snag a slot to Kona. Was definitely a blessing to see this opportunity pop up and some happy athletes today :-)

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CB
Physical Therapist/Endurance Coach
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No offence to the ladies taking slots in IMAZ, but isn’t it diluting the quality of the female AG field to give so many slots at the same race?

Wouldn’t it be better to double the slot count for females at all IM races?

Bryan both shayna and Jenny got slots. The pure joy and excitement on Jenny’s face is what the sport is all about to me. It’s shows the passion and love for triathlon.

The men have had 3/4 of the slots forever. Would everyone be in favor of reducing the number of men’s slots at races and make it equal regardless of number of participants? I doubt it.

Long live the 2 day format

I agree on two day format and the necessary extra women's slots, but I feel the IMWC would be better served by distributing the slots to more races and regions. Maybe add 50 or 60 per race which would limit those receiving slots to the top 8 or 10.

At the awards this morning my wife’s AG had two slots from the original pool plus 16 of the women in tri slots. Perhaps this will change going forward? No doubt IM made a bundle today with registration around $1,400 a slot before fees.

Agree on lots of happy female finishers this morning!

I had a first-time ironman finisher athlete miss her spot by 5 minutes.

Now here is why this is good for the sport.

She left hungry to compete again the women's 45-49 age group used to have 1 spot, had to win.

no reason to go the extra mile in training towards kona when the same people take it every year.

but with spots rolling further women now have an opportunity to chase a kona slot.

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I think this is a proof of concept. If they can fill a two day race at Kona by offering more women slots they will likely spread them across more races.

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How many slots did the men get? And I wonder if they were actually saying that this is a ticket to Kona for the men and women, anyone know what they were advertising? Or is the wording a ticked to the world champs? Still thinking about that podcast that claims to know that something is going to be different this next year. If the guy really does have inside info and the deal is done, then one would think it would be reflected in all these upcoming qualifying races. I mean folks will qualify, then go right away and book flights and accommodations, do we even know if it is Kona 2 day again, that it is women first again? Makes a big difference when booking trips, maybe a qualifier can chime in here on what was represented to them.

There were 55 “normal” slots. 38 of them went to men and the remaining to women.

Another 100 slots were allotted strictly to women.

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I don't think there is any veracity to that rumor, at least for next year. The extra slots are published on Ironman's website and has a list of the 2023 races that will have them available.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
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The extra slots are published on Ironman's website and has a list of the 2023 races that will have them available. //

I try and avoid that site, just pisses me off every time I try to look something up that should be easy, and I can never find it. So they are advertising that the slots given out are for Kona specifically, and not the world champs? And I guess they are giving out a lot more women slots becasue they are harder to fill than the mens, and split races both need the same numbers...No more old AG men going with the women next time around, so a golden era for those borderline women who always wanted to do Kona, but were just off the mark..

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I recall that IM posted the info for the two day 2023 Kona, with the targeted 100 female slot races, in August.

By that point, IMAZ was pretty close to a sell out. It seemed arbitrary that the women that signed up for IMAZ early were the beneficiaries of that, when a woman that was doing IMWI had the normal 17 or so. It just shows that IM really only cares about selling the entries—it’s not about targeting policies that bring the best WC field.

I have no problem with women having their own day.

This sums up my opinion on it 100%. Well said.

I’m in Cozumel and the awards here started at 5:30pm so about 10 hours after AZs awards

During the slit allocation and roll down they mentioned kona about 50x to the crowd and each time the crowd cheered. It was very much presented as this race is in Kona in 2023.

Here is the list of Kona spots worldwide. https://www.ironman.com/...ampionship-2022-slot

But I cant find the link to the womens extra spots. Anyone better navigating the ironman site than me?

Asking for a friend. Actually true, she's interested in the extra spots for women ..

Edit found it
https://www.ironman.com/im-world-championship-2023-slot

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it doesnt matter what you say, someone on here will pick a fight over it.

Fixed

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Not to argue but if it’s about fairness slots should be allocated based on ratio of athletes competing. That’s why men have had more slots, not because it’s biased toward them. I do worry that making it much easier to qualify will have unintended consequences a few years down the road and Kona may lose its luster. Coupled with other issues like cost I think there is a real risk of the aura of that race fizzling out regardless of what it currently represents.

Ironman continuing to make a mockery of its "world championship" claim.

Of the 1260 additonal women's slots:

• 565 (44%) allocated to 6 North American races at an average of 94 slots/race.
• 465 (37%) allocated to 5 US races, at an average of 93 slots/race.
• 465 (37%) allocated to 7 European races, at an average of 66 slots/race.
• 165 (13%) allocated to 3 Aust/NZ races, at an average of 55 slots/race.
• 65 allocated to 1 South African race.

So much for Asia, South America....

But hey, it's best for the sport that they attract a disproportionate number of slow American women.

At a certain point, they should just move to a 50/50 split of slots if that's what the end goal is.

80 slots per race (or whatever the number works out to be). 40 slots each gender. Distribute within each gender as appropriate.

If Ironman wants to get an equal number of slots for men and women that's entirely their prerogative as it's their company to do as they see fit.

It nevertheless ignores the basic fact that men make up the overwhelming majority of the field at any given IM event. I think it's generally around 70-75% men and I get they're trying to change that. Equalizing the slots obviously waters down the women's field at Kona. They can do as they wish with the number of slots as I said but the math is the math. There is no argument that can be made that it doesn't water down the women's field. Ironman obviously is all in on that to equalize the male/female ratio at Kona hoping that the long term payday is equal participation across genders. Only time will tell.

The other basic math lost in this argument is that women (and the very small male AGs) have historically received more slots than should be allotted if a prorated formula was used. That's due to the one slot per age group part of the formula that Ironman uses assuming a starter and finisher in the AG. I'm not arguing against the one slot per AG policy. Just pointing out how it always favors the women's field.

IMAZ '22:
55 slots for 2,336 starters (1,667 M, 669 F). Prorated slots: 39.25 M, 15.75 F. IM's allocation was 38 M, 17 F. Close but still in favor of the women.

IMFL '22:
55 slots for 1,937 starters (1,521 M, 416 F). Prorated slots: 43.19 M, 11.81 F. IM's allocation was 39 M, 16 F. Over four slot disparity.

IMCali '22:
55 slots for 2,952 starters (2,202 M, 750 F). Prorated slots: 41.03 M, 13.97 F. IM's allocation was 37 M, 18 F. Over four slot disparity.

IMChoo '22:
55 slots for 1,634 starters (1,134 M, 500 F). Prorated slots: 38.17 M, 16.83 F. IM's allocation was 35 M, 20 F. 3+ slot disparity.

IMTX '22:
45 slots for 2,232 starters (1,659 M, 573 F). Prorated slots: 33.45 M, 11.55 F. IM's allocation was 30 M, 15 F. 3 1/2 slot disparity.

...and so on. It gets even more disproportionate in locales where there's less female participation like in Asia and Middle East.

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There is no argument that can be made that it doesn't water down the women's field. //

I see a bunch of you seem to be making this argument, and I dont understand it? IF you go to two days of racing, one for men, one for women, then all the fields will be "watered down" as you put it. The top athletes have always gone or had the opportunity to go, and the rest of the field are just a collection of the rest. If you increase the number of men and women, then there is just going to be more of the rest and on down. Sure there will be more women this first time out because they have to equalize the two races, but I just dont see how letting in more of the rest waters don the field? It makes it so there are more slow people, but that will happen in the mens race too, just by the addition of more people at the lower ends of qualifying.


I just dont get the prevalent attitude here that Kona is somehow less of a championship if you keep adding to the slower end of the curve. The faster end is always there regardless, so what does it matter down at 100th place in an age group? How does that exactly change the top 5 in each AG? What am I missing in all this that you all see?

I hope they keep it two days. If they go to wave start and the slower women end up in front of fast men or fast women it will create a very unpleasant/unsafe condition for them.

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Monty, I'm not saying it's necessarily good or bad but math is math. If you increase the number of slots without an equal corresponding increase in speed/talent among the athletes it just means slower people will get slots when compared to previous years.

500 women got 120 slots at Chattanooga. Should 25% of the field qualify?

If they're going for equal number just have an equal number of slots at each race. Let's call it 60 slots per race. 30 men, 30 women. You end up with the same number of qualifiers. I don't get the point of throwing 100 extra slots at certain races. Just evenly split the slots.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Monty, I'm not saying it's necessarily good or bad but math is math. If you increase the number of slots without an equal corresponding increase in speed/talent among the athletes it just means slower people will get slots when compared to previous years//

Yes math is math. So if you have a lot more men already in the race(who have already qualified through the normal more men slots than women) then how do you propose to even that out? The math says that you have to give "more" slots to women for awhile, until the math has reached parity. And once again, you have not diluted the race for the podium spots, just made it harder to get 50th place in the AG's.


There has to be a year in here that evens out the women numbers to the men, and it appears that this is the transitional year to do that. Last year was just a trial with the old qualifying system, and we saw that they had to add many men AG's to the womens day to make it work. Going forward after this year, you will get your parity of spots for men and women at all the races, but you have to do this one time more women slots to get there. That's the math anyway as I can see it, what am I missing??


And I wasn't commenting on if it is a bad or good thing, just an observation of what they are trying to accomplish here..

Like I said in my post. All they need to do is have equal slot allocations for men and women at each race and magically the problem is solved in one year. They're not doing that though. They're throwing extra slots at certain races to smooth out the numbers. Not sure why they don't just have an even split. I guess the numbers might shake out the same at the end of the day.

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