Thank god this happened in Mexico and not the Middle East or else we may have blood money 2.0 sticky situation within triathlon…
No he should not be given a slot. He crashed on the bike and lost time. Yes good of him to hang around and do what anyone should do but that doesnt deserve any particular type of attention. Next division with all this crap will be a Nicest Athlete Division.
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But if they gave Laidlow a slot for ignoring a penalty they should give MVR a slot for respecting the rules and providing positive publicity for IM in what otherwise was a pretty bad situation.
He behaved like a professional athlete should do and Laidlow didn’t.
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There’s a huge difference between validating your Q spot and actually earning it. Didn’t really matter where Laidlow finished, he just had to finish. It’s also not like MVR was 2 minutes away from winning the race. Who’s to say that his 20 min mid-race break didn’t enable him to run as well as he did?
However, I’m also of the opinion that Laidlow shouldn’t have been validated after his DQF in the first place, but I can at least understand the reasoning behind it. “Finish an Ironman to validate” has some technicality behind it.
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To @SheridanTris - don’t think the Vitoria validation debacle is a useful benchmark: like part of the interested population, I think IM shouldn’t have allowed that as a validation.
To @Kingy - In the latest iteration, Ironman have actually gone for ‘the reigning Champion does not have to validate’ to avoid this issue. They’ve also nailed down the meaning of ‘finish’:
“Validation Race” means racing competitively (as determined by IRONMAN in IRONMAN’s sole discretion) and being an official finisher"
I shall not reiterate my view / the factors for Ironman on whether MvR should get a pass (upthread) but will refute the assertion that Mark or Pat on Pro Tri News said IRONMAN “owed” MvR a slot is not correct: neither said this.
Maarten did what any human being should have done. And what Laidlow did is irrelevant. All this tit for tat nonsense.
Correct, but my claim wasn’t that they literally said that. Rather, that it followed from their opinions: My polemic with PTN was about Marten being owed a slot (which is what they implied: that he sort of did qualify).
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Re: actually earning it
Were we watching the same race? The one I saw, a SC triathlete showed up at the end of the season to do his first IM, dropped everyone in the water. Led a flat windy ride for 2/3 only got caught by a pack uber bikers working together. Crashed. Decided or was forced to stay due to local regulations, lost 20 minutes, and then still ran a 2:39. About the crash, we could also argue that if affected his run. At the end of the day he still did a 7:56.
It is safe to say that he was in a really good position to win this. Given the allowance of IM rules to invite any athlete to the world championships, he seems like a perfect candidate to earn a spot.
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I can’t find anything on MvR socials or recent interviews where he came out and outright communicated desire or let alone interest to race in Nice. He did hype up the Cozumel race, shared his excitement and curiosity for his first IM distance. OBVIOUSLY he raced for the slot - but perhaps more with a goal to keep his 2025 options open, not necessarily with IMWC as an A goal.
Then he crashed his bike, injured himself and a spectator, cops got involved. This does not look good on him (manoeuver skills) and the organizer (was the course appropriately marked with signs on potholes/speed bumps ? was nothing done to ensure safety of supporters ?
He did the right thing, stuck by the girl he hit, talked to the cops and finished the race in true grit spirit.
Had he very publicly expressed intentions to compete at IMWC (as the reigning T100 champ) then Ironman could’ve made a nice story, looked good by giving him the slot.
I don’t disagree that he deserves it, but from Ironman’s perspective, he’s not the best PR candidate to use your wild card slot.
but laidlow fowllowed the rule , finish an ironman they say said.
they changed it now
officially finish an ironman
there is no rule where i says we give you a slot for being a nice guy.
and nobody so far has said it was ironmans fault for him to crash
if they give him a slot next thing kyle glass will claim that trevor foley should be crowned ironman world champ . thats pink
Oh please! Bitte… Does it count as a “finish” if he relaxes and drafts blatantly for the rest of the race because he got DQed anyway? Or litters as he please? Or changes the course? Or misses the swim and starts the race in T1? He crossed the finish line and “finished an Ironman”, right? The rule doesn’t say he has to start one 
Let’s not get literal. He obviously did not finish the race. Some changes to rules are clarifying and come are altering. This one was clarifying.
Not my intention to derail the thread. We agree that they shouldn’t give Nice Guy a Nice slot. Move on…
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He didn’t follow the rule. He got disqualifying specifically because he didn’t follow rules lol
Well you’re both right. He followed one rule but not another.
and he got punished for the rule he did not follow