Spudman is on my list for next year. Live in SLC and didn’t realize it was that big. In Utah we still have a tri series which is nice and most races are capped around 500 because of venue size.
As for the decline of Olympic distance I link it back to the implosion of Columbia triathlon. That was a CF. It was big, brought in Pros, was early season, and made some triathlon headlines. Then the owner of the race bankrupted it and moved to his 2nd home in Florida. The race never came back and we were out a big early season Olympic race that people could follow.
Sorry to hijack the thread.
My favorite Olympic races in Utah are Daybreak Triathlon and Echo Triathlon. I have done Daybreak 9 times and Echo 3 times. About 300-500 participants every year on these races. Echo is a fast course and usually has super strong fields. Daybreak has a punishingly hard bike for the Olympic but the event is always well organized and great fun.