Actually, draft legal is how local triathlons started, and is the original traditional US form of triathlons. Triathlon was a combination of three sports, and drafting was part of cycling. Then along came Trifed, and turned into a TT, and the sport has never been the same. Few folks remember how popular triathlon was back in the 80’s. There were more triathlons than 5k’s. In our area, Trifed and drafting killed it, and it’s never really recovered. Looking at it from the beginning, non drafting is what never really caught on.

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Athlinks / Strava

USAT generally doesn’t want to sanction/encourage draft legal races not only for liability but novice racers wouldn’t be able to pull it off at all which would be a massive deterrent to entry. As far as the 80s go I believe trifled said no drafting as early as 1982. I remember winning triathlons (non-sanctioned) where drafting was legal with my racing buddies and other competitors were mad because we had drafted (legally). Two or three good riders working together could smoke everyone else. I really don’t think when TriFed banned drafting that hurt the sport at all Triathlon just goes in cycles and for a while it did seem like there was every YMCA And Kiwanis club having their own triathlon. Hell as late as 2012 we had a triathlon that was sponsored by a local tavern in my part of the country, no USAT affiliation at all. However I think more than anything liability got to these races not the drafting. Over time races had to be sanctioned and insured, ultimately by USAT which morphed the sport as we know it today.

I’d be nice if Dan could chime in with his thoughts and a bit of a history lesson here.

How old are you? There are a number of edr races, clermont, cohasset, tritonman, for example if you're 28 or under. Most of those races also have an age group draft legal option as well

Nope, I got to live it. Tri's were the rage in the early 80's, every Y branch had one, the bike stores had them, the swim club had one, small town rec centers had them, and even the university had one. Drafting wasn't even an issue, those who could did, and those who couldn't didn't. Trifed didn't infiltrate our area until 86, and suddenly we had to have bike inspections, no drafting, buy the race insurance, and entry fees doubled or more over night. The small races started dropping like flies, and by 89, the sport was dead in our city. We didn't get it back until 2002, and by then all the past folks had grown old and forgot about it, and it was something totally new, and a totally new generation of folks revived it. It's never been nearly as popular, and the races only draw a fraction of entrants we used to see, but at least it's back, and still going. It looked like things were really taking off in the early 20-teens, but stated dropping off again, in the last couple years. We lost one of our most popular local races last year due to permit$, but another one jump in to take its place... but then corona came along... who knows what happens next.

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Athlinks / Strava

I can't comment at all about what was going on in the 80's cuz I didn't get into triathlon until 2003. In the 80's I was still a speed skater.

Around me there is a race (of varying quality) within driving distance just about every weekend between May and October. Often times there are two races put on by different companies.

I certainly wish there was a draft legal race(s) around me. I thought there was going to be when Sommers brought it (EDR) to Detroit in 2014 but then they wouldn't let and AG's race it the second year which didn't make sense if they were trying to grow the discipline. If they want Juniors to get into it they could have catered to their parents at the same time. I mean seriously, at $80 each they could have made another $2000 and it literally took no more than 90 minutes to run a second race.

They completely blew that opportunity.

Rev3 tried it in 2014 and 2015, I did their super-sprints in 2015 and had a blast. I made a few more friends and got to see many young kids getting to the sport.

Why DL hasn't made it in the US is still beyond my understanding. It's an untapped market.

Been in the sport since 1982.
You & I have VERY different memories of that time...

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#swimmingmatters
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The Doctor (#12)

I'm 33 :(

I wouldn't care if I had to line up with elites either. I'm a former bike racer, so I'm no stranger to hide speeds at a close distance

Not sure I ever understood that argument, how is it any more dangerous than a cat 5 crit for example? I am new to IM racing, recently I started an IM where the the swim got cancelled, so we had a TT bike start. Since I signed up last minute, I was way at the back, so had the wonderful experience of passing literally hundreds if not thousands of middle of the pack to back of the pack groupers. As far as I am concerned, very few were keeping the draft legal distance. It felt like an endless streams of groups. To me that seemed more dangerous than a draft legal race as many were riding in packs on TT bikes. It was very frustrating having to pass, as there was not a lot space, and many were riding in groups of as many four wide.

If you can run, Draft Legal Duathlon Nations. If you can swim fast, there is a Draft Legal Tri. You can get into the EDR races if you have a very strong swim or run.

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USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

How good of a swimmer are you? Doesnt matter how fast you can bike if you're out of the race out of the water. For reference, over 750m, edr men are swimming between 9 and 10 minutes and elite men swim between 8 and 9 minutes at these races

What's EDR? I'm not familiar with it

Elite Development Race

Normally younger, very fast racers.

DL Nationals are in Tempe in mid-November.

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#swimmingmatters
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The Doctor (#12)

This only applies to racing in elite races. In ITU age group races, the level differs a lot, so it's not like at the elite level where if you get dropped you are basically out of the race. The couple of of draft legal races I did were great fun even though I am primarily a runner.

I ain't old enough to remember the 80s, but this is like when old boys in the rugby club try to tell us that Rugby was bigger in the 80s than it is today. Some really bad war story. If every bike store had them and every rec center had them the sport would be significantly larger in this country than it is today.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Based on the amount of complaining I've seen on this forum, even if not "draft legal", there are many "draft tolerated" events. I think this is very common in the large 70.3s, so there should be plenty of opportunities for you to compete.

I would love to see more draft legal racing. Love, love, love it. USAT is dropping the ball IMO. It's part of getting kids on bikes and all that.

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There is a reason why it all died. But not sure why. Maybe the novelty wore off. Maybe piling on a bunch of rules, eliminating drafting, forcing folks to buy insurance, and jacking entry fees up had something to do with it. My first tri cost $8 to enter. There was a boat out in the middle of the lake we swam out to and around and back. The guy in the boat wrote down numbers so we didn't cheat. The waiver on our entry form was enough, and they didn't have to have a team of life guards on paddle boards. There was no product support or advertising on the bike course, and we all carried whatever we though we would need. There was only water on the run course. Anyone with a pool or a lake, and a big enough field or parking lot for transition, could put one on. It wasn't until Bud Lite, and Trifed came to town, and tried turning all our small local events, into profit making small versions of the Ironman we all watched on TV, that things started shrinking and finally just fading away. In my circle of friends, the biggest gripe (other than $$$) was how much the races sucked without drafting. I've never seen it like it was then. Its certainly not the same event. There was a time in the 90's where I lost touch, didn't follow any of it, and honestly didn't even think or know if the sport still existed, other than the occasional mentions of Kona on TV.

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Athlinks / Strava

The max age for the EDRs run by Streamline (Clermont, Cohasset) is 30. It says U-25 Elite Developmental (which just means the top 3 earn the right to apply for their pro license), but there are usually at least 5 athletes over 25 in each race, you just have to contact Bill (the RD) before registering to get the okay.
HOWEVER, the lap out rule does apply. At the Clermont EDR this year there were men who got lapped out on both days, even some who had a sub 12:00 swim. Here's the link for results. There IS an age group DL race in Clermont, but it's on Saturday afternoon and the EDR races are both Saturday and Sunday morning. A lot of athletes do both EDR races. There is NO lap out rule in the age group race.
At Age Group DL Nationals there is also no lap out rule, and that race is going to be in Tempe in the middle of November, held in conjunction with NCAA nationals. Top 10 in each age group at AG DL nats qualify for Team USA for DL Worlds the following year.

how to get DL:
1) dont get insurance with USAT. you get nothing really with them. i dont care for rankings. they dont certify courses even. RD's need to go with some other insurance agency (probably whatever tough mudder used?)
2) since triathlon has this "all inclusive" pitch going around.... people are going to whine when they get lapped on draft legal course and DQ from the race. perhaps get rid of the DQ rule?

Eh, this is AG we are talking about, there's no reason to DQ them as long as they aren't getting in the way of the front of the race. They do it that way in cyclocross and it works perfectly fine. People police themselves at cross races pretty well in my experience.

Tri-Fed turned races into profit making endeavors? Once again, we have VERY different experiences in this sport. Do you blame USA Track & Field or RRCA for the increase in entry fees for running events? You've obviously got some gripe with the NGB.

Part of the reason races went draft illegal was liability concerns. No insurance company is going to cover 2000 triathletes on aero-bars going draft legal. That became the default setting for U.S. triathletes. When ITU changed the rules at the elite level Americans balked. It took years for us to catch up with the rest of the world.

Lamenting about $8 entry fees & simplistic race logistics is at best nostalgia and at its worst is revisionist history. Gas used to be 75 cents a gallon & the minimum wage was $3/hr. What's your point.

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#swimmingmatters
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The Doctor (#12)

Exactly... this falls into the same category as "the older I get, the better I used to be"