A few weeks ago the IM Maastricht slot allocation wasn't as bad as this, but it still rolled down well past 10th place in some AGs with only two slots available. Given the financial commitment as well as the short turn around for the WC I fully understand the limited interest. Those who really wanted to go would have chosen an earlier IM.

For these late races (say 10 weeks out?) it would be great if you have the option of choosing either this year or next year's IM WC.

Pre-pandemic, how did it usually work at those late cycle European races?

No different to the 70.3 WCs really. A mate 'qualified' for St G a few weeks back in 16th place in his AG, if you were at the roll down you got a slot, they couldn't give away slots for the female AGers. I've skipped the roll downs at a couple of races in the past few months and its gone way past my place. Bothered? Not really but just don't tell me you 'qualified' just go and enjoy paying another $500 to race with people who finished 23rd in their AG.

I wonder if Kona is more of a North American triathlon obsession and with all these European folks having access to so many great races in their backyard, maybe they are less and less motivated to undertake such an expensive and long trip?

Gotta remember up until a few weeks ago it was late season so they were handing out the last 70.3/Kona spots and a lot of people probably had already qualified/made their travel/race plans for the fall.

It's all about the $$$ for IM. They don't care how far the slots roll down if someone is there to swipe their credit card. Yeah it becomes maybe a little muddied if someone is claiming they qualified if it rolled down to a point where they basically asked if anybody wants to go. But that doesn't bother me. Fields are plenty stacked at Worlds. Go race if you get the opportunity. But, even with that said, I don't know why they don't cap things at some point or email people. It's, again, all about the $$$. Harder to go person by person & spend the time getting them to commit to Worlds versus having somebody who finished a little further down swipe their credit card on the spot. IM should spend some time trying to figure out how to drive more people to awards/roll down. They don't even notify you that you've gotten on an AG podium. I can see newer athletes not knowing to stay if they were close to the podium but just off it.

At later season races, they should message the top-20 (?) in each AG explaining the roll down process & that a lot of athletes probably already have slots.

Nah Kona is still the thing to do for triathletes in eu too.

Almost no roll downs in CPH the year I did it 2017. It is 100% due to the.much higher price to get.there and accomodation issue currently happening.
I would probably pay just because I could but where do most normal people find 8-10k dollars in such short time?

I don't think you "find" it. You either have it or you don't.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

True and most people either don't or value using those money better elsewhere.

Speaking from Europe…

First, Kona is still a big thing in Europe, really. You have many other great races like Roth, Lanzarote, Norseman etc. but Kona is recognized as #1, no doubts.

Second, what’s “8-10k” for you in US, it’s more like “25-30k” for me/us (+1) in Europe.
- Realistically, I can’t go for 1 week only. It’s a too long journey with too much of a time difference to go for 1 week only. Calculate at least 2 weeks. I’m not counting it into the cost, but consider the fact that I’d also need 1 more week of (work) vacation days, which, if you don’t have for free, is an opportunity cost.
- Flight is probably 1k more only (Europe <-> US). It can be booked cheaper, but not 1-2 months in advance.
- Health insurance is an additional cost, we don’t have US coverage. I’m however lucky I have a worldwide work-provided accident (not health) insurance, but not everyone has it.

Third, some Europe countries’ citizens still need a US visa. Not so easy to apply for on a short notice.

Fourth, I’ve learned it all myself 2 weeks ago. Being all relatively new to the triathlon, I’ve recently happily managed #4 in my AG, where 5 slots were allocated. I tell myself, that I’ve really earned it - no roll down for me. But I rejected it anyway because of the tremendous cost and short term hassle. I had around 20h to make my mind and after checking Kona accommodation only (no food) for 1200 USD/day on average (600 USD/day in Waikaloa) I said “no”. It’s too much now. However, if it rolls down to me in the future, I’ll take the slot with no shame.

Thanks for explaining.
All of it makes sense, hope you get to go at some point in the future without such costs/hassle!

Being at Kona as an American qualifier and meeting all the Europeans was humbling. They had to achieve formidable times to qualify and really elevated the prestige of the whole affair. This damn thing has been so devalued by IM.

There’s a different thread to be written (re-written) about how awful IM has been as stewards of the sport’s premier WC event

Hello, from Spain (still Europe :P)

I totally agree with you. Some added points:
- I raced in Vichy 70.3 last weekend, where I have taken the slot for IM 70.3 WC in Finland, not many roll down (in my AG 3 slots, I took the last being 4th)... the interest for IM WC 2023 was also much higher (few roll down) than in CPH.. it is clear 1 year in advance.


I would like to know why the hell IM Vichy (France) 21th August was an IM 2023 Qualifier event.. but IM Kalmar (Sweden) and IM Copenhagen (Denmark) 20th / 21th August (i.e. same weekend) were IM 2022 Qualifier events.

Ironman knows that the interest in Kona in a race only 6 weeks before IM WC will be low, very low. And you could find 75 slots in CPH. Woow.

I participated in IM Copenhagen in both pre-pandemic 2019 and then in 2021.

As far as I can remember, in 2019 there was not that much of a rolldown: in my AG the last qualifier had time around 8:54; the biggest rolldown was in M40-44 where the last qualifier was around 19th with the time in 9:50sh.

In 2021, still COVID-ish year, there was a bigger rolldown than in 2019 but nothing even close to 2022. In my AG, the slots came to 10-11th place. But before the ceremony, it was clearly stated that well, we're still in COVID era and there is no guarantee that the event will happen on the date; if it does not, you'll be able to return around $100 out of $1200 you suppose to pay for the slot if you decide to cancel. Many participants decided not to risk that day.

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Слава Україні 🇺🇦✊

This pretty much sums it up. Don't forget the car hire - that is even more astronomical than the hotel costs right now. You can legitimately turn up and buy a decent second-hand car there for less than car rental that week at the moment.

I have a friend who has been to Kona several times and was excited to qualify again this year after the pandemic. However, he turned down his slot - he just cannot justify the expense as he has a family to consider. He could afford to go - but that meant sacrificing his family holiday abroad next year. No way he could afford to take them all to Kona this year - and it sounds like he would have struggled to get them all in the same hotel at any cost.

Ironman have really put the spanner in for a lot of people with their 2 day event. I think the Island tourist board is happy to be able to sell the hotels and car rentals at silly prices because they lost so much during the pandemic. It does leave a sour taste through.

It really is time to consider rotating the WC to other venues around the world in my opinion.

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

In 2019 CPH had 40 slots
In 2022 CPH had 75 slots

Imagine what will happen now with the 2023 women slots...

IM Copenhagen, IM Kalmar and IM MT will all be ca. 6-8 weeks before the 2023 Kona. They will all have 55 slots + 100 slots for women only. That makes it around 115 slots for women each IM. Even if they cover around 30 podium finishers (which I assume would be there at the ceremony), that still leaves it 85 short to be distributed to the audience. I can't imagine it to be successful in that form...

Agreed. Also, is there any reason to believe these costs are an anomaly as it relates to Kona? Seems like it’s a combination of the event being two days and the now pervasive general inflation. Neither of these are changing, for next year anyway. International athletes have it especially bad because the dollar has been so strong.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I ignored that CPH had slots for 2022 (in 6 weeks).. what a waste. It’s already hard enough to qualify for Kona in European races, IM should not waste slots like that.

Sidenote: Ivan, you might owe me a beer as I turned down my 70.3 slot in Vichy last weekend in M40-44 from 2nd ;)

nice to meet you!

I wish we have the opportunity to race together soon, and be sure, I will pay the beer!

This is right.

I do think women deserve more attention and slots, but wonder if there will just be too many. This, practically any woman who finished a race would qualify now. What's the value in that? Are women to men proportional 50/50 at every race?

I'm thinking about racing Portugal which has 2023 qualifiers, do people think the Rolldown will be the same as now or 2023 far out enough that qualifiers would take the slots?

Thanks!

So can anyone actually confirm that only 6-8 people took a slot or did they get all 75 over the line?
I'm sure some got one without knowing the cost of going to hawaii :D

I started doing Ironmans in 2016. Been 4th, 8th, 5th, 3rd in my AG (F45-49). Never got a slot or roll down. I did Copenhagen in 2018 where there were well over 2K athletes (maybe closer to 3K?) and just 40 slots and not a ton of roll downs. None in my AG where I got 5th. There was only 1 slot for us F45-49 women. The European women are mighty and so impressive. But I was fine with this and inspired to do better the following year where I got 3rd in my AG in IM Whistler. Again just one slot for my AG and no rolldowns. When I did IMMT, my first Ironman in 2016 there were close to 90 women who finished on a very bad weather day. I was 4th. There were 2 slots and no rolldowns. Again 40 slots for 2-3K athletes. Not complaining, just stating my experience as someone who has been trying to get to Kona but just not quite there yet.

This past weekend in IMMT there were less than 1000 finishers and 75 slots. Women who placed 5th with 30-40 finishers got a slot. Men who got 10th received slots. I'm not saying this is right or wrong. But it's not consistent. For women it feels like it's a feast or famine right now. I want to do a certain IM this fall but it doesn't have 100 extra slots for women. It has a large field, so I don't understand why it doesn't get any extra slots (I do think 100 is too much for one race). I would be thrilled with 10-20 for the women. What's my point? It's all about picking the right race that is going to have a ton of slots.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about all this. I want to qualify but not because there were 100 extra slots for us.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I totally understand your frustration and agree that 100 EXTRA slots for any race is too many. I understand the idea behind it, but that's just too many. I've been where you were, twice between 2017 and 2019 came in third in my age group, 2 slots, no roll downs. And this was 35-39 and 40-44 so not an age group, so lots of athletes. I did Ironman Ireland this year and had seen before going that next year there will be 100 extra slots for that race. I didn't really think about it that much until I was out on the run course and had the realization that hardly any of the other competitors I was seeing on the course were women. I'm a strong swimmer/cyclist so I don't think about this much until later in the run on a multi-loop course but on a 4-loop run you see a lot of people. Late in the race I would count 20 men before I'd see a single woman out there. I saw later that out of roughly 1000 finishers something like 120 were women. If this year that race had that extra 100 slots there would have been enough for almost every single woman who did the race. Maybe next year it will be different and their incentive will work, but that does seem like a bit much. 25, to me, seems like a better number. Spread out across multiple races, still at least somewhat challenging to attain but feels a bit more reasonable after so many years of the women usually getting, at best, 2 slots in an age group.

Also going to add that I did qualify again finally, not in Ireland but another race, winning my age group. I'm happy to be going but also given the current state of things and the cost and the added hassle of so many added athletes and the difficulty of finding anywhere convenient or reasonable to stay I'm not sure it will be a goal to qualify again anytime in the near future. I can plan some other trips to some different cool destinations and probably spend a third of the amount of money. Also didn't the fee for next year's Kona already go up ANOTHER $200 compared to this year? Or was it $300? It definitely makes me sad that they really are reaching a price point where it becomes not worth it.