When you get done diversifying triathlon, are you going to turn your attention to the NBA?

Find a more worthwhile cause.

As an African-American triathlete...I always get curious stares at events....I have one other friend who does tri experiences the same thing....there aren't that many of us but the number is growing....it will just be slow....there a bunch of economic and cultural factors that contribute to that. Just my two cents.

---

"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

Thanks for asking.


Be ready for the guys saying "I don't see race" as if that's a virtue.


And ones who start talking about basketball.


These seem inevitable in discussions of race in predominantly white sports.

---

http://www.jt10000.com/

If only there was a way to ensure that triathlons were not the domain of rich white folks..
.

Oh wait a minute...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw5YV7_NCLs
(just one of so many races in Thailand)

If second and third world countries have a thriving triathlon scene then maybe,just maybe the diversity/race issue in the USA and Canada isn't actually an issue at all but as Dev has pointed out,"a choice".

Great video.

I think those economic factors are huge. Triathlons diversity problem seems to be more income driven than race driven. Avg. Household income for USAT members was 2.5X the national average (~$130k/yr). Per super reliable wikipedia sources, African American household income only averages $38k. That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for such an expensive sport. Bridging that income inequality gap is a whole different topic, but it seems obvious that a high cost activity is going to only appeal to certain groups (sailing, golf, horseback riding, etc. all fall into a similar bucket...)

Not a lot and it's something we are actively working on promoting for next year with our races. We have a few people from underrepresented classes in our local community and going to get together this offseason to see if they have any ideas on how we can draw more people from different backgrounds to the sport. Why are there so few? What is holding people back? What can we do to help?

I'm curious if anyone has had any success? If so, how did you attract them to the sport?

I assume when we are talking diversity we are primarily talking about the color of a person's skin. Our races are closing in on 50/50 men/women so gender isn't much of an issue anymore. Another group I would really like to target are the obese people sitting at home on their couch. I truly believe that endurance sports saved my life and I want to reach out and help other people come to the same realization.

I'm Hispanic and have never felt that. Then again, perhaps I "blend in" better. I recall a statistic that minority children are more likely to drown than non-minority children. My best guess is that minority children have lesser access to pools and far lesser access to swimming lessons. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a negative correlation between triathlon participation, a usually costly hobby, and minorities.

I live in a very diverse city with an active triathlon community. The population of my city is approximately 50% African-American. I know maybe a handful of non-white triathletes. With the exception of a close friend who completed one sprint, I do not know a single black female triathlete. I know they exist. I certainly have shared the race course with them. But do I think the sport is lacking in diversity? Absolutely I do. I actually do spend considerable time and resources encouraging more people to enter the sport, but there is a lot of work to be done. I think the money is a major barrier. I think a barrier for women in general is that they are often working and taking on a lot of the emotional and domestic labor of the household. I think this can be even more true for women of color. I try to help people interested in triathlon and encourage them by making it clear that they do not need fancy equipment to participate. However, swimming is a more expensive sport and access to a pool, or possibly swim lessons because people did not learn how to swim as a child, is are things that require time and money. I know I'm being anecdotal here, but I also think the statistics speak for themselves. I think we can all be trying to do a little better in encouraging people of all colors, body-types, and backgrounds to participate in the sport. I think throwing our hands up and saying "that's just how it is and I've seen a black person at an Ironman so there's not a problem" is not the way to go.

 

---

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

Maybe IM is leading the way as far as diversity in tris, at least in Ohio. I don't doubt that there were white, black, asian, hispanic, men, women, young, old, thin, fit and fat participants, which is good to see, but I've done a lot of tris in Ohio, and have yet to see what I would describe as an incredible amount of diversity.

Why is this considered to be an issue? Are blacks being prevented from competing? No. Are the ones that do compete treated poorly by all those "privileged whites"? No. Diversity in itself is neither good nor bad. Having more athletes of a particular race will not make triathlon any better or worse. Ita just more nuerotic hand wringing by white liberals.

It's an issue when you are trying to market to the widest audience possible but your result show zero minorities in a country of minorities

agree - definitely see mostly white, but in ny (where I first started training/racing) i've seen a growing latino population. have not seen many black athletes on the race course, and hope in the near future we can attract more color to our sport

Far too narrow of a definition. It's not just about race. It's gender, age, ethnicity, "disabilites" & so forth.

---

#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

What country are you referring to? This is about USAT. Wouldn't it be better to market to everyone, not a particular race. The U.S. being a melting pot and all.

So I classify as Latino (in the US), although I've noticed that the classification can mean different things to different people. Sometimes I blend in, sometimes I don't. Sometimes people make comments or ask questions that are honestly a bit awkward, To me it's as simple as just enjoying the activity and being a part of it. It's good to know though that there are crusaders out there who will fix the problem.

Anyone seen a female Race Director?
How about a non-White Race Director?

Just watched a video recap of 2013 Ironman World Championship. Every single athlete in the video is White.

......
The most high profile celebrity of the 2013 Ironman Hawaii race was this guy.He covers the Asians and the Africans and the Americans. Legend! :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHs8-7nrHpA

Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ph-0QEuyz8

Episode 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cUCFr8cFKk

You can find the other 11 episodes on YouTube..

Oh and as you asked here is an edit to bring you up to speed on the history of the women who were around at the beginning of what is now the modern Ironman series..
http://www.shygiants.com/

And Ironman has done its part to showcase black athletes. See https://m.ironman.com/...-nashville-trio.aspx

The trio did Kona together. I don’t think they qualified and it seems unlikely all three got in via a drawing/lottery. I’m guessing it was [̲̅$̲̅(̲̅5̲̅)̲̅$̲̅] privilege that secured their Kona slots, but that’s just a guess.

For what it’s worth, I met these guys at Ironman Florida. They were super-friendly and sat in the VIP section at the athlete dinner.

Come to think of it, the princes of Bahrain, Sheiks Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa and Mohammed Bin Salman Al Khalifa, are also “people of color” who sat in the VIP section at Ironman Florida. They arrived via their private 747. Do they count towards diversity? See https://www.wjhg.com/...ition-229985011.html

Colorblind is not the answer. Except in casual racist bingo.

k

Sometimes colorblind is the answer. Here's my input for you.

Back in 2013, I participated in a race Max Fennell was in. Everyone probably knows Max became the first African American pro in 2014. I've never met him and, since I only started tri in 2011, I had no idea who any of the players were. I couldn't even name a Kona winner back then.

Anyway, I really, really sucked at swimming and this race was a self-seeded ocean swim that started from a beach entry. Of course, Max went off with the studs in the first group and I put myself way in the back, maybe about 300 people deep. Since it was a sprint, we could watch the entire swim course and I was still 200 people deep waiting to start when the leaders were coming out of the water. Those guys tore that swim up.

As I watched in awe of the swimmers running up the beach to transition, Max exited the water. I can't remember his exact position but he had to be top-5. As each swimmer ran past me, I imagined what the rest of their race would be like, who among these studs was going to win, and how amazing it must be to be that fast.

As Max ran past me, the announcer said, "And there's Max Fennell. He's attempting to become the first African American to earn his pro card! In that moment, because I was told to not be colorblind, I didn't see Max as a potential race winner or an amazing athlete.

I saw a black guy. Just a plain old black guy.

As I said, I don't know Max. I rooted for him that day and have followed his career. I also started watching the Million Dollar Mile because he was on it.

I don't do those things because he's African American. I do it because I think he's a beast of an athlete and I feel a connection to an amazing triathlete I brushed shoulders with...just like I root for Joe Malloy (met at another Tri), and Tim/Rinny (met at a Challenge race), and Ben Hoffman (met at Eagleman).

I am colorblind to race. You can make fun of me, call me privileged, and say I'm playing racist bingo. But, the sad part of this is that whenever I see Max, I now think, "There's a black guy".

The guy is 1000 times the athlete I am.

He's 1000 times the triathlete I am.

And he's still a black guy first to me now.

I hate that, but it's what society wants.

This will be my second comment (and then I may leave this subject alone since I see its going down the drain), economics play a role for sure. There is also is 'if you see one others will come'. The amount of African-American golfers that started playing golf due to to Tiger Woods was clear, just as the amount of young black kids in the US in particular playing tennis who cite Serena and Venus as role models. When I was growing up there were the traditional sports that we heard of and the sports described in the black community as 'white sports' (tennis at the time, swimming, skiing etc.). Tiger Woods changed some of the perception with golf but some of it is strictly cultural. If you have a few successful black athletes in triathlon that will attract more. Everywhere I went as a young teen playing tennis...everyone called me Arthur Ashe (no one bothered to really remember my name) and I have been following tennis since then. I follow track and field called athletics here in Europe)..why because its a huge sport in my parents home country (Jamaica) and I did it as a kid. If you can get some young African-American kids into the sport then you will see more in the future (of course having a competitive athlete on the world stage would help matters along). Another issue I see with triathlon (at least in the US) is that the infrastructure for people to participate at a young age is lacking. I compare it to Germany where they Bundesliga triathlon and lots of club support from a young age and you can see the results of this at the elite level. Thats my additional two cents (or Euro cents/pence/kroener).

---

"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

Another issue I see with triathlon (at least in the US) is that the infrastructure for people to participate at a young age is lacking. I compare it to Germany where they Bundesliga triathlon and lots of club support from a young age and you can see the results of this at the elite level. Thats my additional two cents (or Euro cents/pence/kroener).

-----

That's changing as more and more youth specific races are popping up. Just today USAT had their Junior Elite Nationals, and tomorrow youth nationals with a total of ~1000 under 19 ages racing triathlon.

The US has likely as strong of a junior program as any other country in the world- the issue from an bridge to elites is that in the US those top junior triathletes then leave the sport for single sport scholarships.


Of note Hampton University a "HBCU" has picked up NCAA triathlon as a sport.

---

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