I hear what you are saying and, yes triathlon is unique in this regard - that they contest the World Open/Senior/Elite/Pro(whatever you want to call it) Championships with the World Age-Group Championships at the same venue at the same time. There are positives and negatives to this in my mind.
Most other sports have seperate free standing championships for Junior Athletes, the Open Champipnships( Example: The IAAF World Athletics Championships in Paris this summer) and Master’s or Age-Group championships. There is a Master’s or Veteren’s World Games for older athletes in a variety of sports as well.
“Five year age groups are a very small price to pay to give meaningful competition to athletes of all ages. Without them, we’d never see Norton Davey, Bill Bell, of Sister Madonna Buder.”
I think you have hit on an important component of the triathlon community. If you are good enough and want to compete with the best you can; if you want to compete with your age group you can; if you want to compete with larger specimens you can; if you want to compete against the clock you can; if you just want to finish you can; if you want to compete on a $5000 bike you can; if you want to ride your sister’s one-speed you can; and on and on; and no matter which group you might fit in-you can tell Bjorn Andersson that his position sucks or that Gerard doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about with regarding to Cervelos-and best of all they respond in incredibly admirable fashion.
I understand, factually, the reasons we get complaints about too much money on equipment, too many divisions, clydsedales, TNT etc., but I think all of these complaints pale relative to fact that all of these things help more people get pleasure in the sport. Where else can the wannabees interact so easily and warmly with the studs?
Of course if you really want to open up a can of worms you can talk about the Europeans. There are any number of them racing AG now who while perhaps not ex Tri pros, were in state supported Olympic sports (Speed Skaters, Cross Country skiiers, Cyclists etc.), they enjoyed a “pro like” lifestyle. I think it’s kind of cool having that sort of talent in the pack.
In Mt. Bike racing they have the field disected into age AND experience as well as the Pros. So, as an AGer in that sport you put yourself in the AG then the experience level, ie., Sport, Expert, beginner etc. I don’t think this is a good idea for Triathlon, but it is one sport’s solution to dividing up the pack. Also the Pro/Elites and Expert fields almost always race further distances and the Sport class goes longer than beginner.