The invsible triathlete

Triathlon Forum
1

So I noticed Torsten Abel is racing Ironman Canada at the moment. Didn’t hear much from him in the last months, so I wanted to look up what he’s been up to - but there is nothing to find about him. No website, no twitter, (almost) nothing.

What I’m wondering now is: Why would you do that when you’re a pro triathlete? Most pros seem to be very aware of sponsors needs and tweet every few minutes what amazing stuff their sponsors gave to them. At least a blog with a few race reports seems standard - how does someone like Abel bring value to his sponsors? Are there more pros (apart from rookie pros) who are not actively advertising on the web?

2

So I noticed Torsten Abel is racing Ironman Canada at the moment. Didn’t hear much from him in the last months, so I wanted to look up what he’s been up to - but there is nothing to find about him. No website, no twitter, (almost) nothing.

What I’m wondering now is: Why would you do that when you’re a pro triathlete? Most pros seem to be very aware of sponsors needs and tweet every few minutes what amazing stuff their sponsors gave to them. At least a blog with a few race reports seems standard - how does someone like Abel bring value to his sponsors? Are there more pros (apart from rookie pros) who are not actively advertising on the web?

Does he even have sponsors?

3

Maybe he’s self-funded and doesn’t need or want sponsors? Just a wild guess.

4

Wasn’t he racing for Commerzbank which is now defunct?

5

No, he was no part of the Commerzbank team. I think I saw him on the K-Swiss website a while ago. I have no idea if he is sponsored, but like the idea of being self funded and travelling around the world for triathlons :wink:

6

I think Leanda has been keeping him busy :wink:
.

7

I will start by saying this is Leanda Cave (aka Leanda Abel, Torsten’s wife).

Im replying in Torsten’s defense. I think its a question of what comes first: the chicken or the egg? Torsten has sponsors and he has an agent who helps helps find them. However, without results, it is hard to bring value to your sponsors and its even harder to get sponsors on board.

In regards to exposure, would you have even looked him up if he had not had such a great result on the weekend? I mean would you have even “noticed” him? Sponsors only use the athletes for their own marketing if they have success. For instance, I have been sponsored by K-Swiss (who make awesome shoes btw) since their debut into triathlon in 2007. However, I have never been used in any of their marketing campaigns.

There are a number of athletes out there who have not made it onto the social media train because like Torsten, they do not feel they can offer a whole lot until they have the results to validate exposure. But in saying that, he does alot for his sponsors via Facebook and appearances. And granted, after his performance on the weekend, he should be looking at a Twitter account, not to mention a blog. I know that Alistar Brownlee and Helen Jenkins did not have a website or Twitter account until they won their first ITU World Championship title.

And as far as another response to your comment, we are all generally self funded. We all pay for our travel and accommodation to most events…even Vagas 70.3 worlds and Kona. There are some triathletes who are lucky enough to have sponsors cover these expenses and in some cases, the race organizers also help out.

Finally, Torsten is also runs an online coaching business (highontri) which takes up about 40 hours of time online. Thats plenty of time online for anyone! The website for that is not active right now, but thats complicated. At the end of the day, we should be congratulating Torsten on a break through performance and hope to see more of him…he is such a great guy (I should know right!).

8

well with the good result, time for a website!

9

Well I will jump to Torsten’s defense a bit. Torsten is awesome. He may not be omnipresent like some folks, but as one of his Facebook friends he is both personable and responsive. I probably found him through Leanda or he found me from posting on her page, really does not matter. Always rooting for him, hoping he has that breakout race or two and he can turn the corner and step it up.

He knows we are out there. He is always either liking our comments or posts on his page or he generally replies as well.

Just because his star is not shining as bright as another that catches your eye first, doesn’t mean it won’t.

It is easy to be a fan of the Macca’s, Crowies, Rinny and Chrissies of this world, but seriously anyone competing at the pro level, all the more respect to them. Many are break even, probably make more in coaching than racing, but that is more of an indictment of some of the race orgs and the sport as a whole more than them.

What really impresses me about Torsten and Leanda is that they often seem torn in different parts of the country and the world with different races and commitments, and to me I can’t even imagine the added pressure and commitment to maintain a solid and loving relationship, train, coach and race when both spouses are doing it at the professional level.

Websites take time or money. Hell as someone who has been either building websites or web applications for corporations for going on 17 years now, most of the time I don’t have time for a website. Some of the Pros who do… It is nice that it is there, but some are almost a year out of date. In the web world, stale is sometimes worse than none at all.

My impression of him is he is a kind, loving, humble and dedicated person. And frankly, I can imagine with a two athlete family where schedules are sometimes diametrically opposed, reconnecting with a spouse takes priority over tweeting, though sometimes we get a glimpse of that distance and anticipation on FB.

I expect and hope that we all are seeing more success and popularity in the many years to come from both Torsten and Leanda. There really may not be much tougher out there than being an Tri-Couple.

10

uh-oh, don’t get me wrong, this was not meant to be offensive at all. It is like you stated: There is a result, you try to look up the athlete and nothing’s there, so I wondered why. I saw the coaching site down, a few german sites with differing information ( “born in Berlin”, “from Bavaria”), a not publicly accessible facebook account, no twitter, no blog.

Of course there is no point in devoting lots of time to a blog noone cares about - let’s hope for Torsten this will change in the future!

And thank you for the explanation - I do appreciate that a lot!