While I agree with you that T100 is likely too short for him, he’s had more success at 70.3 than IM.
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I don’t see it odd at all, as stevej mentioned, numbers indicate he does better at 70.3 than full. Although 100 distance is a bit shorter, the other factor is $$ of course.
He is doing well, it simply happens that there is a bunch of guys another level above him.
There’s nothing in Sam’s past IM that suggests this actually. Biggest win was when Lionel walked - hell he thought that his 22nd in Frankfurt was his best IM race, and he’s probably right.
He is still probably the favorite in any NA 70.3 but the level is raised. But we honestly have yet to have Sam bike and run in IM close to what he does in 70.3/T100.
ouch. Legend. 3rd fastest run, I believe.
Agreed. It’s not like it’s worked for Sam to just extrapolate his 70.3 bike power into a full. Clearly there’s something going on with how much power he uses to get his bike into striking position.
What’s interesting about his bike and run in Frankfurt is he raced them both conservatively, I assume in a test to give him some insight and they were middle of pack level splits.
Of course he also races and trains alot. Maybe he’s at the point in his career where he can start focusing on a couple key races and build his season around that. But like Sanders, his persona is built around being present frequently. If he hides in his cage and turns up three times a year it’s a real departure from his norm. (Probably needed if he wants to make that jump though?)
Anyhow that interview was really vulnerable. Also bizarre how quickly they cut it off. I guess a broadcast issue? I’d think if you have a big name pro opening up and being so authentic you’d want to engage that, not move on to something else.
I think what we see here is just how hard it is for Sam mentally to battle back on the bike/run. Watching him race he seems pretty unfazed getting out of the water so far behind and then works his ass off on the bike and run when in reality it’s a massive emotional challenge for him and in this instance he could just let that all out. He probably felt much better after, I hope he found it cathartic.
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It’s probably a massive punch to the gut at every race. Only he knows how hard he’s working on his swim, and if he thinks he’s working his ass off and seeing improvements by his own standards, to then show up at the next race, be spat out the back and looking like a bit of a fool must be devastating af.
I wonder how you should go around improving swim? Just swimming more/harder does not make sense as it is technique focused?
Is it the ditlev way? Get the best swim coach in the country and do pæenty of 1:1 on deck coaching?
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Yeah. I’m sure Aquabears in Tucson is great, but we haven’t seen any real transformations happening. As far as I can tell, Lionel is swimming no better than his 2017 form, and Sam hasn’t improved much either.
I don’t think most viewers think the last place person looks like a fool. Someone has to finish last place in every race, in every league in everything in life. Taken to the extreme you just boot out everyone from the back of the pack and then you’re left watching a race of one person (in a way, that’s what we had in four of the women’s T100 races, which makes it a bit of a snooze, but at least on Saturday there was a bit of suspense on if Gentles would hold her pace and Knibb fade).
Back to Sam (and many other pros), they had a long season. He’s finishing the swims in last place in every race. Sam beat Kuelen, he finished less than 2 minutes behind Ditlev (yes, second in Kona so not the same legs and a mechanical). Sam out ran Alistair Brownlee a double gold medalist at the Olympics. Sam essentially biked the same bike pace as the lead pack (1:45xx vs 1:44xx) pushing his own wind.
I don’t see anything in there that suggests he is a fool who does not belong. Sam just outran several athletes by the same 4 minutes that he got out swim by. No one is talking about how slow all those others run, its just that the last place swimmer is exposed the most.
As I mentioned this guy grew up as football player and skier. He has zero endurance sport background and zero swimming background. He is still young, but he needs blocks in the year where he parks the bike and run training somewhat so he can come to the pool fresh for 2x sessions per day. If he is fried from bike and run training he cna never get to that next level of swim training because he’s going to carry bad body position (that he has) right through the workout. He won’t get into a good swimmer body position in a streamline with the right balance being constantly tired from the other sports. It’s just the way it is. @SnappingT keeps talking about that and he’s right. You also would never get good at running being constantly fried from swim-bike. Biking is different as there is no technical component at high effort. You can bike with the same technique at 150W as 400W. In swimming you can’t work 1 min 100’s range without the energy consumption to do that.
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Genetics are an important factor that can’t be overlooked. While I haven’t come across specific statistics on the exact ratio of people who can pick up swimming in their 20s and become world-class, it’s clear that genetics play a significant role in athletic development. The same principle applies in reverse: athletes like Łukasz Wojt or Richard Varga, who excel in swimming, might wish they could run faster. It’s not that they lack dedication or training—rather, there are inherent genetic factors that influence how one’s body responds to different sports. These factors often determine the rate of improvement and the upper limits of performance in each discipline. Damn, he was 6th in the T100 rankings—only five athletes in the world outperformed him 
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My point wasn’t to disregard him as an athlete. I’ll be the first to say that if he swam first or second pack he’d probably win 95% of races he enters (assuming he keeps the same bike/run times). Problem is, he doesn’t, and for the last 5-6 years he has steadily been humbled from his ‘Yo yo yo strongest legs in triathlon look out for the young buck’ to breaking down on TV based on a season of racing the best of the best over and over.
6th in the world is nothing to scoff at, but he really needs a strong focus on his swim to improve. Nobody denies the rest of his abilities but it’s time to knuckle down and actually focus (ala Ditlev).
Great runners ran on a team in high school or college. Great swimmers swam on a team when they were younger.
I can’t stress enough the importance of finding a competitive Masters swim program for triathletes. Especially if they didn’t swim competitively when they were younger.
Not sure if Sam or Joe Skipper do Masters workouts, but if they don’t they are missing out.
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Well he did not win San Francisco…
And did very well in t 100 at beginning at the year. Getting smashed in the swin
His bike was off as well at the weekend
If I was Sam I’d be calling the U of A swim coach and telling him “I’ll do any and everything you tell me to do, just please help me improve my swim.
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replying to you since you might know this best but…Has there been a top pro that has taken a literal year off to work on 1 specific discipline and came back to their original form in the other 2? Or even 6 months? I would assume 6 months of super low volume bike and run would pretty much mean no high end racing for a year.
We are focusing on his swim.
He lost 37 seconds to Magnus on the bike, who lost around 1m20 with a mechanical.
Sam needs top 3 bike and top 3 run to make up for the swim, even if he improves his swim.
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He said in a the pre race interview the guys in the college programs are just too fast for him where it wouldn’t even help being in the pool with them. There is apparently a good high school squad near him that he’s trying to convince the coach to let him swim with.
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Austin has a very competitive Masters swim program at the University.
I meant one on one coaching not swimming with the team.
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