But remember, Wurf was a U23 world champion rower and a 2004 Olympian.
Cycling and then triathlon have been his retirement gigs /pink
Where are you getting those statās?
Lionel has never podiumed at tbe 70. 3 Worldās.
He has won 5 (not 7) Ironmans,(2 without a swim)
Forgot about his ITU World Long Course Worlds Win in 2017.
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That seems REALLY high for a doctor lifetime earningsā¦
No idea where you got these stats but they are so wrong. Sanders did not race 70.3 worlds in 2017 nor 2018. In 2018, he would have got massacred racing Jan, Brownlee and Gomez.
Good comment, but this particular aspect made me chuckle as I didnāt think the worst paying sport in the history of the world could finance the most expensive service known to man.
Did some googling.
The average cost of a state-run med school in the U.S. is $70k a year.
Matt grossed around $100k from Ironman last year, including $30k in prize money and $70k in the Pro Series bonus for his 4th place. Heās bound to make more in prize money this year (got $17k for 8th in IM WC and $18k, albeit minus punitive Oz tax, for winning IM Cairns) but probably less in the Pro Series bonus as #4 is currently a best case scenario for Matt.
If you deduct ābusiness expensesā and income tax, this sort of money wonāt pay for med school, let alone living expenses.
How much do sponsors contribute? No idea. But I imagine it would have to be in excess of $60-80k for triathlon to pay for med school and Mattās living.
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āFraid not. Off topic, but Marquardt will make way less in prize money this year compared to last year. You mention IM Cairns ($18k) but fail to note his winnings from IMLP - was that $25k? And #8 got him $13k (not $18k). $56k so far. Wrt your ābest case scenario for Mattā he is not Q for Marbella (he only raced/scored 3 x IM and one 70.3) so I estimate he will finish #11 in the IM Pro Series (behind Chevalier but ahead of Hanson and Wurf) and thatās āonlyā another $8k.
Total = $64k, >36% lower than 2024.
On topic though, Long cannot access any of the IM Pro Series money because he has not shown the ability to race more than the odd full distance race with any success even if he can score the odd domestic 70.3 win. Unless money is no object, Long has to plough his lonely (in the water) T100 furrow and obtain solace and morale boost from passing a few on his bike and a few more on the run. With the odd 70.3 for podium accolades (and partner bonuses).
Plenty of women seem able to recognise they are best sticking to MD: Long needs to join them. Well done being prepared to race this w/e only 14 days after Nice, but where does it lead? He may get to Kona in 2026 but is that really the āpromised landā for him and his growing family?
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$30million Australian dollars perhaps?
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If you run the math, a surgical oncologist with a 600K starting salary in the US working 30 years with annual 3%/4% raises from merit/inflation will earn well above 30M over a career. Itās wild!
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Flat with no raises: 30 Ć 600K ā 18M
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With 3% growth: ends near 1.45M per year in year 30, cumulative ā 27Mā28M
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With 4% growth: ends near 1.95M per year in year 30, cumulative ā 33Mā34M
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600K starting salary? when? perhaps after all your specializationsā¦
Also, according to googleā¦A surgical oncologist in the U.S. earns an average annual salary of approximately $341,808. However, salaries can vary significantly, with the typical range spanning from around $300,000 at the lower end to over $395,000 for top earners. Factors such as location, years of experience, practice type, and specific sub-specialty within surgical oncology influence the final compensation.
Tiny differenceā¦
Forget Google, ask someone who hires or sees MDās paychecks. Right now, in the U.S., physician recruitment is so competitive that starting salaries for new MDs often clear $300,000, with rural hospitals and practices commonly adding $50,000 to $100,000 sign-on bonuses just to secure a hireā¦ His career path is that of a surgical oncologist!
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Iām a bit more positive on Sam. Swim has improved and he seemed to get through Nice- a high kj race pretty well. Didnāt he used to struggle over long distance?
All he needs is a few good wheels to work with to bring him closer to the front on a bike and heāll be good. His run is already pretty solid.
Samās rate of improvement being positive isā¦ positive. But then look at the rate of improvement of the top people in long course triathlon. Samās biggest strength is arguably his run. 2:3x low is the new normal for the best guys in races they try to peak for, and Sam barely broke 2:40 in Nice.
This is the challenge. And I would say very few recognize it and even less know what to do about it. It was brought up in the other thread. Stay tunedā¦.itās topic that will become hot.
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Laidlow beat his Nice winning time by,I think,three minutes and came 5th. The bar has been raised and Longs calculations of what it would take to get in the mid top ten were way off.
Reality checks for everyone.
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I canāt imagine the stress of self coaching yourself in todayās climate especially with a key weakness resulting in you always having to chase others. Having to build a daily/weekly plan, self regulate yourself etc, thatās just wild to me and then have WC win/podium as your goals/expectations. Thatās gotta be a ton of mental gymnastics going on with those athletes imo.
Long āexpectedā top 10 so was it his own coaching the issue? Like is Long the coach failing Long the athlete? Under normal circumstances a pro level coach would likely take the L with not meeting expectations right? Hell athletes fire their coaches when itās still going well. So thatās another layer to the self coached athlete. Is it actually working? I thought expecting/thinking top 10 was completely unrealistic, as I said top 1x would be āsuccessā. But if the athlete views it as failure whose fault is it?
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Iād say itās even harder to find the type of person that can bring him to the next level given the acceleration of the pointy end of the field
If thatās the only threshold, of course itāll never work. If the only successful goal is winning a WC or podiuming again (because it was accomplished 5 years ago in the sport), I think we have an failure to understand the sport more than anything. So if thatās the barometer to picking a coach, then yes just stick to self coaching.
If not winning, what is Bluās goal ? If that is his goal, what does he not understand about the sport ?
Iād suggest your question is N/A with Blu considering his parlays in our sport (gold medalist, 2 x WC winner, countless WC podium). If your saying there arenāt any coaches out there that can take Sam Long the ~T20 WC caliber athlete to podium/winning WC, then yes I agree with you. If thatās the only metric that will be used in whether to work with an coach or not, Iāll just say thatās probaly the worst way/reason to get a coach. Most athletes donāt use that specific outcome goals as justification for why they get a coach, no one is saying āpodium or fired coachā when they get a coach, most use it more process oriented with picking someone to put them in the best position with the best plan that meets the demands of competition. The result is almost then secondarily because you can have the race of your life and still loseā¦.is that āfailureā, only in the sense that you got beat by someone better. But if your then saying that coach failed you, or you shouldnāt have gotten a coach then Iād say thatās a prospective problem.
So Iām with you, if Longās only viewpoint is how to get a coach to get him to podium/win WCās or else itās a waste of money, stay self coached.
So back to my point, I canāt imagine the stress an athlete is under self coaching themselves, having to constantly analyze their workouts, plan their workouts, watch the sport progress, expecting/thinking your goals should be win/podium/T10 at WCās, and it all end well? That seems to be a recipe for mental anguish.
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Lionel once said that while he would like to win, if he knew he had done everything possible and he came 8th, he would be satisfied. I think this is a healthy approach.
But doing āeverythingā means exploring every avenue and possibility. There are very few people that know what has to be done to get to the top step on the podium. Even fewer know how to apply it properly.
And for the record, I am not pretending to know. But I see a HUGE delta between what different athletes/teams are doing to get to the top.
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