Posting this email as proof. I was the first one outside the Kona slots at Wisconsin so the roll downs are just about to start.
Obviously, many people deferred to Kona from the fall races.
"Dear Athlete,
​
Congratulations on your finish at 2022 IRONMAN Wisconsin!
​
We are pleased to announce that we have extended the slot allocation process for IRONMAN Wisconsin and will now be offering additional male slots for the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France on September 10, 2023. Please note that the number of additional slots are limited and every age group is not guaranteed a slot.
Athletes who earn a slot will receive an email with a link from ACTIVE to register for the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France. Athletes will have 48 hours to redeem their registration link. If an athlete does not accept the slot within 48 hours, it will roll down to the next eligible finisher within the age group.
​ PLEASE NOTE: If you are accepting a qualifying slot for the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship taking place in Nice, France on September 10, 2023 you will not be permitted to defer your slot to a future IRONMAN World Championship event and will be subject to the withdrawal policy of the event.
​
Once all IRONMAN World Championship slots have been allocated, we will send another email informing everyone that slot allocation has concluded for this event.
​
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to qualifier@ironman.com.
​
Thank you and congratulations again on your finish at IRONMAN Wisconsin.
​
Your IRONMAN Wisconsin Team"
Posting this email as proof. I was the first one outside the Kona slots at Wisconsin so the roll downs are just about to start.
Obviously, many people deferred to Kona from the fall races.
"Dear Athlete,
​
Congratulations on your finish at 2022 IRONMAN Wisconsin!
​
We are pleased to announce that we have extended the slot allocation process for IRONMAN Wisconsin and will now be offering additional male slots for the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France on September 10, 2023. Please note that the number of additional slots are limited and every age group is not guaranteed a slot.
Athletes who earn a slot will receive an email with a link from ACTIVE to register for the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France. Athletes will have 48 hours to redeem their registration link. If an athlete does not accept the slot within 48 hours, it will roll down to the next eligible finisher within the age group.
​ PLEASE NOTE: If you are accepting a qualifying slot for the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship taking place in Nice, France on September 10, 2023 you will not be permitted to defer your slot to a future IRONMAN World Championship event and will be subject to the withdrawal policy of the event.
​
Once all IRONMAN World Championship slots have been allocated, we will send another email informing everyone that slot allocation has concluded for this event.
​
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to qualifier@ironman.com.
​
Thank you and congratulations again on your finish at IRONMAN Wisconsin.
​
Your IRONMAN Wisconsin Team"
I am almost sure that in some months, some slots will be offered to AWA athletes too
Completely agree, this was bound to happen and it will soon be a free for all. While Nice may be a nice location to host a WC, it is just not as attractive as Kona especially considering the fact that if you really want to do an Ironman in Nice you can do it in June for one third of the price. I think Jake missed an opportunity when questioning Messick, given that he turned the split venue choice as a decision in favor of including women and old people in the sport (a classic!) rather than an attempt to maximize short term revenues at the expense of the value of the long term franchise. What he should have said is - what is the point of a gender segregated world championship, this is no longer becoming acceptable neither in the English public school system nor in Saudi Arabia. They have just created a less attractive event where slots for age groupers will go unsold and will roll down so far that the event competitiveness will be diluted and the victories will bear an asterisk for ever: “ah really you podium at the Ironman WC? Was it the real one in Kona or the smaller one in Nice?”
Really hope IM Florida are about to do the same thing! I turned down my slot from Florida because I thought it was for Kona, if I had known it was for Nice I’d have 100% taken it.
Really hope IM Florida are about to do the same thing! I turned down my slot from Florida because I thought it was for Kona, if I had known it was for Nice I’d have 100% taken it.
Just go the same email for IM Vichy (it was written Wales on email 😅).
Haven’t take slot due to high price for Kona but as I live in France, Nice will be fine !)
Devaluing WC qualification is going to end up hurting Ironman’s bottom line over the long term. I understand why they need to do it. The company is likely still a deep financial hole from COVID and if you’re Advance, you’re thinking on a 5 year return horizon, but it’s going to be a long term mistake and reduce interest rather than grow it.
They had to beg people to sign up for St George and the same thing is going to happen here.
Really hope IM Florida are about to do the same thing! I turned down my slot from Florida because I thought it was for Kona, if I had known it was for Nice I’d have 100% taken it.
Just go the same email for IM Vichy (it was written Wales on email 😅).
Haven’t take slot due to high price for Kona but as I live in France, Nice will be fine !)
I keep checking my junk mail in case I missed it, burning for Nice!
Devaluing WC qualification is going to end up hurting Ironman’s bottom line over the long term. I understand why they need to do it. The company is likely still a deep financial hole from COVID and if you’re Advance, you’re thinking on a 5 year return horizon, but it’s going to be a long term mistake and reduce interest rather than grow it.
They had to beg people to sign up for St George and the same thing is going to happen here.
I don’t think it will hurt their bottom line but it will eventually devalue their brand.
The views on kona are just sad. It’s a nice island but a shite race and the experience is not anything like what people think it is. Such amazing cool aid is being consumed by those fixated on this story.
Triathlon is a great and unique sport unlike any other.
Triathlon is a great heathy lifestyle .
Ironman puts on great individual long course races unmatched by any other organizations (Challenge excepted)
Do not get hung up on IM marketing/money grab gimmicky programs like:
“All World Athlete”
"World Championships "
“Male/Female Split WCs”
“Legacy WC Program”
“Executive Challenge Program”
“Celebrity Entry”
“Roll Down entires to fill spots”
Etc.
5)Enjoy a specific IM race for the locale, the competition on that day, and your own goals, whether just finishing or a podium.
IM “World Championships” legitimacy is tenuous at best.
If the best don’t show up because of roll downs, cost, deep pocket celebrity spots, no vacation time, geography etc
What does it really mean??
Enjoy training
Enjoy comradeship
Enjoy being and staying healthy
Enjoy being on a team that supports you.
And enjoy individual races and don’t get caught up in the hype.
ðŸ‘
“Bought Slots” IMWC has become USAT Nats with wicked deep roll downs for the sake of securing an entry fee.
Kind of like the whole Women For Tri thing. Like if you finished 30th in your AG should an IMWC slot be offered?
It kind of waters down the entire experience. IM isn’t trending well here for the sake of more Messick Mega Bucks.
Let’s look at the numbers. Average Ironman finishing time is 12:49. From 2002-2017 average finish time in Kona was 11:31. Average 2017 Kona time was 11:39, average 2002 Kona time was 11:40.
Kona is supposed to be one of the hardest there is. And the average finish time is over 1 hour faster and unless 2022 got a lot slower, it’s likely been pretty consistent average finish times the last 20 years.
So can someone offer some empirical evidence that the field is getting worse in Kona? What I think is more likely:
Kona is harder than your average IM which biases times up.
Kona older AGs get filled out more often than at regular Ironmans which would again bias times up as the older racers tend to finish slower.
And despite those two confounding factors, Kona times are over an hour faster, which suggests a much better quality field.
Give me some numbers if you want to make the weak knees argument. If mine are wrong, pony up.
Triathlon is a great and unique sport unlike any other.
Triathlon is a great heathy lifestyle .
Ironman puts on great individual long course races unmatched by any other organizations (Challenge excepted)
Do not get hung up on IM marketing/money grab gimmicky programs like:
“All World Athlete”
"World Championships "
“Male/Female Split WCs”
“Legacy WC Program”
“Executive Challenge Program”
“Celebrity Entry”
“Roll Down entires to fill spots”
Etc.
5)Enjoy a specific IM race for the locale, the competition on that day, and your own goals, whether just finishing or a podium.
**IM “World Championships” legitimacy is tenuous at best. **
If the best don’t show up because of roll downs, cost, deep pocket celebrity spots, no vacation time, geography etc
What does it really mean??
Enjoy training
Enjoy comradeship
Enjoy being and staying healthy
Enjoy being on a team that supports you.
**And enjoy individual races and don’t get caught up in the hype. **
ðŸ‘
I so agree with your post. Especially the highlighted portions.
“Bought Slots” IMWC has become USAT Nats with wicked deep roll downs for the sake of securing an entry fee.
Kind of like the whole Women For Tri thing. Like if you finished 30th in your AG should an IMWC slot be offered?
It kind of waters down the entire experience. IM isn’t trending well here for the sake of more Messick Mega Bucks.
Let’s look at the numbers. Average Ironman finishing time is 12:49. From 2002-2017 average finish time in Kona was 11:31. Average 2017 Kona time was 11:39, average 2002 Kona time was 11:40.
Kona is supposed to be one of the hardest there is. And the average finish time is over 1 hour faster and unless 2022 got a lot slower, it’s likely been pretty consistent average finish times the last 20 years.
So can someone offer some empirical evidence that the field is getting worse in Kona? What I think is more likely:
Kona is harder than your average IM which biases times up.
Kona older AGs get filled out more often than at regular Ironmans which would again bias times up as the older racers tend to finish slower.
And despite those two confounding factors, Kona times are over an hour faster, which suggests a much better quality field.
Give me some numbers if you want to make the weak knees argument. If mine are wrong, pony up.
I love that you’re bringing empirical evidence here and don’t have anything to dispute.
Quick question on the stats: when you are quoting average time is that average time of all competitors, ie all men and women in all age groups?
Edit: just thought of something that could help: is the DNF rate the same as it was recently vs in 2002?
I could see someone saying the “watered down entries†aren’t finishing and that’s why the average finish time remains constant. It would be nice to have stats to disprove this “theoryâ€
No idea on the answers to your fair questions other than it’s combined for all genders, but there are stats warriors in here with all kinds of spreadsheets I assume that can do it better.
You could pull average DNF rates and compare with Kona if those numbers are a quick Google search away. My numbers were pulled from a handful of searches and repeat searches to double check. I’m sure if someone had all the data in one place they could be more accurate.
My hunch is, despite all the talk, the WC events are still very competitive. 70.3 worlds, which has deep roll downs I’m always in the middle 40-50% it seems and at qualifier events I’m in the top 10%. So they are obviously competitive.
I think those alleging watered down fields are just making an argument of degrees. But the fact is the fields are much more competitive than your typical event. Wanting all the back of pack athletes to be top tier to make it “competitive” just feels like a pretty thin complaint.
Obviously people who thought they qualified for a race in one location will defer from a race in another location. This isn’t evidence that people don’t want to go to Nice. If anything, this is evidence that a revolving WC is necessary because people in the US aren’t willing to travel 7,000 miles across two continents to do a race.
Wait…so they’re retroactively awarding ***more ***IMWC slots 5+ months later? I assume the original slots (3-5?) were all taken for 2023 Kona and now accepted the 2024 deferral.
Wait…so they’re retroactively awarding ***more ***IMWC slots 5+ months later? I assume the original slots (3-5?) were all taken for 2023 Kona and now accepted the 2024 deferral.
The email says that they added slots to IMWI 2022. No idea how many. It’s definitely for 2023 in Nice. The email allows 48 hours to claim the slot. I’m guessing it’s been a series of declining and/or 48 hours running out to get this far down on the list.