I looks like its over where I live. It’s the largest city in my state, and used to have a thriving triathlon scene, several clubs, and a race series. I have my series hoodie for completing it in 2018, the last year they offered it. There were only 4 races left in 2019, and only 2 of them survived COVID. By 2022 there was only one race left. They attempted to survive by offering aqua bike and duathlon along with sprint and oly. This race used to draw hundreds of folks. The last year I did it, there were only 34 entrants, just 12 in the oly. It was scheduled for this Sunday, and the weather forecast is good. I just checked their website, and it’s been cancelled due to “historically low registrationsâ€. Is this just my state or is this happening everywhere? We have nothing left locally. How will IM and other brands survive, if all the local feeder gateway events are dying out?
Feeling & echoing the pain…
In January of this year, triathlon “died” in my hometown of Billings, MT. MSU Billings quietly dropped their NCAA women’s triathlon program. The Big Sky State Games dropped triathlon from its competition program after 15 years do to declining participation rates.
It is tough. I put on the only adults (and kids) triathlons in our area. I do it just out of passion and for love of the sport. To ALL please support local races!!!
All the local races in my area are going strong. I do not know of any that have ended. We probably have a dozen races within ~90 miles of my home.
I’ve seen both sides in my area. We have had ~1/4 of events die since covid. On the other hand, a recent event had more participants than any of the past 5 years.
Here in Madison it seems like an all time high for the local races. TONS of newbies in our shop.
To share some information from EU, France, here local races are doing great.
The one I did last weekend had a record high at something like 2K + people doing either sprint, Olympic or half IM.
Maybe it has to do something with the pricing, it was less than 200€ to do all 3 races. You rarely pay more than 100€ to do a half IM distance race. Never more than 50€ for Olympic distance.
Dean this seems to be a recurring theme of yours. Why don’t you move somewhere that has local races? There are still cities where triathlon isn’t dead.
I live in an Ironman town and started triathlon in 2007. Back then within a few hours of traveling we had lots of local independent sprint and oly tris, duathlons and some halfs that didn’t cost much. We also had a triathlon series (sprint and oly), a duathlon series and an aquathon series that all had points and overall awards. We had several tri clubs, at least one was free and a few others were really cheap to join for the year. You could do a lot of racing, and people were mostly doing short events and racing often. The triathletes that did Ironman often did one every other year. Many weren’t interested and stuck to short races.
Then everyone got obsessed with Ironman. We lost the local tri clubs to coaching groups and everything was centered around training for Ironman. Races started to disappear because people weren’t racing much. We’ve lost most of the independent halfs. The aquathon series is cancelled. The duathlon series still exists but only has about 3 races. The other duathlons are gone. We still have the triathlon series but most of the other races are gone.
Ironman is to blame for some of it, but it’s mostly because people started only valuing Ironman races. Local races are really fun, but people only want to do big events these days.
Dean this seems to be a recurring theme of yours. Why don’t you move somewhere that has local races? There are still cities where triathlon isn’t dead.
I’m older, retired, live on a pension, and have purchased our retirement condo several years ago. I did my last IM event in 2022, and the costs involved were way out of my league, and won’t do another. I have other activities that have replaced my triathlon participation. Also, when I retired, I told my Wife we could go anywhere she wanted. Her reply was that everything she does, and all her friends of the last 24 years are here, and we decided to stay put. Since 1983, triathlon has been a hobby, but not priority. I’ve seen it bloom, struggle, die, resurface, and now die again. I could easily drive 3 hours across the state, or to another state to race, but having been there done that, it now falls outside of my hassle and financial tolerance. If I’m going to travel for an event, which I still do occasionally, it’s going to be a marathon, and accomplished within the day. I’m an opportunistic athlete. I stay in good overall shape as a priority, and do whatever local events that present themselves. My background is running, and I’m content to stay race active in that way, now. I actually got into triathlon over 40 years ago, as a rehab for running injuries, and stuck with all the local events as a healthy cross training. Over the years, I did 4 IM events, but the hassle and costs never matched the returns like the local events did. I’m just sad to see it go, and venting a bit here. But it’s certainly not important enough to uproot everything in my life, to scratch that itch.
I’m in Michigan, specifically West Michigan and it doesn’t seem like we’ve lost many races of our longstanding races… numbers are solid at our events across the board with most of them trending up compared to last year and pre-covid numbers.
The Phoenix tri scene is on its last legs. Hardly any races left. We used to have 3-4 race companies running local races - now down to one. No more Xterra or half Ironman. We have all the right conditions for triathlon - lakes, pools, good roads, great weather, large metro population. We are missing athletes. Especially young ones.
All the local races in my area are going strong. I do not know of any that have ended. We probably have a dozen races within ~90 miles of my home.
Fantastic!
Very happy for you
Whereabouts is this?
Agreed, if you have lots of races in your area, please say where it is. Because in southeastern Michigan near Detroit about 15 years ago, we had two races every weekend. Now we’re down to very few. Definitely dying off here ….races that had over 300+ people like Waterloo or Clark Lake have been totally shut down for several years.
All the local races in my area are going strong. I do not know of any that have ended. We probably have a dozen races within ~90 miles of my home.
Fantastic!
Very happy for you
Whereabouts is this?Metro Atlanta. We have. Major series plus several anchor independent races.
Agreed, if you have lots of races in your area, please say where it is. Because in southeastern Michigan near Detroit about 15 years ago, we had two races every weekend. Now we’re down to very few. Definitely dying off here ….races that had over 300+ people like Waterloo or Clark Lake have been totally shut down for several years.
Still plenty of races in SoCal. At least 2-3 per month within a 2 hour drive of Los Angeles for the rest of the year…
I live in an Ironman town and started triathlon in 2007. Back then within a few hours of traveling we had lots of local independent sprint and oly tris, duathlons and some halfs that didn’t cost much. We also had a triathlon series (sprint and oly), a duathlon series and an aquathon series that all had points and overall awards. We had several tri clubs, at least one was free and a few others were really cheap to join for the year. You could do a lot of racing, and people were mostly doing short events and racing often. The triathletes that did Ironman often did one every other year. Many weren’t interested and stuck to short races.
Then everyone got obsessed with Ironman. We lost the local tri clubs to coaching groups and everything was centered around training for Ironman. Races started to disappear because people weren’t racing much. We’ve lost most of the independent halfs. The aquathon series is cancelled. The duathlon series still exists but only has about 3 races. The other duathlons are gone. We still have the triathlon series but most of the other races are gone.
Ironman is to blame for some of it, but it’s mostly because people started only valuing Ironman races. Local races are really fun, but people only want to do big events these days.
Started same time as you.
100% agree. I’m as much to blame as anyone. Once I started doing IM and 70.3 I basically abandoned short course and small events.
Then everyone got obsessed with Ironman. We lost the local tri clubs to coaching groups and everything was centered around training for Ironman.
.
This is something I have been vocal about for two decades. I have personally seen two Tri Clubs destroyed because coaching groups directed all their clients towards only racing M-Dots. I have even seen them purposely schedule “Ironman simulation days” or “Camp Weekends” on the days that local races were being held. There has been a lot of “Cult Mentality” when it comes to some age group triathlon coaching squads.
I agree it seems that once people gravitate towards IM races they put a lot of effort and time in for a few years. Shortly thereafter they burn out and give up, and quit triathlon. While they’re focusing on IM races, they typically don’t do local races and the local tri scene ends up dying.
In my area, there’s hardly anybody racing oly/sprint/ss events under age 40.
All the local races in my area are going strong. I do not know of any that have ended. We probably have a dozen races within ~90 miles of my home.
Fantastic!
Very happy for you
Whereabouts is this?Metro Atlanta. We have. Major series plus several anchor independent races.
Lol. Wow
I just checked and I am only 101 miles from Atlanta
Thank you!