It's an Olympics thing, same thing in track and field, max 3/country to have a broader field and more countries involved. This used to be most significantly obvious in the steeplechase where there were years where 15 of the top 16 in the world were Kenyan, but only 3 could go to the Olympics. This is why in many cases, you have stronger fields in Diamond League or WTCS races, because the caps per nation are higher...

In general, for most countries, there's a churn with top Jr./U23 athletes getting chewed up, and few realizing the same success at the top level. Canada has had a number of promising athletes come through the Jr/U23 ranks, and then have very short stints at the top level, often due to injuries. I think in general there's great coaching in Canada, but the challenge tends to be access to funding to continue. So often there's a lot of pressure to perform in that first year or two in the Sr ranks in order to show podium potential in order to gain access to support, otherwise they tend to move to long course or leave the sport all together.

He posted he will intend to be competitive for the MTR, not for the individual race...anyhow, I think it is a bit crazy. I have no idea if he is putting himself in risk but even he is being monitored, I would pick the 2nd guy of the relay among other fellowcountrymen...not possible to be fit in such a short time after the surgery...

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

New bit of controversy, Tokyo Olympic Games result will contribute to the WTCS rankings...



Source: https://www.triathlon.org/..._750000_rising_to_1m

That's interesting.
Will they also count for ITU points? Or just for the series?

New bit of controversy, Tokyo Olympic Games result will contribute to the WTCS rankings..//

Somehow doesn't seem fair that the highest ranking American and I believe 4th overall in the world, has no chance at getting any points at this race. And if I'm not mistaken, this will also affect some big payouts at the end of the year too. I wonder if there might be some sort of lawsuit here, something along the right to work or something like that?

Agreed.
Currently the #2, 3, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17 women for the year will not be in the race.

And it's a significant purse (For an Elite triathlete) paid out for the top 20 spots.

Ya, I cannot fathom that the big brains that came up with this let's give the olympics mucho points, thought about all those that you just listed. All of them will fall quite a ways being that they cannot defend their positions. And if you are top 5, you certainly had a shot at some big money, now you will get passed by a bunch of ladies that will push you down to the crap money that barley pays expenses...

The World Series should be determined by actual racing, and not through an invite only one day race...

On the same track Is that after the grand final the rest of this year's races count for 2022 season. This really stuffs up those athletes from countries that have strict border restrictions. Imagine being an Aus athlete, had to miss 2020, most 2021 and now there are 3 or so races in 2021 that count for the points of 2022. So 3 seasons of income stuffed up. 2022 season shouldn't start until 2022 when hope fully more of the world is vaccinated and travel is a little more equal.

It is a hog wash this year.

Some athletes were banned from competing in Leeds due to issues around visa’s and ITU not sorting it out.

Some are not going to be able to go to either of the two races in Canada as NGBs are refusing to pay the $5k cost per athlete.

Olympics being included is just wrong.

I wonder what the thinking is. Are they trying to provide incentive to those outside the medals to race hard?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

This is a great point in light of the individual/MTR debacle.

This was actually announced a while go and I think it is more to do with the fact there would only be 3 races prior to the Grand final due to all the events postponed. The announcement was definitely some time before teams were announced and world tri would have assumed all the really top ranked athletes, in position for the big money, would have been competing at the olympics, then things happened to change that.

Traditionally the olympics impact ITU ranking and points, but not the WTS rankings. That said, it's not given a premium amount of points so it could effectively be a non-selected athlete's dropped event, and not penalize them (but they do lose the ability to discard a shitty race. That said, the problem is that it's best 3, plus the Grand Final that determines the overall ranking and final prize purse, and given that there are only 3 WTCS races, the OG and then the Grand Final, it puts anyone not selected to the OG at a significant disadvantage. the easy fix is to change the ranking to best two, plus the grand final. Then if they want to leave in the OG at level points with other WTCS races, then it's a relatively level playing field. As it stands right now, a few people are getting the major shaft, since they lose their ability to throwaway a bad race (although as it stands it will probably drive a full start list for Montreal, despite being right on the heels of the OG, if people want a shot at the end of season payouts...).

As of last check, Montreal is still a go at the Grand Quai course, rather than on the race track (where they had talked about moving it last year), meaning downtown, possibly some cobbles, and a fun as hell course for both the individual race and the MTR. The race track is fun, but downtown is way more exciting and technical, it's also a great venue in general...

Just to throw an idea out there how to solve the relay bullshit and get more athletes in the event. Yes, I know IOC doesn't want more people, but humor me!

1st Weekend: MTR
Mid-Week the First Week: 2x Sprint Distance Semi-Finals (55 in each race, Top-25 move to Finals)
2nd Weekend: Olympic Distance Final

This would be like having a 100m dash to qualify for the 400m finals.

Following the WTS now is like solving a puzzle...
So for 2021..what are the events that count for the championship? Actually I have zero interest in this 2021 as I had last year in that one single event

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

[Edit: others have said] they're trying to put pressure on athletes to put pressure on national federations to let them compete in the individual Olympic race and not sandbag?
Of course it's bullcrap, you're not supposed to be put at a disadvantage in a world championship because you're from the wrong country and you didn't make the Olympics. I mean you can COVIDwise, but not by governing body fiat. World Triathlon is making athletes pay for its mistakes.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

The 2021 series rankings are based on Yokohama, Leeds, Tokyo, Montreal and the Grand Final in Edmonton. Hamburg, Bermuda and Abu Dhabi will all count towards 2022. At least this year it's a series of races, rather than a single race worlds, where a number of countries couldn't compete (either due to travel restrictions or insurance, since World Tri has a rule that requires the NF's to have insurance for anyone racing, which was really expensive and hard to get in some countries last year due to COVID).

That said there are two sides to the debate about the Olympics being in the series rankings. As Sophie Coldwell, Spivey and others have pointed out, there's the flaw that not everyone gets to race the olympics (although not everyone gets to race WTCS races either, there are caps on numbers, but the nation quotas are larger, and it's based on rankings at the time, rather than discretionary selection by NFs). The flip side is that with so few races in the year, you want your biggest races to count towards the series... A lot of the problem goes away if you go best 3/5 total, or best 2+Grand Final, since that gives those who missed olympic selection a chance to either miss a race, or discard a bad one, which the current 3+Grand Final model doesn't for anyone not in Tokyo...

Early start lists for Montreal are up, currently showing 54 in both the men's and women's fields and 9 countries for the MTR. If memory serves the cap for Montreal is 60 instead of 55, since with the heats and eliminator finals format, you do two heats of 30, with a two heat repechage to select your 30 finalists for the day 2 eliminator. Most of the prominent non-selected folks are there, along with the usual suspects. You also have some of the folks who tend to be more sporadic on the WTCS starts, but that tend to feature in Super League on the start list too, which isn't surprising given the format, and being a month out from the Superleague championship series start.

As for alternate olympic formats. the idea of sprint/super sprint qualifiers for an olympic distance finals doesn't really make sense, but is an interesting approach to a flat number of athletes in the village... It also operates on the flawed assumption that the IOC is ok with 55 for the whole games as opposed to 55 for a week, which the current format allows for. The real solution (probably 2028 at the earliest) is to add a medal event, sprint or super sprint (or possibly eliminator). Then you could do event 1 either OD or SS heats and finals, then a few days later run the MTR and then a few days or a week later run the other one, that way you have the distinct skillsets there, countries can draw from either pool for the MTR in the middle, but that way they can select their best SS athletes for that race, their best OD athletes for that race, and the best from either set for the MTR. Some people might race all 3, but others might only race 1 individual race or the other. With that format, you could make it mandatory that to be relay eligible you must start one race or the other. That wouldn't completely prevent shaftings, because that will always happen if there's any discretion in selections, but at least you decrease the motivation for the federations to do that.

Did anyone catch the Superleague Short Chute podcast, they talked about the selection issue, and how predictable this was, and how people warned World Tri about this 3 years ago (they also seemed to have a flawed understanding of the rules for using the reserves in the relay implying that some countries are bringing two reserves for each sex, and might use the 4 reserves for the relay, that said, I can't actually find any documented rules where you could make that substitution after the individual race, all I can find is that they can swap in a reserve up to 48hrs before the individual event). What they missed in all of this was the reason why federations are doing this, and that has less to do with the rules, and more to do with funding, and what are their best odds within the rules (i.e. what scenario or team composition sets them up best for a shot at a good placing to ensure that they place high enough to secure funding for the next Quadrennial). Unless the olympic selection rules mandate that selection to the OG is purely by rankings, for some of the strong nations you'll still have these shenanigans. And we know that the federations would fight world tri tooth and nail to prevent making it purely rankings based, since they want to be able to select from a reasonable pool to maximize their chances at a result.

But anyways, we're less than 2 weeks out from the Individual races at the OG, will be some exciting racing for sure!

I watched the short chute podcast and i didnt get why they said s.coldwell is likely to be in.the MTR...as far as i know the MTR teams are conformed with the guys and girls of the individual race, right? so....if someone gets injured..can that team substitute? cause i see two situations
1. they can fake an injury post race
2. teams with 3 spots in the individual race have to substitute with the remaining one? e.g USA picks Zaferes and Knibb....Zaferes gets injured..is mandatory that Rappaport gets in or they can choose a reserve, lets say Kasper ?

was funny to see their predictions
Macca: Spirig - Myslawchuck -France
Tim Don: Duffy - Yee - France
Annie Emerson: Kingma- Blummenfelt-UK

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

In absence of findable rules, it's a bit of a mystery. My understanding is that the reserves cannot be used for the relay (i.e. Macca's assumption is flawed), unless they are subbed in for one of the quota athletes. The only rule I could find on this is that subs from the reserves can be made up to 48hrs before the individual race. In terms of subs for the relay, there's nothing that I could find that provides for subs after the individual races (although someone in this thread implied that injuries needed to be verified by 3 doctors for subs to be made between the individual race and the relay, but I haven't been able to verify that yet).

Their predictions were interesting, I hope that Macca's right, as a Canadian, I am hoping he does well...

We'll see if any subs for the quota spots (aka individual spots) materialize, as athletes finish their prep and arrive in Japan (see if there are VISA issues or COVID related issues, or injuries). So far I haven't seen any swapping into the start lists yet, but I suspect that would be closer to the games.

Also, if you want a good laugh, check out Chelsea Burns' video on Life goals with Jo Brown and Flora Duffy (on her IG)...

I believe the 10 teams that qualified can use reserves but the teams that are racing due to having athletes qualified will have to use the 4 athletes from the individual race.

Where did you see this? That would make some doubtful selections (NZ not taking Sam Ward, Switzerland not taking Briffod) even worse!

Non Stanford has told me she'll stay on at Oly distance and not move up to 70.3, quite surprised, be interesting to see what the rest of her year will look like.

Not too surprised by this. Non is not the prototypical triathlete that I think would transition best from short to long course. Her strengths are more suited to short course draft-legal events. Gotta up her game in the swim though.

As the days go by I am thinking Tyler has a good shot (small guy, won the test event, good in heat) It is the new version of Schoeman with a killer run... the only issue with him might be the swim...see if the french smash it in that boiling water cause it can cause serious damage...the top swimmers should be
Luis, Bergere, Connix, Schoeman, Schomburg, JB, Royle, Van Riel...and then maybe Gomez, Pearson and Hauser....One of the aussies will wait for Birtwistle but Luis, Schomburg, JB and Van Riel are top bikers....we´ll see if there is some gap and the battle Norwegians+NZ+Spaniards aginst the front pack if it exists...

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P