I’m question the travel mostly.
It’s a standard connection flight. I did Muscat to IAH 6 times it’s about 16 hours from memory with a stop in one of the ME hubs, Doha for Qatar was my move.
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It is literally halfway around the world from the western US. Similar to what Eastern Europeans have to deal with getting to Kona.
If I wanted to go to Kona it would be at very best.
3 flights 25 hours of flying.
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Not sure if it was announced anywhere else, but the Nice city councillor who got up to speak at today’s press conference said that Nice would be hosting the 70.3 worlds in 26, 28, 30.
Not sure if that’s official confirmation or if she said something that wasn’t supposed to be public - the original announcement said it was an option.
Though it was in French, so not sure if the English media picked it up.
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My wife felt exactly the same.
Are woman even allowed to do sport in Oman? Are they allowed to have flesh exposed?
Oman at the last olympics have had a 50% or 25% representation by women. Granted that’s 2 out of 4 and 1 out of 4 but still facts are factual.
In regards to women safety it’s a very safe environment due to the culture they have. They are a Muslim country and as such have Muslim laws but sharia isn’t the standard. Dress modestly, respect their culture and you’ll be more than fine.
However having travelled to every continent in this lifetime I can see the last part as always being the issue for American travellers.
You can drink in Oman, special places have licences and don’t get caught drunk. You can walk around safe in the knowledge you won’t be robbed or harassed. You can eat incredible food from the cultures around it… the Lebanese versions are 10/10.
There’s a whole history available to read about and the relations between the west, specifically the UK, and Oman, how the 1970 happenings lead it to being a modern civilisation in the Middle East and a pivotal partner in the region for lots of countries.
Education is easy, but then again wild accusations of xenophobia and Islamophobia are easier.
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Neither me nor Sheridan (I think!) are american.
Am I allowed to say that personally, I don’t feel safe or comfortable in middle eastern countries?
I feel uncomfortable in countries where there people are very armed, where the poverty rate and the social differences are so wide and rules are blurry at best. I’m sure IM will survive without me lol
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This is the first WC event that has piqued my interest and only because it would be a good excuse to blow a bunch of my airline miles on one of those Qatar Airways 1st class apartments.
Greatest flying experience I’ve had. And it’s still not the top tier of their classes.
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This company, across owners and leadership regimes, has a long history of chasing the buck at the expense of aligning with countries with poor human rights records. I’ll never forget the royal welcome given to the Prince of Bahrain in Kona. I’m sure someone will tell us how welcome Jewish, gay or lightly dressed women will be on this sliver of the Arab peninsula. I’ll be sitting this one out
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For me it would be a direct flight to Dubai for 12 hrs and second flight is barely 1 hrs to Oman.
It is not that much different in the big picture than going to Nice which is 7 hrs + 1 hrs. Add 2 hrs of overhead on either side and 2 hrs connection time and Nice is 2+7+2+1 which is 12 hrs door to door for Nice and 17 hrs for Oman.
The actual physical distance and perception of the distance is less relevant than door to door travel time. Oman travel requires one extra vacation day over Nice travel
I do suspect this will not be as well attended as New Zealand. (Obvious sarcasm)
There’s also a greater chance in this location of regional issues cancelling the event entirely.
How do you have those conversations when negotiating with someone who asked you to call him “his excellency” as part of the deal?
You have to assume that with what Ironman is making on this deal they are making enough money to not really care if no one shows up.
I also look at it from a business perspective and see that Ironman 70.3 is now using it’s premiere product to sell something that most of it’s customers don’t really want.
Oh the flip side, if this “bad for my customers deal” allows IM the financial capability to do other things that help growth, like sticking with events longer than a couple years when attendance is low, and paying for a pro series broadcast etc then the trade off could be worth it.
I have travelled to the region, several times, but most has been to Abu Dhabi and Dubai where I would have expected IM to put on the race if they are doing in the Gulf. At least the branding of those destinations to North American tourists in known. From what I understand Oman has a fabulous course and the destination is one that we would be happy to have gone to once we do it, but it is getting athletes over to a location that is a stone’s throw from Yemen, that is a psychological lift in terms of marketing it to athletes all the way up and down the Americas. While that final 1 hrs connection from Dubai/Qatar/Abu Dhabi is negligible, on paper, adding 4 hrs to the journey makes it a heavier lift.
If any athlete like me (who has done like 40 trips to the region spanning Tel Aviv to New Delhi) is questioning if I would want to do a championship in Oman, then it’s a heavier lift for others certainly in Canada.
Assuming I can still do triathlon in 2029 when I am the oldest guy in 60-64, my guess is I aim for a slot, because it may be easier for me to get to that than Nice 2028. I’d probably go and hang out in Dubai for a week and make it a home base for training and then move my way over. Hopefully by then I am retired and not chasing biz in Dubai
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I’ve got to say, some of the misinformation and outright garbage being spewed in this thread is pretty alarming, and a few people could probably help themselves by doing some of their own research instead of peddling stories they read/hear.
I live in the region and have traveled to most countries here. Oman is far from soulless, in fact it’s probably one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in the world. Oman is also not one of the countries in this region that has bowed to ‘Western culture’ in such an extreme way (see Dubai, Saudi). I’d actually highly recommend visiting Oman to experience the culture of this place.
Is it safe here? Yes. Far safer than where I come from (New Zealand). Are women allowed to be women? Of course they are (see my first paragraph, read some more).
I’ve done the 70.3 there twice and it’s an amazing course with enough of a bike profile to make the run interesting (I wonder if they’ll go even more intense for the WC). Is it hot? Not really, mid-20s on the run by the end. The run course is a little exposed so it can be a bit warm in the sun, but the swim is wet suit legal (maybe not for pros, we’ll see), and there the bike is a great temperature with little wind at that time of year.
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Ironman partnering with Oman for the 70.3 World Championship is pure sportswashing. Oman is an absolute dictatorship with no political freedoms or civil liberties, hosting a race there props up a regime that denies basic rights. Great PR for Oman, great income for IM, weak for freedom.
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Seriously putting Oman over NZ 
Yeah dictatorships are safe (e.g. Dubai) guess why…
Yeah that’s some take.
Not that I am supporting dodgy dictatorships but I can see where Kingy is coming from. I feel far safer bike touring in places like
Argentina,Bolivia,Malaysia,Thailand,Indonesia etc,etc,etc than I do here in Australia and all of those countries have solidiers on the street with guns at the ready and don’t mind using them. Ive never been abused,assaulted,spat on,had food thrown at me (or worse) in any of the countries listed above.Wish I could say the same about Oz.
I actually like that the same drunken wanker Aussies and British Backpackers who act like total assholes in western countries are forced to behave themselves in SEAsia for fear of what the police will do to them.Unlike here in Oz. Same in Sth America.
As for NZ.,they used to joke about Ironman NZ when it was in Auckland " whatever you do,whatever happens to your bike during the race,dont stop in Sth Auckland "
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I don’t think it should be the position of a company to shun other nations based on western judgements about how free we think they are.
No doubt there are areas for improvement there. But one could equally say that the west had taken our freedoms (which aren’t as numerous in some ways as they once were) and done some very very social and personally pathological things with them.
But the point is that IM shouldn’t have to judge social policy any more than necessary for the safety of their customers.
That being said, I think for Oman this is only good news and if you want them to “westernize” in the good ways this can only help that. Shunning them won’t.
For most core Ironman customers, though this location is going to test the limits of how persuasive a 70.3 worlds slot can be. I predict big roll downs and IM should have a plan for getting creative with additional slots via email and AWA for slots that don’t get used at a race. I would be surprised if every single race doesn’t end in a “who wants to go to Oman?” moment.
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I think the Nice fatigue will drive decent attendance of otherwise hesitant attendees. There is going to be a lot of people sick to death of the French Riviera by the time this rolls around that it won’t be as dramatic as you think. I do agree there will be some races that will have some deep roll downs, but it will mostly be late season races kind of like the 2nd 70.3 WC in StG.