Normann Stadler at Kona 2026

[bjgwoody]

To be more clear, when defining professional I meant ‘professional triathlete’ - being good enough to be a professional in three sports is tough. But Kipchoge, Phelps, Pogacar? Bring it!

And I don’t hate anyone on either side of the debate. I find it an interesting discussion because golf is having this debate currently with former professional golfer, Colt Knost, applying for amateur status re-instatement.

https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/76504-once-a-pro-always-a-pro-should-golfers-be-allowed-to-reclaim-amateur-status/

From a former professional golfer in the thread: “I will state up front for those that do not know. I am a former Pro but have been reinstated for the second time. At one time I was a Class A PGAOA and played the mini tours. I did not set the world on fire. The first time I got reinstatement was in the 90s and dropped my PGAOA membership. Went back on the minis mid 90s. Last event I played as a Pro in a money event was in 2011. I did not give things much thought. I also tried to qualify for the Senior PGA Tour in 07 and did not make the cut. I never really cared about my AM status because I quit playing stipulated events of any kind. I decided in 2022 to get my status back. I did apply and it cost me $250. I basically got my status back because I had not played any event in 11 years. Only reason I even did it was to play the league at my course.

Now with that being said I did not set the world on fire and practice 8 hours a day no way. All of the series I played in the Minis I had some kind of real job. Never made a whole lot of money but spent a lot. More than likely made more in the side skins pools and side bets than I did actual purse money.

With what is going on now with Colt I say no way. He was a PGA Tour player and kept his card for a while. What is happening with some of these guys they are wanting to play the High exposure AM events as a back door to the Masters and US Open. And no I do not see it as fair for someone like that to go against AMs who have a real job and work 9 to 5. And yes I know of some AMs who have money that basically are “Professional Amateurs” like Stewart Hagstad.

Now PGAOA members that have worked in the shop for 20 years folding shirts and giving lessons I see no problem on getting their AM status back. Contrary to popular belief 99% of them do not have the time to practice or play 8 to 10 hours a day. Trust me I know I have been there.

My opinion is anyone who has had a KornFerry Tour, PGAT or other front line tour and has kept their card more than a year combined on any top tier tour nope no AM status back. Sorry this may seem harsh but I see it as bad as Boys trying to compete in Girls Sports.

I saw an article recently on one of my feeds that there was a high percentage of the top 10 in this year’s Mid AM that were ex PGAT or KFT players. IDK or remember the exact numbers but do remember the article said it was a high percentage. My .02 FWIW”

Again, golf has an avenue for ‘old’ pros to play - the Champions Tour. I think triathlon is missing an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - create an avenue for former pros (and/or elite AGs) while keeping the AG field clean. Of course, spectators pay to watch old pros play golf. Triathlons are free for all.

[Stjamespl]

This just isn’t an issue, and people are underestimating how hard it is to stay in shape.

Take any pro, give them 5-10yrs of little training, some weight gain and “life” getting in the way, and watch them try and get back into some decent fitness at age 45+.

It’s not easy and requires a decent period of volume and consistency to get back.

Sure they may get back to FOP times relatively quickly, but the AG winners are another step up and it takes even ex-pros a big effort to get there.

Hence there just aren’t many examples of ex pros dominating age groups and it’s not a problem.

Golf and other skill based sports are different.

And obviously this is different to if Jan Frodo wanted to race AG only a couple of years after racing at a top pro level.

[devashish_paul]

haha, at Kona 2013, Ken Glah asked me to help him pump his tires. It was pitch dark, but I had my cell phone handy, “

What’s your name bud, you KQ’d surely you don’t need my help if you are a KQ stud. Where are you from…have you raced here befor3e?”.
“I am Ken from USA, yeah I think this is like my 25th time race”

….dev clues in

“Wait, Ken from USA 25x??? Are you Ken like THE KEN GLAH who sprint finished with Pauli Kiuru at the finish at IM New Zealand around 1991?”

He replies

“Crap is that all you remember me for LOSING TO PAULI”

Then I replied

“Well everyone remembers Pauli getting passed by Mark like Mark was jogging”

Next day I am walking down Alii drive to go to banquet and just bump into 1988 winner @skid strolling to the same place. That’s the coolest part of ex champions and pros racing with us. Speaking of MJ, in 2013 the day after 70.3 worlds in Henderson nevada I was going for a swim and she was spectating the day before. This was 5 weeks before Kona and she said, “hey are you going for a swim” to which I replied “yes”. She asked, “Can you swim with me, I hate swimming open water along”. I reallized it was the 2000 Olympic silver medalist and 2006 Kona winner and said, You’re way too fit to NOT RACE AGE GROUP. You should be out racing with us. She replied, “I am enjoying being fit with just swimming and jogging around”. I said, “you can’t use all that fitness on nothing, get back and start racing age group”…and she smirked and said, “racing pro is too fresh, let some time pass”….time has passed and welcome back to racing MJ. (oh, did I say I finally outbike MJ at Nice…but that’s about it).

Kona 2006, I remember two helicopters on my way up to Hawi. One hovering over Stadler, one over MJ. Cool that both are racing (Stadler in Kona, MJ going for age group wins at shorter races).

[Bryancd]

Since we are walking down Norman Memory Lane, my wife and Norman at bike check in 2010

[Nick_wovebike]

He reached out to us for a saddle, so looking forward to seeing some photos of his bike

[devashish_paul]

I can’t remember if that was the race when Norman and Tim deBoom jogged it in together (and one of them was retiring)

[Bryancd]

It may have been as he really didn’t feature as I recall. Wasn’t my best day either.

[timbasile]

I guess it depends on what we mean by world champion and what you gain with an amateur status. If golf has a backdoor way of getting to the Masters then, yeah, you want to stop people from these kinds of shenanigans.

But in triathlon, there really isn’t much benefit (aside from maybe Kona slots). But it’s worth asking - for an AG world title do we mean that you’re the ‘fastest 55 year old’ or that you’re the ‘fastest 55 year old who happens to not have a pro card.’. For under 40 or 45, the answer is easily the latter. But above 45, I’d think we’re all using the former.

Because triathlon is three sports (and lots of similar sports use these sports to train), it’s hard to police and the distinction between a 45 year old Frodeno coming back to whomp the age groupers and a 42 year old Greg van Avermaet trying his hand at triathlon is pretty narrow. Just let it be equal to “this is the fastest 45 year old” and call it a day.

And if a 30 year old BOP pro wants to drop down and become a FOP age grouper so they can snag a Kona slot, whatever.

[kansaiben]

Always liked Norman and appreciated that interview with Bob. In it he states something like that if he’d have had access to today’s tech, carbs, etc that he’d probably still have the bike record. Any idea how fast he’d have been on a modern bike and equipment?

[kansaiben]

Apparently, Norman took this question to the wind tunnel, and the answer was 33 watts/11 minutes faster.

Link to Instagram post

[spasmus1]

Saw Crowie is racing 60-64

[iainbanks1]

That would be awesome but alas it is someone with the same name

[spasmus1]

Ha! That’s hilarious

[devashish_paul]

Hey, are you sure 60-64? He’s around the same age as Stadler, not yet anywhere near 60-64

[spasmus1]

I guess it’s not him. Just same name

[timbasile]

The crazy part is that this is likely just semi standard modern for on new equipment. Likely just best practices with a bit of fine tuning.

I bet you could get him more savings if you had him in the wind tunnel a few times per year, as the top pros are currently doing.