Not some April Fools joke - although some may think/believe that, but the ITU was formally founded on April 1, twenty years ago today!! Go figure!
Some great video highlights at the following link featuring some regular ST posters( Simon Lessing) and heros( Steve King)!
Loved it. Anyone who says that ITU racing isn’t exciting should get their heads examined. Beats watching an IM race any day of the week.
That final scene still chokes me up.
ITU certainly puts out better video’s. Not sure that in person, they are that much different.
A cool & interesting retrospective…brought back memories of '90 for me at the Mouse House. I’m sure the hatas are going to ask “are there 20 years of ITU highlights”?. They’ve missed the boat…
Hard to believe that there are only a 138 views of this thread so far. Thats the least views of any thread on the first page.
Unfortunately that really demonstrates how ironman centric ST and North America in general is. People should really pay more attention to ITU and realize how exciting it is.
Karen Smyers doesn’t seem to age.
Love those sprint finishes…
"really demonstrates how ironman centric ST and North America in general is. "
You’ve noticed eh?
Better to do a 17 hr IM than a 2 hr Oly. At least then you can get a tattoo. 
The ITU being born, or more specifically the birth of long term dictator Les McDonald were dark days in history and can only be called lo-lights.
Canada is a great place. I lived there for 25 years. But they have a lot to answer for, with the whole Les McDonald debacle. That c*ck makes me look like a fine upstanding citizen and that ain’t easy to do!
Top 3 Lo-lights
The ITU being born, or more specifically the birth of long term dictator Les McDonald were dark days in history and can only be called lo-lights.
Canada is a great place. I lived there for 25 years. But they have a lot to answer for, with the whole Les McDonald debacle. That c*ck makes me look like a fine upstanding citizen and that ain’t easy to do!
Top 3 Lo-lights
Two points in defence:
Les had the Police, and race security chase me around the '96 world champs in Cleveland, for exercising my public rights, displaying a banner that I copied from fellow Canadian Peter Reid, saying
“drafting It sUcks”
I managed to get away in the crowd (helps that I’m short!) and managed to display the same banner at several ITU races internationally and several IM races too (just to remind the athletes) but it was stolen from the side of the road a few years ago at IMNZ. I had tons of supportive spectators congratulate me on the banner and had heaps of people take my picture with it too. In all the years I showed it, I’d say I got less than 1% negative comments (and many of them were from drafting triathletes who wouldn’t have won anything if it wasn’t for drafting on the bike)
I might have to make another sign!
Les was/is a DICK and one kind deed doesn’t make up for all the terrible things he’s done for triathlon or the deomcratic process the ITU supposedly is founded on. I have nothing but disdain for the man.
He did drive the sport into the olympics, if they had not gone down the draft legal format it is debatbale if Triathalon would have ever made the olympics. Being an olympic sport has certainly improved the level of support and sponsorship for many pros, at least those in Europe and to a certain extent Australia.
In terms of a tv audience I don’t know if triathalon will ever really appeal to the masses but a 1 hour ITU race package is much more watchable than the horrendous annual kona coverage. If IM was covered live all day its debatable whether anyone outside of the tri community would watch it. Outside of kona the best rarely compete against the best in races so non-kona races are a non event as far as TV goes.
In ITU races the fields are very tight with the best of the best racing most of the time. The ITU product is watched by non tri people and has done a lot for where the sport is today. The dissapointing element of the ITU racing is the bike leg, although you can’t really say that the bike leg of an IM is hugely exciting to watch and anyhow drafting in IM is fast becoming the norm, how many lead groups and people riding togeher do we need to hear about in the commentary of pro races and in age group IM racing it is the norm.
Les may not have pleased everybody but he made the sport relevant to more than the die hard IM crowd
Fleck - thanks for putting that up. A great psych-session and a nice reminder of some of the greats we haven’t seen in years.
Ian
Canada is a great place. I lived there for 25 years. But they have a lot to answer for, with the whole Les McDonald debacle. That c*ck makes me look like a fine upstanding citizen and that ain’t easy to do!
So one guy is a dick in your eyes and now we all have to answer for him? Cripes, if that is case the US if f#$ked what with having a dictator in office the past 8 years.
Mike, here is the problem.
ITU is a different sport from what age groupers practice. That’s why the majority on ST care more about Ironman or NFL than ITU cause at least many of us have played football as we have played Ironman…very few have ever done a draft legal race, so we actually have little appreciation for “what that sport” feel like. I can watch an NFL game and watch a receiver jump up and get hit and feel it in my bones. I can appreciate what the legs feel like 20 miles into the run after riding 112 miles with my head down.
I have no clue what it feels like to ride yo-yo redline in a tight pack for an hour trying to conserve enough legs to run close to my flat out 10K speed. Part of the attraction of the ITU world’s up and including the 1994 WC’s in New Zealand was that the age groupers did the same race as the pros on the same day…you could see the pro times and your own and compare. Now it is irrelevent, which is why pretty well no one cares about the ITU age group worlds…they’d rather go to Clear/draftwater (rightly or wrongly).
Dev
Good comments on the differences between the ITU draft legal aspects vs. age-grouper practice. Don’t know if I totally agree that no one cares about the ITU Worlds, though. If you look at the rosters of those who are going to this year’s races in Australia, there’s a few hundred on the lists and some pretty fast age-groupers signed up. Given the state of the economy and the cost of travel, that seems to be pretty good support.
AWESOME. Thanks, Fleck. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again - I LOVE ITU RACING!!!
which is why pretty well no one cares about the ITU age group worlds…they’d rather go to Clear/draftwater (rightly or wrongly).
(AG) ITU Worlds is the fastest of the rich… Qualifying just isn’t that hard, but going is expensive as hell. Some might argue the same about Kona, but I think qualifying for Kona is harder that the sorry effort I put out last August. 
I like the ITU format. I’ve had the opportunity to watch an ITU draft-legal pro race and it was exciting. The ITU guys and girls are fast, drafting or not.
You hit the nail on the head with that one.
I remember years ago (1995ish), back when the ITU was debating what to do, that in athlete surveys, virtually all triathletes wanted NO drafting (96% NO was the lowest number I saw)
I raced one ITU race in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania in ‘94. That was the last season that drafting was banned in ITU races and I *think *it was also the last year AGer’s raced at the same time as the pros. Not long after that, AGers’ weren’t even racing on the same courses on the same weekend with the pros.
LES pushed through the draft legal rule because he (almost alone) thought it would make for more exciting racing and that would make it easier to get into the Olympics. I used to watch triathlon on TV back then (if/when it was available) and it was exciting enough. I watched Kona when it’s on TV and it too is exciting enough. I have even watched some recent ITU races on TV and they are no more or less exciting.
I don’t watch it for any other reason than to see the Kiwi athletes. They are the only ones I know these days. They are all nameless faceless athletes as far as I can tell. (What ever happened to Jimmy Riccatello and others…like Chuckie V? You know, athletes with flair and personality) It’s all so manufactured like pop music or reality TV. I saw Luke Dragstra from Canada, racing the other day (he won the Auckland 1/2 IM) and he has some flair. He’s a cool duuuuuude, and recently bleached the sides of his hair blonde, leaving a visual Mohawk, darker in the middle. THAT is a bit interesting at least. I can’t imagin an ITU athlete doing that.
IM racing is where it’s at, because it is a lot more real. The best athlete wins because they do it (arguably) on their own (at least to a much greater extent than the ITU racing). To me, ITU racing doesn’t even count as triathlon. Hell, they ride road bikes and many don’t even have tri bars or shorty bars! Why would you need aero bars in a bunch ride? FKn ITU, makes me sick! I need a drink!