No other major sports tries to hold an event with 4500 amateurs at the same time and event lol. If they would have held the WC of just pro's its doable, its everyone else that poses the problem.

This is the position I'm in, more or less. I signed up for a spring race to qualify for Kona (not a race I particularly wanted to do, but the odds are in my favor for a KQ). Now I don't know if the race will have the same slot allocation or if it's even worth racing it. That said, with the new news it will likely roll pretty deep.

Any idea if they'll re-roll prior races? I doubt they would, but with all of the deferral to Kona in '24 it seems like they would have a bunch of slots to move around. I was 1 spot out of a KQ last fall and it would open up more options if I rolled into a '23 slot for a prior race.

Cough... London Marathon 45,000 competitors... Cough...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63102270.amp

Cough cough

The 2020 London Marathon was the 40th running of the annual marathon race in London, United Kingdom, which took place on 4 October 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race was postponed from 26 April and only allowed elite participants; the mass participation event was cancelled. The event used a different course from usual, consisting of multiple laps around St James's Park.

The posters point was in reference to COVID challenges...we have had 2 WC in both IM and 70.3. Had we hosted only the elites, then we would have been able to run the WC somewhere...

I don't give a rats ass about any of this... But, the memes will be horrendous!

You said "No other major sports tries to hold an event with 4500 amateurs at the same time and event lol"

London as an example does 10 times that amount....your point makes zero sense.

i respect your opinion on this, but i think there are other ways to see this.

1. on the women's issue, i think IM's position then was defensible. one might disagree - and many did - but it was defensible. women's slots, pro and AG, were awarded based on the number of women entering and competing. to add slots for women pros was, again, a defensible position, but not the only reasonable position. giving all the women their own day is terrific, and it's not inconsistent with the position IM took back then. i might not have agreed 100 percent with IM's position back then, but i didn't find their reasoning immoral or unfair.

2. i don't know, but i think it's likely IM had a deal with kona on 2 days for 2023, and that just fell apart after the impact on the city was assessed after the 2022 IM week. if you have some inside knowledge that there was NOT a deal for 2 days in 2023, i stand corrected. do you have such knowledge? if not, then i think it's not correct to state that "clearly the community had not signed off" on a multi-year deal.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

In fairness I think given the comparative costs of getting a brand presence to Kona vs. Nice (or wherever else the event may end up), you’ll need to give it a couple of years before making a judgement.

If sponsors follow the men regardless of location, it’s not a good look. Whereas if they choose to focus on the more accessible location then it can’t be seen as gender-driven

if this ends up being in Nice, and it's a multi-year deal, the big year will be the 2nd year. i don't think very many people have really thought through the optics of a women's only WC, pro and AG, in europe. upwards of 3000 women. it's not that this many women haven't raced in the same place at the same time. it's that this many women have never raced as the only gender, in a WC, same money as the male athletes, same number of qualifying athletes, and in europe. esp southern europe, where the percentage of women participating in the IM are way lower than in, say, the UK or countries on other continents. if this story is really told, properly, this is going to be a title IX moment for europe and it could well be that the sponsors and industry see this as a much bigger deal than they will for the men's version. this could also be huge for triathlon because it will be noticed that triathlon did this first, before any other sport. i wouldn't be surprised if this places pressure on other sports, notably athletics, esp in the marathon.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

And having Chelsea Sodaro proving Mom's can race the distance and kick ass is perfect timing for all of the marketing. Could very well bring in a LOT more women to the sport with the additional slots. Needs to be well thought out and have the right voices... Key there is womens voices celebrating this decision.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I don't really care much for the impact on age-group qualification and participation (even though I acknowledge many others here do and they have debated that already in this thread).

My interest is in the ELITE races, and today's news may have some interesting ramifications on the elite races especially on the men's side.

Jan Frodeno: he doesn't have many occasions left to leave his mark. My opinion is he will show up as this may be his last dance, even though he's been on record as saying he doesn't think the Nice course suits him and his bigger frame (I disagree, I think he could do great as he's long and lean, not just raw power).

Kristian Blummenfeldt: this made his plans much easier. He can now fully focus on a repeat Olympic title in Paris. Won't be in Nice (date may clash with Grand Final, may be very close). If he shows up, he won't have much/any specific preparation.

Gustav Iden: he already was on record as being on the fence whether he does Kona next near or not. But now this takes place on arguable a course that suits him even way better than Kona. I think he shows up even without much specific preparation.

Javier Gomez and Alistair Brownlee: they're licking their chops at this news.

Lionel Sanders and Sam Long: they better do many more of those MtLemmon (or whatever it's called) climbs in preparation for next year's Worlds. Not sure this course suits Sanders best though. It may be irrelevant anyway unless he drastically improves his swim.

Sam Laidlow: I think neither good or bad for him. Gets to race close to home with public support. Some other French elites who top ten'ed at Kona this year are potential monsters on a bike course like Nice (Mignon and ??forgot his name).

German and Danish uber bikers: probably not best for them.

Ben Kanute: could really ace his first IM WC with this course change. So could Rudy VonBerg (remember 70.3 Worlds in Nice?).

What else?

Oh and Cam Wurf may enjoy riding the Nice bike course. Cycling season (especially if he does some 1-week early season stage races with mountain stages) could be great preparation for a course like this one.

Not to mention that the most dominant triathlete of the 90's at his peak raced Mark Allen in Nice for an epic battle. I don't believe this gentleman ever raced in Hawaii.

He did once but DNFed if I recall.

Total bullshit. I’m pissed.
Just screw the history.
Idiots.

I find it super disingenuous for IM to wrap themselves in the cloak of gender equality as a means of justifying this course of events.

#1 — it’s all about the money for them

#2 — they did have hundreds of male athletes dirty by sitting on this.

#3 — they screwed up in their fundamental job of managing the relationship with a municipality

I do!

And you still can. Every other year.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

Cool no one cares about nice history mate it’s not that intersting or exciting lol give it up. Everyone remembers the kona battles though ;)

Kona mayor on record as of 10/10/22 saying there was no deal yet

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/...an-not-set-in-stone/

Indeed. He raced in 2018 and put 11min into Van Lierde. If I recall it was in the middle of the cycling season so the run fell apart a bit

This. I understand those who already can be upset. But the race is not moving out of Kona. If all you care about is Kona then try to qualify every other year. The fields are doubling pretty much so the odds are the same.

Why does this make this an easy decision for Blu *not* to do it, because it's not "kona"?

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Stop talking for everyone. You’re some special type of wombat aren’t you. Mate.

Right. If Ironman had just been forthright throughout this all, I think people would still be disappointed, but perhaps less angry. If they had just said, “We don’t know yet where the 2023 WC are going to be as we need to see how things go in October,” then at least people would have known where things stood and held off on making travel plans and the like. Instead, they handed out slots for two days of racing in Kona in 2023 even as they knew they didn’t have a firm confirmation that was going to be possible. That feels dishonest and disingenuous. Good opportunity for PTO to step in with a good age group experience in a cool location.