If your credit card was issued from a bank where you have a checking account, you probably can get the reimbursement.

more importantly...whats Lionel going to do now?

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Even if all accounts are closed they can mail a check. It can still be a big pain, though. Ironman was giving me a refund and I asked for options. My card was no longer active, I had no accounts at that bank anymore, and I moved to another country. So I can't go to the bank and if they mail it to my last address, I won't get it and USPS doesn't forward internationally. Basically the response from Ironman was "Ok we processed the refund to that card." Ok, thanks...

Horrible!! A lot of people probably have non-refundable airline tickets.

I see, thankfully I still have a checking account in that bank , otherwise i would have to choose the remaining 2 options , so at the end you lost your entry fee ?

thats right and not only airline tickets , accomodations also , this is one of the best races in the world according an 2019 Ironman survey and also one of the longest running events within the franchise so its really a shame

Hahaha jokes aside one of the main reasons I choose Ironman Pucon 70.3 was because Lionel Sanders did it on 2019 and was going again in 2020 so I was hopping to get the chance to meet him (selfie included of course)

What was the reason for cancellation?

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That's the million dollar question . Currently there are two tales for the same story . One says it's cancelled for security reasons ( Chile has been under heavy social protests since October ) but this particular reason has its caveats , although the protests have been nation wide , the really heavy and scary stuff happens mostly entirely in the Capital Santiago, PUCON is almost 500 miles away from there and is mostly a tourist destination. The other apparent reason for its cancellation is that the TV company in charge of the broadcasting said it would not broadcast the race this year due to the reason explained before; thus , sponsors , brands , etc , pulled off from the race altogether, in summary, the revenue-investment ratio wasn't attractive enough and no one wanted to lose money

Which one is true we will never know unless some slowtwicher out there related with the organization can clear this stuff for us

And of course they don't care about the athletes themselves losing money, or the hotels and local shops losing out on business now.

Having just returned from Chile for the Patagonman Xtri in Coyhaique I can understand if the decision was due to the protests and demonstrations taking place. The domestic football (soccer) season was recently cancelled as was the Chilean round of the 2020 world rally championship. Even where we were in Aysen, the only region not to be covered by the state of emergency and some 1600 km from Santiago, there were nightly protests, and the centre of town had lots of boarded up store windows and a considerable amount of anti-state graffiti. The majority of demonstrations were good natured (mainly tyre burning and the blocking of intersections) but on our final night there the stone throwing started and the police deployed water cannon and tear gas. None of this should turn anyone off from going to Chile - it really is a wonderful country with an amazing people and I would personally feel more threatened by the gilets jaunes in Paris - but, again, I can understand if the decision to cancel Pucon was due to the protests and demonstrations taking place and would recommend heightened awareness as a tourist.

Not going to lie people is outraged and the town itself has been negated from its biggest event in the whole year obviously impacting all the tourism income , as for the athletes , well , they have been voicing their thoughts on social media , I have came across several comments on Instagram that are pretty heavy

This is interesting , why Patagonman Xtri decided to keep going and run the event ???
Since you mention that there were minor protest throughout your stay let's assume that in Pucon is the same as Coyhaique , why Ironman decided not to run the event in the same exact conditions as Patagonman Xtri decided to Go Forward and run their event ???

I can only think it is proximity (or lack thereof) and that Coyhaique is not, as you suggest, the same.

Aysen is a world away from Santiago. As I mentioned, we were informed it was the only region that was not under the state of emergency.

If Ironman had the event in Coyhaique and cancelled it or Patagonman was in Pucon and it went ahead you would definitely have a right to feel aggrieved. Unfortunately the two are so far apart it would be wrong to compare them.

I see your point , in my humble opinion Pucon being 500 miles ( 800 kms) away from Santiago is a world apart in itself as well as Coyhaique.

Chile has quite a unique Geography, 4300 kms long (north to south) and 180 kms wide avg , the south is more mellow and laid back than the North and The capital (central region) . Chile it's like 3 countries in one

Thinking more about this, the size and nature of the 70.3 might also be part of the issue. Xtri is small at the best of times and very local in its operation.

Patagonman had only 189 starters. The organising team is less than ten people who are connected to the region and committed to helping its development. The race has to be heavily coordinated with the Chilean Navy as they run the swim start and determine which course option is safe due to the currents.

The 70.3, by contrast, with its international brand, thousands of participants and closer proximity to Santiago might be more likely to attract protests and demonstrations. I am not saying this is the reason for the cancellation. I also feel for you since none of this really helps you get what you want which is to race. But it may be part of the issue.

We did this race in 2017 and would recommend it. One of the issues could be Santiago has the only international airport in the country.

I thought the same but here's the catch , on November 23-24, right in the apex of the protests in Santiago, the ITU held the "2019 Santiago CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon American Cup and Iberoamerican Championships" .

For me That's more risky

No, Bank of America has the money still. I just have to get it mailed to a US address when I'm there, or maybe I could pick it up at a branch. Just a major pain and not something I want to be doing on vacation.

I feel your pain , at least is there waiting for you to pick it up

Yeah the Pucón cancellation is a bummer. I was planning to race there for the third time and obviously it´s a shame that the event had to be cancelled. For me it will be a refund. 70.3 Pucón is the largest tri in Chile and a big engine for the local economy so I am sure the decision has been carefully pondered taking into account every consequence. Having said that I am not surprised, most public events in Chile have been cancelled due to social unrest in the last month or so, and this is the third local race that I had in my calendar to be postponed so far (it also included GFNY Chile in Casablanca and the Trek-Subaru Challenge nearby Santiago). On a positive note, things are getting quieter and a few triathlons have been raced last week uneventfully, but the situation is not normal yet. Many different views have been expressed on the social media regarding the decision, some of them pretty harsh (including from Barbara Riveros, the local triathlon star). But IMHO the race director faced a tough decision and it is hard to blame him for erring on the side of caution when it comes to the safety of thousands of triathletes and their belongings. I am sure the Patagonman organizers had to make difficult choices too, but thankfully the race format, location and size made it possible to race sucessfully.

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You can understand that a decision needs to be taken, but I feel that IM could do a lot more for the participants. Local organizations have to pay IM to hold a race under their name, but if something out of their control like this happens IM does not do much back for those organizations. Getting money back for the race entry is one (big) thing, but IM obviously knows (with all their surveys) that people travel to these destinations with extra people, arranging stays, etc... Getting a refund for those things is probably impossible at this point.

There would be revenue loss for sure, but isn't this what being under the umbrella of a larger organization is for? Some kind of insurance that an event would go on, compared to smaller events being less certain. The larger company could help with providing options to the people being victim of this situation (both the local organizers and the participants).

It's not a single issue I've noticed recently. They moved the pro race in South America from Argentina to Cozumel for some financial bureaucratic issue. You'd think with only pro's impacted that's not a big deal, but they also have to book tickets and stays. It makes a bit of a mess that IM with their larger presence should be able to find a better solution for.

I saw a video of IM Marrakech a few days ago. Not a race I'm likely to sign up for seeing that it looked like they just rode through a city with full-on traffic (including hose carriage crossing the street in front of athletes). So to me it looks quite "easy" to take over a race as IM but not having to deal with the real issues, or be able to just say that's a local issue.

Yes, very fair point. I did not mention travel because I indeed planned to drive there, and just lost the air BnB reservation fee. Anybody knows whether credit card or travel jnsurance policies could apply yo cover plane ticket losses in a force majeur like this one?

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