Good time to revisit what finisher numbers at local triathlons are at thus far in the 2018 season....What are you seeing for finisher numbers at your local triathlon race scene?

Here in Minnesota, after many races going away, the numbers at the remaining ones are flat to declining with a very few exceptions....its gotten pretty concerning. Some of the current races have gotten numbers that make you wonder if the people putting them on will call it a day.

How do you feel about kids doing individual sports like running? Not everyone is an extrovert, just like we all have the option (I would assume) to do beer-league kickball or flag football or whatever, but we've gravitated towards an individual sport. I don't want to do a team sport now and I didn't when I was younger.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Children need human interaction. Adults is a bit different. Isolation, even for a child that may be an introvert isn't good their overarching development.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Your missing the whole value flying mounts and dismounts provide. They are the best thing for kids at that age because of the balance and coordination skills it develops which would see huge crossover in all Other sports. Bike handling skills are of huge value in coordination and balance skills. Those should be the utmost importance over training for kids.
Those are very low impact on kids and provide the biggest value overall as an athlete.....I tell my youth parents one thing....”please don’t call your kid an triathlete....they are an athlete” and tri skills can transition over to many ball sports with improved coordination and balance and grasping technical awarenesss.

I’d be more afraid of kids taking about their “tri training schedule” a hell of a lot more than bring pissed at seeing kids doing technical skills. Getting on and off bike is hugely beneficial for kids and it’s fun, much more than going to go run for 2 miles or whatever endurance run distance.

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

Time to check in to see where we are at with Triathlon participation.....

What did you see in your area....

• declining finishing numbers again this year?
• stable?
• increasing numbers in some events?

Here in Minnesota (without looking at all the races finishing numbers) it seemed some were up an some were down but overall I think it stabilized. Unfortunately the stabilizing came from the reduction of events and this year 4 races already stated they will not be coming back as a RD/even producer retires .....

....which might be good overall with the remaining events hopefully seeing some numbers increase as people move to the events that are left.

There are still a healthy number of events and enough choice to have a healthy decent local scene but its a far cry from where we were in 2011-12 after major growth.

subjectively, Triathlon has lost its buzz.....not the thing people are talking about or curious about but I think we will hang in there from here at this level.

One note I've seen going forward in 2019, one prominent race production company here in NC is creating "Super League" style events that feature instead of 1 straight S-B-R. It will now be time trial S, time trial B, time trial R with rest breaks in between. So they are atleast trying new things. Whether it catches on or not, but they are seeing that people are kinda tired of the same sprint at the same location for the last 13 years and are bringing "fresh" formats to it's series.

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

Mostly stable with signs of increasing activity. Tampa Bay picked up a new competitive open water series (3x with 1.2 or 2.4 mile options). March 2019 is seeing a new Biathlon on the schedule. Clearwater KLR tri club is sending more people to Ironman Ireland in June 2019 than any other club in the world. Clermont is launching a new triathlon club on 1 Jan 2019.

Things are in quite good shape here in southern Ontario, Canada. We have plenty of options available with 2 solid series where you can find races every 1-2 weeks throughout the summer months (June-Sept).

I collected the stats over a 15-year period for the Guelph Triathlon weekend, a popular event that has been running on the same site since the mid-80's. Displayed are the number of participants for Try-A-Tri, Sprint & Olympic triathlons.

If you have trouble viewing the image, a bigger version is available here.

Over the 15-year span, this race averaged 1300 participants each weekend: 351 in the Try-A-Tri, 530 in the Sprint, 419 in the Olympic. The same weekend offers sprint & Olympic duathlons, relay team events, and a swim-bike since 2010 but I didn't track those numbers.

A few quick observations/stats:
- highest numbers were recorded in 2010 and 2011. 2017 was a down year but this year rebounded.
- lowest number of Olympic-distance competitors was recorded in 2006 and 2008
- in 2015-2017, the Olympic triathlon was an official Ironman 5150 race. It changed back to a regular "Olympic-distance" race in 2018.
- 5 years between 2004-2008 totalled 6226, 5 years between 2009-2013 totalled 7118, the last 5 years totalled 6160.

@Kid

ETA: I should have some printed hardcopy race reports going back as far as 1991 - the 1st time I raced in Guelph. One day when I feel ambitious, I will pull these out of the attic to compare to this century's statistics.

Sounds interesting! Link?

Sounds fun! Link? Man, I need to get back out to Lucky's....

https://www.setupevents.com/nc-tri

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

Based on fit clients coming through, it seems like things are picking up a bit. That, and Trek had a very good year.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

https://sandkeyows.racehawk.com/


Also, check out the events on https://www.leobriceno.com/events-shop/ If you've never swum the Rainbow River then you have missed one of the most outstanding OWS opportunities in Florida. We typically do the 3.6 mile length. With the current it is effectively an IM swim.

I would imagine an expensive sport like triathlon would roughly mirror the economy.

"subjectively, Triathlon has lost its buzz.....not the thing people are talking about or curious about but I think we will hang in there from here at this level. "



I agree whole heartedly. There was a boom and the message was TRIATHLON IS FOR EVERYONE come join us. Perhaps now that many people have tried it and they realized, it wasn't for everyone?

My personal belief is it will hang in there from here at this level. As events terminate it may increase the numbers in the remaining events to healthy levels.

Maybe it was synthetically/force inflated to numbers that were not sustainable? Get any monster corporate sponsor to drop millions into adults on kids-tricycles racing and you'll grow it at least short term. I remember the Los Angeles triathlon in 2004-2010 was so serious with all the heavy hitting pros. Lifetime and Accenter put in gobs of money, 20 guys in corporate logos walking around with laptops/interviewing the pros post race - gosh I felt like I was IN the Olympics every time I did that race. But of course, they were dumping heaps of money into it to do that... The race is 4 years deceased now.

Just when you think you've got your formula something new gets peoples attention instead. There was another thread I posted on in April I stated that here in southern California even just driving around and/or at the gym (2006-2010) I would see more USA triathlon stickers or triathlete license plate frames, people in my gym wearing shirts from local triathlons. At my local YMCA there was a banner outside next to the running trail for their triathlon club from 2010-2013. Long gone...….

Now on cars the stickers are CrossFit/Spartan Race/CrossFit/Spartan Race/CrossFit/Spartan Race/CrossFit/Spartan Race t-shirts - can't escape it.

Come to think of it, about the time the YMCA triathlon group went kaput they put in a massive military obstacle course outside facility, they just took it down 5 months ago. But much like triathlon, they dumped money into it, MILITARY GROUP STYLE WORKOUTS ARE FOR EVERYONE - uh no they are not. All it takes is Frank from accounting to break his neck scaling the wall or 45 year old Suzi to go the ER after doing her 80th pushup, the liability was to high.

It will be interesting to see where triathlon will settle.

I always think race setups like the ft desoto triathlon series are good setups if it can be arranged and sustainable longer term as I'm guessing less costly to run. no traffic control needed. plenty of parking to available at race site. Race entirely within the park. sure the distances for sprint/international are slightly shorter than typical but it's a great setup. Charleston, SC has a nice sprint series similar to that with it being mostly within a park. I enjoy the longer distance triathlons but local sprint races are nice and hopefully more sustainable. the longer races just have so much cost overhead that when participant numbers dwindle they can't keep their heads above water

Yes, Fort DeSoto is nearly the perfect location. But it can get old after time. I've penciled in two races there for 2019; that's about all I can take of the same-old, same-old. If I wasn't able to travel to experience new venues, I would already be out of triathlon.

definitely. I always need to try out different races. Probably why I'm also doing a lot more gravel bike races. I just needed something different. I have a handful of the same races that I like to do every year and then like to find a bunch I haven't done.

Los Angeles has a new triathlon: https://www.herbalife24tri.la

It’s only $200 for the sprint tri. Should be interesting to see the turnout for this cause it looks to be a pretty large undertaking with split transitions and some corporate backing. I can’t imagine how many intersections they need to close to get the bikes from Venice Beach to DTLA. I didn’t see that they required the USA triathlon license and the funniest thing I noticed in the rules: NO WETSUITS ALLOWED.

What would be the expected turnout for an event like this?

I paid $180 on a black friday special for a 2019 sprint series (3 races). Unless $200 is common for a sprint tri in LA, I would think the turnout was limited, even more so for the wetsuit prohibition (I guess they don't want to transport everyone's suits to downtown?). But OTOH, perhaps the novelty of the point to point race will attract a bunch of people. If they do it right, then it should survive. If it's a shit show, then it won't last.

I think its a generational thing. Millennials and generation behind them are just not that interested in sports overall. In my state where Football is king there are schools that have switched to 8v8 player format because they can't get enough kids to play and that includes girls now.

ESPN viewership is down, mainstream sports viewership and participation is down, so its no surprise that triathlons are down too. I'm starting to think sports in the US peaked with Gen X'ers who are now in their 50's and are in the their prime of their careers passing the torch to the generations that follow but those generations don't seem interested.

I just asked about this...being from LA, even in the summer we surf in wetsuits...wtf is this no-wetsuit rule?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Did they in the 1960s and prior?

Well, I wouldn't know or care what they did in the 60s. I care about now.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Concur-- they're smoking a joint if they think many people are gonna get in 65 degree water sans wetsuit!