The chart shows that AZ has 24 sanctioned events, not 8. That said, triathlon is on its death bed in Phoenix. Only one race director left and handful of events, mostly in pools.
I hope the 3 year deal i got for USAT membership at black friday doesnt go down the drain if there is a split or non-sanctioning.
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What, you think a race needs USAT for insurance? To give their data away free to USAT? Lot of iinsurance companies are out there for equal if not better insurance.
Give me one, just one example of USAT “trying” to be more focused on Age group athletes!! Been in this sport for over 20 years, and I have basically never seen anything.
They talk about but they offer rankings. It has been a joke for some many years I do not have enough fingers to count.
Again, show me ANYTHING USAT has done, or IS doing to help Age groupers. I am pretty tuned in and I am aware of zero! They are really good at attacking others.
Did I read the data correctly, you get 200 and say this is a sell out?
USAT is a bizarre thing. I get it that triathlon events are different than a road running race, but when I enter a local 10k, half marathon etc I don’t get the hard sell for a year membership to USATF.
That said, the fact that USAT is so closely plugged into race entry fees should be a strength for the sport, instead of a graft opportunity for people getting paid to look important and feel important.
USAT should be using it’s resources to help make it easier to setup a race. I’m not sure what that looks like, but do they have a complete guide to creating your own race, with all the steps, etc. All the documentation you’d need to give for permitting, all the organization you’d need for volunteers, etc. (I’m assuming they have something general, but I mean a specific business plan template like a franchise can use to duplicate the process)
I could even imagine a website portal they provide to race directors to organize their race. They could (should?) disrupt the timing chip business to make that easier for events.
I think instead USAT appears to have been captured by the high level group think happening in a lot of governmental and non governmental organizations that focusing on diversity is worth putting money into. At the end of the day, as long as we aren’t actively discriminating through our events there’s not a whole lot that can be done on that front with a small organization with limited resources. USAT can’t be used to right all the actual and perceived societal ills.**
But they can make it easier to put on races, which will benefit all people, including the dispossessed.
** now maybe their diversity efforts were successful if they got various organizations to donate big money to check some boxes, but the end goal can’t just be doing diversity outreach to get more money to fund diversity outreach if they aren’t spending all that time helping race directors instead.
They’ve really put a focus on growing the sport with youth and junior members, through subsidized memberships, reducing barriers to sanctioning and streamlining athlete membership through race registration, and promoting youth and junior events.
We’ve still opted not to use USAT sanctioning for our youth triathlon, but that has more to do with the fact that we have to keep our registration fees as low as possible given the audience we are drawing off of, and we’re already a loss leader for our partner YMCA.
I also think the event diversification push is a reflection of knowing that multisport athletes are mixing it up more, and they’re trying to follow the customer where they are.
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They do. A bunch of it is under the race director certification side. But most people are taking that cert after having been an RD for a while.
And frankly, there is nothing easy about being an RD in 2025.
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Well, that didn’t sound very nice (maybe why local races are drying up!).
First, we have no open water in our county so this is all pool swim.
We cap the kids race at 225 - we want it to be fun and safe. Yes, it sells out every year and is the #1 ranked youth triathlon in the country. It is REALLY good. Yes, I’d call that a sell out.
Our adult race is capped at 375. Again, it is a pool swim. Yes, I call it a sell out because it sells out every year. It has been ranked a top race on the East Coast (and, for good reason).
Tell me about the races you produce.
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I disagree. One of the most successful Triathlon Race Directors of all time told me once a while back that "No one swims, bikes and runs for the heck of it - they need a Triathlon Race to go to to express that triple sport fitness that they have worked on. He’s right. Many people run - and NEVER pin a bib number on. Many people ride - and never pin a bib number on. Many people swim and never enter a Master’s swim Meet.
So where Races are at, is a good measure of the robustness of where things are at in Triathlon!
I must be unique then.
But isn’t that the whole issue with “data” to show the health of a sport like triathlon. Like it’s only “healthy” if people are signing up for races. We’ve seen it many times, people come and go within triathlon for many valid reasons, and so when that person stops their federation membership for 10 years and then come back, we are “losing” someone, when in reality, we probaly aren’t. We just are losing them from a “data point”, but they may still be an active lifestyle to whatever degree their life allows. But since we can’t “count them” suddenly it’s bad.
That’s the only issue I see with being so data driven on the health of triathlon.
Honestly, the focus in Triathlons are on the longer races and they are not accessible for everyone. This is due to cost and time. Look at these forums and other web pages. Average people with jobs and families do not often have time to put 10+ hours to training per week. Plus they do not have 2k+ to send on a bike and other gear. But that is what the triathlon media pushes people towards. Coming from a running background, everyone would make fun of Runners World because of its focus on the everyday runner and not really on the higher level people, but that is what is lacking in Triathlon. The training plans are either 5 hour bikes or run/walk stuff for beginner. I am 49 years old with three kids. I have a bike that is older than my high school aged children. I love tris because it keeps things interesting. And while I would like to do a 70.3 again, I focus on sprints because the training is reasonable. And you need people like me to keep the sport going for everyone.
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Agreed 100%. As an Announcer who crosses over regularly from Running to Triathlon I se this. However the super serious crowd in Triathlon is getting smaller and smaller. You still see them at the 70.3 and Full IM Races - I don’t Announce at any of them, but I am on the mic at a number of local more grass-roots Races/Events of modest size, and MANY of the newer triathletes are there just to have fun - perhaps trying triathlon on a bit of a lark, or a challenge from their friends. These are Sprint Distance races or shorter. They have gone in the back of the garage and dusted off an old beater bike to use. Or my favorite at two races held right in the downtown area of Toronto, people showing up and using Bike Share bikes they have rented for the day to do the Triathlon. 
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Race Day Events owns the races, they have their own series. I am sure they have private insurance the same way that I did as an RD of running events. Philosophy for not being sanctioned makes sense in this market. It allows people to participate early in their journey for less money. Most wouldn’t qualify for Nationals and many have zero desire to do so.
I do agree with you on the qualification. I had to either go to Door, Lake Geneva or Elkhart Lake and hope I had what it takes on the day.
Yeah, I figured they had their own insurance. I was under the impression that USAT provided race insurance at a cost to race directors that would make it the obvious choice.
Perhaps there are other markets where the majority of the events are not USAT sanctioned, but I think it is rare. I’m curious why southern Wisconsin went this route but not other markets. Perhaps it’s just how it played out for some reason or another as the community developed.
It seems to me that the majority of participants don’t care if a race is USAT sanctioned and are probably annoyed by the license requirement. If race directors could all find other insurance options at better value, I assume they’d drop USAT sanctioning and most of their customers would be happier. So why not is my question I suppose.
1/3rd of the races in the USA are not sanctioned, and that number is growing.
So lets see you can pay for USAT insurance at 23 bucks per athlete, or you can buy just as good, if not better on the market for like 4 bucks a person.
Those are the real numbers.
Having qualifications for having to race is a joke, So many exceptions
On example, if you did Legacy 2 years ago, and just finished, you go 2 years entry into Nationals. Make the events regional with the TeamUSA spots.
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This is 100% not the case. I won’t even get into why but a really reductive process went into this statement.
@Ironmandad it’s very interesting that membership continues to grow. So member revenue continues to climb, which means sponsor revenue will grow. However, was it just the Olympic cycle for the financial issues of the 2023 tax year? USAT has a war chest at the Foundation.
What was the lapse here?
@Lurker4 that’s because the model is different, but if you look at the pricing structure for sanctioning which is public is way different. And you don’t need a USATF membership for road racing. But you do in track if you want to race masters.
There are just major differences between a triathlon and road running. Triathlon is more similar to cycling…and Cycling is worse you need a membership and a race license.
So, please give you data as to why you state this is 100% not the case.
You may be able to get a cheap liability policy, but the athlete is no longer in a holistic model.
Been at this in Rugby for awhile and insurers may touch certain unsanctioned promotions if the player volume is high enough, but it’s not at some $4/head metric. You want a similar policy that covers 360 on liability and athlete secondary health coverage? Your numbers are going to look closer to USATs.