After seeing the results at IMOZ, I keep wondering if she is going to stay much longer in the sport…
She won every single IM she’s ever entered.
She won Hawaii last year despite losing 10min on the bike.
She destroyed the competition in Oz, winning by close to 30min.
Last year at Alpe d’Huez, she was close to winning overall.
All this with an attitude that isn’t without reminding of Natasha in top form, but she’s even better. She rides just as fast, she took her swim to low 50s in 2years and seems to now only run sub 3h in IM.
I don’t know actually. I’m just curious because she is just way out there. It’s the equivalent of Graf beating Zvereva 6/0 6/0 at the French Open in 88…but she does that to everybody.
SHe is quite possibly the greatest athlete in the sport right now, but she certainly is not the highest paid…So she has that to shoot for to round out her resume…
Over the next 5 to 7 years or so, she could set herself up financially for the rest of her life, if she makes that a goal. She seems to really be having fun right now too, so what else would you have her do?? Her biggest problem is what to do after her pro career is over, that is always a big ? in pros minds, and usually inst settled during the career…
And there is that pesky Ironman record to erase from Hawaii…(-;
I thought, maybe naively, that with 2 Hawaii wins, if you’re smart, you could be set for life already…$200,000 in prize money just for Kona. Add endorsements, she should be at $1M easily by now…provided she’s smart financially. Which may be a stretch. Looks like LVL is struggling, so is Thomas Hellriegel.
One of the smartest at that game was probably Lothar Leder.
SHe is quite possibly the greatest athlete in the sport right now, but she certainly is not the highest paid…So she has that to shoot for to round out her resume…
I don’t think someone that spent several years working on a sanitation project in Nepal is necessarily concerned with being the highest paid athlete in the sport.
I’m guessing she’ll be around the sport for a few more years and then leave but leverage her notoriety to help others. That seems to fit her personality best.
I’m guessing she’ll be around the sport for a few more years and then leave but leverage her notoriety to help others. That seems to fit her personality best.\
I agree, but there are many ways to help people…You can pound a nail for them yourself, or you can pay/organize 1000’s of people to pound nails for 1000’s of people… One of those scenarios takes money…I would like to think she would do both…
If she is interested in her legacy in triathlon, I would think she would want to go after PNF’s record for wins in Kona. Her current dominance will look even more impressive down the road if she is able to continue winning for the next half dozen years.
I get the feeling that she has zero ego, and could care less about winning or legacy. She seems to be doing this cause it is fun and she’s just pushing herself.
I bet she dissappears from the sport just as fast as she came in and starts doing stuff for kids in Darfur or something along those lines. If anything, she is the poster child athlete for Johan Olaf Koss’s “Right to Play” charity, that is supported now by countless Olympians and pro athletes:
Look at Tiger Woods, even though he’s got more money than Avarice himself and has won everything, he is still out there KILLING people. He could have taken longer to come back from a completely rebuilt knee and could have taken it easy, but he didn’t.
That’s the hunger, the drive, the nature of true champions; they simply want to keep going and crushing people.
There has been talk amongst triathlons chattering class, that she will stick sround for a few more years and move on to something else. She has been a welcome breath of fresh air, I must say and the sport will be the lesser after her departure. She does harken back a bit to those earlier years when it was less about, the gear and the training and the sponsors and more about seeing where you can go with something - pushing the limits to the limits and letting the chips fall wher they may. Many of the other top athletes are all caught up in the gear/training/sponsors gig - with Wellington, that always seems to be the last thing she wants to think or talk about!
Look at Tiger Woods, even though he’s got more money than Avarice himself and has won everything, he is still out there KILLING people. He could have taken longer to come back from a completely rebuilt knee and could have taken it easy, but he didn’t.
That’s the hunger, the drive, the nature of true champions; they simply want to keep going and crushing people.
Bob
I see a difference though. Tiger has that hunger to win, to beat everyone he can. In Chrissie, it looks more like she just seeks out a challenge. I’m sure she wants to win, but she doesn’t seem like one of those win-at-all-costs kind of people.
I have a feeling, once she realizes there is no more challenge left for her, she will be done with the sport. And I see that coming relatively soon.
It almost appears as if the women’s pro division how has two catagories 1) Chrissie 2) everybody else.
Her career is still young yet, but if her dominance continues for another two or three seasons it’s quite possible she might retire while on top and find something else.
i don’t know…it seems like the motivation to get that dominant has to come from within…she is racing herself, not others anymore. and she will always be able to race herself. Even when she holds every record in the books, there will always be a new PR to chase. at least that’s what it seems like to me…
but then again, i’m just a mediocre age grouper. But I race against myself every race–a win can be bitter-sweet if i race poorly, while a loss can be satisfying if i feel that i raced well. that said, i do like to beat people.
