We can answer that with this: “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. Start with the customer experience.” - Steve Jobs
No one in their right mind votes for, “shut down the main road on the Kona side so some outsiders can ride their bikes in spandex”.
But they can be sold on the experience of promoting the beauty of their island, culture, heritage, etc. All the more reason why it would be pretty amazing (pie meet sky) if the race could rotate at other Hawaiian islands.
There’s a lot that IM can and should be doing so the Hawaiian people adopt Ironman as their spirit animal. They are a very spiritual people and pretty open minded in some ways, so Ironman could have been the nurtured even better – I do think they’ve done a pretty solid job on the messaging with the themes and cultural celebrations, etc. Just need more of it and to involve more locals in it.
We know what the locals don’t want- 2 days of racing in a short period. We know what IM wants/needs- 2 day event in a short period at the same site. How do you meet in the middle? And that’s the part where I kinda feel like at this point IM’s goodwill is sorta “fake” in regards to the locals. Like as you put it, no local in their right mind really thinks this is about going all in on the community of Kona….its basically just business at this point.
So back to the marriage analogy, this is when the shrink tells the husband to say nice things to the wife…yet the wife gets mad and replies “your only doing this cus your being told”.
Probably the best word is genuineness. That is long gone imo. It’s simply a carnival that shows up for 10 days every year. Both parties are basically in auto pilot with one another.
Has it basically become Everest 2.0 where a bunch of people over populate the area, run a muck and then bounce?
How tied is triathlon to Hawaii, really?
Maybe it’s different in the US va the rest of the world but I think it’s more nuanced than simply saying that Kona is the heart of triathlon.
As a European I learnt of triathlon from the Olympic games and then learnt about Kona only after I got into Triathlon. The iron wars and all that stuff I learnt only after I got into it.
In the USA the Ironman documentary has been aired on television. I don’t know that it’s true in most countries. I’d bet it’s not true in non-english speaking countries.
I’m also thinking that each country has a different story where having champions made the sport popular - rather than the race itself. The UK had the influence of Chrissie Wellington and the Brownlees after other athletes started it.
Germany had a long series of strong athletes but also Jan Frodeno winning the Olympic games and then moving onto win IM. Spain and France have arguably had more success in the World Triathlon/ITU/Olympic games circuit than long distance.
I’d argue the athletes made more impact than the location of the race.
In many countries short distance triathlon is what people start with. And in many countries (continental europe) the draft legal format is more developed than non-drafting.
So I don’t think it’s accurate to say that everybody gets into triathlon because they want to do Kona.
Can IM even claim to get people into the sport considering most people’s first triathlon is likely not IM branded?
Kona is arguably the heart and pinnacle of long distance triathlon. I’m not sure you can make the same assertion about triathlon in general.
Yes I think we are more talking IM-Kona being so tied at the hip, vs overall/general triathlon. (I think the points still stand, just replace IM vs “triathlon” semantically)
However it’s funny. There is probaly 1 question every athlete on this board has gotten from their non-triathlon friends (or co-workers).
How many times non-triathlon people ask “so you’ve done Hawaii” because they find out your a triathlete.
Like that has to be #1 on the bingo card, 100%. Maybe that only happens in US, I don’t know, but I just find that hillarious, that’s sorta the perception of “triathlon” for most non-athletic people.
I’d say IM’s done a hell of a good job to get people interested in the sport, even if they start with a sprint, etc. Although was it Fleck who famously told the story like 20 years ago at IM FL…standing on the beach among all the athletes and this gal goes “this is my first triathlon and even first open water swim”…#facepalm. lol Maybe that was the reason why IM went all “safety oriented” in the past 15 years with all their CYA now, lol.
Just to add one more view: I’m with @marcoviappiani on this one (I’m born and based in Europe). Non-triathlete friends/colleagues ask about if I do the local triathlons around here, and/or know/train with any of those from my country doing ITU/Olympics. None know of IM Hawaii unless I tell them (and then they have zoomed out bored. )
Here the impact on the wellbeing of the local triathlon communitys growth/decline of having Kona still being the only venue for IM 140.6 WC is none.
You Euros are just built differently. You guys win itu gold medals and want to win more medals or want to beast mode LC. We win itu gold medals and decide to go do other sports.
Although I guess this whole discussion has started because an race in Europe didn’t “sell out” (women) and suddenly has likely caused some “oh shit” moments for IM within their board rooms.
I guess the way you connect those dots is that IM’s strategy has been too much about Kona is the goal and everything else builds towards it and then they realised it prevents growth.
And ofc Ironman is limited also because the brand is the distance. But again, that’s the strength of it also.
I think they can definitely choose to keep Kona the pinnacle but it will keep its limitations and advantages.
Challenge in Europe has started to acquire the big, local short distance races (like London triathlon and Barcelona). I think that’s interesting. We’ll see how that goes (London has already become PTO) but on paper that seems like a more solid strategy for long term growth.
Luckily triathlon isn’t all about Ironman and we’ve got choice.
By the way, I think anyone who hasn’t done the World triathlon (ITU/ETU) AG championships absolutely should for a change. They’re fun in a way that is different from Kona and IM (although organisation quality varies…a lot).
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