Rappstar wrote:
Landyachtz wrote:
So I think you've said before that your plan was to come in to the 30th anniversary of IMC as the defending champ. Is that still your plan regardless of what happens at ITU LD worlds and IMAZ? At what point are you going to shift focus to Kona and what do you feel you need to improve on to get to a point where you feel like you can compete for the win there?
Second question: does your cadence on the bike vary depending on what distance you're racing? Do you think its a result of your rowing career that you prefer a lower cadence? Or is that just a function of the distance?
Congrats again on the win. I'll be up at the turnaround at IMAZ cheering you on in November.I think it is, though I'm trying not to focus too much on next year since I still have some big goals for this year. In my most ideal world, I'll *NEVER* have to shift my focus to Kona. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't race Kona, or even make it a priority, but I believe that the singular focus of this sport on a single race that is controlled by a for-profit entity that makes decisions based on that status is a bad thing. In other words, WTC could decide to do basically *anything* with that race, and no one could say anything.
Look at this way - the only race that really, really allows to "make it" as a long course triathlete is a race, late in the year, in relatively hot relatively humid conditions, that's relatively flat and relatively windy, with an ocean swim, etc. What I mean is that it NEVER changes. I can think of several corollaries in other sports - The Masters, which is always played at Augusta. Or the Daytona or Indy 500 or Le Mans in auto racing. Or Wimbledon/US Open/French Open in tennis. But in every other case where there is a single event that is of significance, it is neither the overall championship (in the case of NASCAR, Daytona is one of the first races of the year, and has no special impact on who wins the overall series) nor is it the only "championship" (such as with golf with the four Majors or tennis with the Grand Slams).
Simply put, I think the way our sport exists currently, with ALL roads leading to Kona is a very, very bad thing. I would be unhappy if I never raced Kona. However, I would not at all be unhappy if I never raced The Ironman World Championships in Kona. In other words, I think that WTC should make Kona the equivalent of the Daytona 500, and that the World Championships should be held, sometimes in Kona, sometimes in Frankfurt, sometimes in Canada, etc. Or they should make it like Wimbledon, with equal calibre races at Germany and some other locations, and perhaps not necessarily have a "World Champion" for pros.
Right now, if you win Kona, you get huge media attention. But if you finish 2nd or 3rd, you basically get nothing. You might get some attention if people think you have a good chance of winning the next year, such as Andreas Raelert, but look at Cameron Brown, who's been on the podium four times. He's finished 2nd twice and 3rd twice. But, especially in 2005 when he finished 2nd, I think he got very little exposure from that. And I think it's because people didn't seem to have the same sense that they do with Andreas Raelert that it was "inevitable" that Cameron would win.
Simply put, WTC has far too much control over the trajectory of a successful long course pro career. And I do not like that, in large part because they haven't necessarily shown that they make decisions with very much regard for how that influence affects pro athletes. Obviously, the ITU also makes drastic decisions - such as the shift to the WCS system - that can have huge impacts as well, but in that case, you have a IGB, that must respond to NGB, etc. There's a formal and normal and logical way to protest and address changes, etc. In other words, there's a system in place with some checks and balances.
None of this exists with WTC. WTC decided to drop the number of pro slots to 50 men and 30 women this year. There was some very minimal "discussion" (and I use the term loosely) about this, but basically, they decided that this was the way it was going to be and that was that. That same sort of decision couldn't happen with something like the ITU. National Federations would protest. And they have leverage. I have zero leverage.
Right now, everyone complains about this, but in the end, the best athletes all go race Kona. But what it they didn't? What if Crowie and Raelert and Lieto and Vanhoenaker all decided to work with Felix Walschoffer and to all race Challenge Roth. And to NOT race Kona? Sure, Kona still have the right to be called the World Championship, but tell me who you think the best athlete in the world would be? Many folks say, for example, that ITU LD World's is not a meaningful World Championship because the best long distance athletes don't race it. But whose fault is that? Some if it falls on the ITU, for not making it a race of significance. But some of it falls on the athletes for not making a race of significance.
Dan and I had a conversation along these lines a while back. He wrote something to me that I hadn't considered really. He said that Kona is the birthplace of this sport, and that WTC wasn't just the owners of that race, they were STEWARDS of it. And that, as stewards, they had an obligation to leave it better off than they found it. And I think that's true. And I don't necessarily think they've done a good job of that. However, I also think that, as a person who makes his living as a result of this sport, I *also* have an obligation to leave this sport better than I found it. And I don't believe that just putting that typical focus on Kona is doing a good job there either. I think Challenge is leaving this sport better than they found it. I think Rev3 is doing the same. I think Lifetime Fitness is as well. And I think WTC has the most enormous ability to do so if they choose to.
But in my ideal world, I'd like to see this sport - for pros - grow beyond a single race on the Big Island in October. And if I can facilitate that in some small way, I'd like to do so.
I'm sure that was more than you wanted, but it's something that is particularly important to me.
."
Jordan, Tim Carlson, Dan, the three of you need to work together to take this content from this post and convert it into a front page article. Please don't let this well thought out response sit in the forum where only a few hundred people will read it (
) buried in a thread about IMC. When you put this on your front page, it will not just be read there, but also pushed out on your newsletter. I really don't think that most involved in the sport are thinking about "how to leave the sport better than they found it" and that message deserves to be more widely disseminated than just here on this thread. Please consider this request.