Steve Larsen Bend, OR 35 M 4:03:23.0 1 1
Not bad for an age grouper.
It was already posted that he did take his slot…
Is it really any different from the other ex-pro’s who now race as age groupers. Can you imagine standing on the beach next to Scott Molina for example, and knowing that even on your best day the chance of beating him is slim to none. What about if Mark Allen decided to race a couple for fun.
If you’re no longer a pro, you’re no longer a pro. No cash prizes for wherever you come. Sure, they could put a rule in saying that once you retire from being a pro, you have to wait 5 years before racing as an age grouper, but would that be fair?
Tough to lose your slot to him, but it’s not unfair in my book.
J.
There is a real issue in tri, which is a participatory sport and doesn’t hold a lot of moentary rewards, that all of us AG’ers find ourselves racing against “semi-pros”, those people who might not earn their living from prize money, but certainly earn their livelihood from the sport.
The bike company/vendor reps or the coaches that I compete against spend all their time “working” on the sport and often traveling to events on the company payroll (or at least at a tax dedcution), while I spend my days working at a job that has nothing to do with making a body go faster in swimming biking and running. Yes, I satisfy myself with a different set of goals, but I have lost Kona slots to those semi-pros because it is not an even playing field.
Not sure what Steve Larsen does today, but I would guess it is not working 8-6 in a non-sport related industry. Khai Humperdeck (sp?) won Kona AG with the fastest bike split after training (as a sponsored athlete) with the Deutsche Telecom cycling team in Majorca for four months
In the sport of sailboat racing, they have leveled the playing field considerably by making 3 categories of participant: 1) professionals who are paid for their participation; 2) “industry” people who earn their living in the industry; 3) pure amateurs. This allows different events and awards to be structured in a way that you don’t go to the starting line with a disadvantage.
Not sure what Steve Larsen does today, but I would guess it is not working 8-6 in a non-sport related industry.<<
He’s a commercial property broker. Don’t know his actual work hours, but it’s probably more flexible than sitting in a cube 8-5.
I know quite a few engineer/lawyer/management types who can rearrange their work schedule to be able to train 25+ hours/week. Or, who made a pile of money and can then take off 6 months to a year to just train. Do we create a special category for them?
clm
nope, that is fair, I just don’t want to line up against a “coach”
.
nope, that is fair, I just don’t want to line up against a “coach”
Ohh I am really screwed, I used to coach a local age group team for fun on the side and still give a fair number of private lessons to some AGers around here.
Surely I will be banned from tri now, my bike will be on E-bay later today. 
That is a stupid response; obviously you are not currently earning your livelihood for getting paid for coaching.
Doesn’t really matter, he’s never had an impact at Kona. He’ll be outsplit on the bike by half a dozen triathletes.
The reality is he will probably garner more press as one of the top AGers then he would if he chose to get his elite license this year. Often the top AGers get more in porduct and bonuses tied to performance then second tier pros.
Boy, does this thread so a major issue with our sport!! TOO MANY EGOS!!
There will ALWAYS be someone “better” than you! I was talking to a guy on the beach as the first waves were going off and he said his brother was complaining because wet suits were being allowed. He said his brother was a top swimmer and did not want to lose his advantage. I just laughed since I continue to fight about my local tri since the RD is an ex world class swimmer and thinks wet suits are for cheaters. I asked if the aero bars should be removed since bikers complained. Bottom line the rules are the rules. Period. If you do not like them, go do another sport.
And let me tell you, once one has a life threating event like I did last year when I crashed, just getting to the start line, let alone the finish line is MY GOLD MEDAL and Kona slot!!
I have been thinking a lot about this “fininshing” and awards. Now, if I look yesterday results, I was like 335 out of 1200 guys. My first thought was I got my butt kicked. But wait, I first need to see how many folks were older than I was. I just counted and on only 15 folks beat me that were older than I was. I am very very proud of this. Now, I then tell folks that there were 800 folks who would love to change places with me.
So, one can spend there life looking at the few that are in front of us and complaining about something is not “fair” in life, or, as I try to do, look at all the folks behind me and be very very thankful for what I have!!
By the way, I have other skills in life that I would put up against any “pro” or “ex Pro” and I would kick there butt!! We all have strength and weaknesses. Enjoy the strengths!!
Dave
Not sure what Steve Larsen does today, but I would guess it is not working 8-6 in a non-sport related industry. Khai Humperdeck (sp?) won Kona AG with the fastest bike split after training (as a sponsored athlete) with the Deutsche Telecom cycling team in Majorca for four months
In the sport of sailboat racing, they have leveled the playing field considerably by making 3 categories of participant: 1) professionals who are paid for their participation; 2) “industry” people who earn their living in the industry; 3) pure amateurs. This allows different events and awards to be structured in a way that you don’t go to the starting line with a disadvantage.
Steve, I believe, is now in real estate full time and also acts as an agent for a few top athletes (Conrad Stolz, for one). I don’t believe he has any current sponsorship agreements. Further, you cannot race as a pro or be paid without a pro card, and in triathlon there are only two categories. Lance Armstrong has stated the TDF was his last race “as a professional cyclist”. That does not mean it is his last race ever or, even, his last bicycle race. I suspect most cyclists would be thrilled to have someone like Lance grace their event, whether he was there as an amateur or a professional.
What is wrong with most of you. Many of the “amateurs” on this forum probably are getting more in sponsorship support than Steve is right now. Apparently most of you want to be able to hand pick your competition.
One more thing, I don’t think Steve would race as an amateur unless he truly was one. When Steve was a professional MTB’er and was trying to go to IMLP the first time (I was trying to help get him in as I was a sponsor of both IMLP and Steve that year and entries had closed) IMNA was going to make him race as an amateur since he hadn’t qualfied for a triathlete pro license yet, only having completed 2 triathlons total - even though he set a course record at one of them. He refused, saying it would be unfair, and they finally let him in somehow as a pro. He wouldn’t have gone otherwise. I think they are glad they let him in.
That is a stupid response; obviously you are not currently earning your livelihood for getting paid for coaching.
Regg- It was a joke - More like being absurd to disprove and absurd point. But FWIW i have taken a fair amount of oney from various coaching stints. But it is not my primary income.
There should be no distinction between pros and amateurs. The main thing stopping people turning pro is that they’re not good enough or won’t commit the time to be good enough. Too many whine about pros reverting to age group. Doesn’t matter which they are, they’re better than you.
gotcha.
I remember about a cover guy in Triathlete last year who stayed as an AG’er because he could get more sponsorship money since his results would have more impact.
Steve did a pre-race talk Friday night and said he is pretty busy with his (full time) commercial real estate biz. He even commented how crazy it is up there and that Donal Trump declared Bend to be the hottest RE market in the country. He also said he had swam only three times in last year. He was not even aware the run course had changed and was corrected by Dave when he mentioned part of the course that changed two years ago. He drove (9 hours) down with his family on Friday and still took the time to volunteer to do the talk and provide some advise for others.
I will say he does still look extremely fit and I didn’t see an ounce of excess body fat on the guy. He is still a stud and sure ran fast through the aid station I was working. He was going so fast he had to dodge other AG’s as he went through as if he were running through an obstacle course. Imagine working his way through the bike…?
I think it is really unfair of people to make accusations on a web site without any facts. The fact is the guy is retired. If he wants to race then AG is his only option. If people don’t like it, work for a rule change.
This happens most often than people seem to realize. Ex pros enter quite a few races, just they are not the one that is get all the press. Those of you that race in the 40-44 category know what I am talking about. My buddy is in that AG and he keeps telling me how he needs to train harder to beat these former pros. He talks about what HE has to do, not what they shouldn’t be doing.
At AIT they have the Legends category, I like that. You can see these folks that tore it up a few years/decades ago and they race against each other like they used to.
Either way, people are playing by the rules. Talk to USAT if you think they should be moving people out of the AG rank and into the pro ranks.
You are missing the point, the discussion is here, not at the USAT level. This is where people exchange and discuss ideas opinions. You can write USAT all you want, but you will not get into a discussion with mutliple people with multiple points of view.
No question, categories are a tricky issue. But there is a clear distinction between people who are ex-really good at something (because they were a full time athlete, pro, collegiate, what have you) and a person who is currently employed to work in the “industry”. It is tough to take an ex-pro who is now an amateur and categorize him as anything but. However an industry employee is a clear distinction. As I mentioned, sailboat racing figured this out several years ago, for just the same reasons and it has worked quite quite well in keeping the core of the sport, the bill-paying amateur, happy and competitive.
Did i do something wrong? my two posts here are gone? All i said was i had to race with people who had returned from the Olympics
Was your post a reply to a post by Record10? I noticed that his posts were deleted as well. It’s as if he never took part in the conversation.