I don’t think a single person said he was going to have world class success at T100. I think the issue with non-draft is that if you don’t do T100, you then have to race more IM’s due to the requirements in the IMPS, and for a guy as young as Long, if you can get a full contract and only be “filler” results…as long as you can mentally handle that, that seems to be the ticket.
A guy like Jason West probaly moved on because he likely didn’t get much of a contract and his value is only in his results (I don’t even know if his placement even qualified him for a contract for '25). So he quickly pivoted to IMPS because that’s essentially where the money is if it’s not in T100.
Likely a guy like LS is at a point in his career where he’s sorta all in on winning a WC, racing for the most money likely isn’t that much needed with his likely sponsorship status.
Now what I find interesting is a guy like Lange. For years he seemingly was “all in” only in the WC, and now he’s adding more and more IM’s going into WC’s. Last year was the 1st time in forever he did even more than 2 IM’s going into the WC (he did 4). Of course he’s at a point that maybe racing more to go after the larger money available may be smart, and he’s almost by default at a point where he can be competitive in any race essentially. He no longer has any real key weaknesses anymore.
Gotcha, I remember reading in a winter ST article he was certainly having to “reset” goals as T100 was a world championship level event every race.
I wonder why he missed Signapore. Hell I didn’t even know he had a contract, so did he give a “personal reason” to miss? I think they I heard 8 contracted athletes didn’t race (several still showed up to fulfill obligations, so did West do that?)?
I think doing T100 forces him to become a better athlete (most importantly a swimmer) in the long term. At least less so than doing the IMPS. He can have some decent success in the IMPS even with his swim. But over time and in championship races, that catches up to him and other athletes with his lack of swim ability. Doing T100 now forces to him to focus on the swim to help over the long term. It’s not about getting paid this year or even next year. It’s more about being the best athlete he can be in 5-10 years and continually making money year in and year out.
I agree with this take. It’s the harder decision to make but should pay off for him long term.
But man, I can’t imagine going into each race knowing with pretty much 100% certainty that you’ll be last out of the water and will have to bike hard to catch up to to anyone. Mentally that has got to be so draining.
How can this pay off for him when he has no interest in trying to swim with the group? I thought the point of him racing this series was to get faster by swimming with faster athletes, but he seems content just doing his own regular swim pace.
He can’t keep up. He really, really wants to swim with a group - ANY group in T100, but they are all too fast for him in the water. I think he’s making the right move, tactically being prepared to solo the swim and chase from the back (not like there’s any other option.)
It’ll pay off in the long run of his career because he’s now “swim focused” because he’s forced to swim better (while getting a full contract which is the big bonus). So even if this swim focus doesn’t directly translate to swim success in T100 races it’s more because of the 20 person race dynamics, he can help him in other non-draft evens where 50-75 person fields create much different race/swim dynamics.
I know I’m beating a dead horse…BUT this guy loves going big and long. It clearly makes him happy. Watching him in tears at the end of last year T100 Grand Final, that didn’t sound or look like fun for him. Sure doing 2 full IM’s this year in the Pro Series is a lot but that’s so in his wheel house and he probably would be in a better emotional space.
No I mean he’s not having to do at least 2 full IM’s as part of the Pro Series vs. T100. Some people have suggested that schedule would work against him had he opted for the Pro Series. I don’t think that’s a conclusion I would make.
I still think it’s obvious getting a full salary before any race results is the biggest and likely only reason why he’s racing T100. If that wasn’t an option, it would be a no brainer he’d be racing 3 IM’s this year and doing everything in his power to make it and provide for his family in that avenue (IMPS). So this is almost like a gap year for him as a professional. If that wasn’t an option, he’d not be worryign about saving himself, etc., as his goal posts would be shifting. But keep in mind, he still gets to race all the big events he and you are opinining for him to race. So I think for a guy like him with his key swim weakness, uses this year wisely, then I don’t see much downside. He’s still racing the big boy races you want to see him at, he’s still taking care of his family, and he’s going more “all in” on the key weakness than previously in his career. So there still isn’t much downside I see in this “gap year” that you seemingly see. But we may be simply looking at it from different angles.
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest his swim will not appreciably improve this year, I think that’s a very optimistic point of view. So I would discount that as an upside for this season. Relative to the T100 competition he’s going to be DFL every race out of the water trying to solo on the bike. In an IM he can be more in the mix and have help on the bike.
I don’t think anyone said his swim would be helped this year, I’ve certainly not, I’ve said this “gap” year of training is going to allow him to go in on the swim training even at the detriment of his results. And that that will help both short term (being paid before results matter) and long term- his non-draft long distance career.
t’s how do you as an athlete train up to the demands of competition. And in this instance for a guy like Sam Long with his key weakness in the sport, 2025 T100 contract is essentially winning the lottery. It’s a free year to take the results out of the equation while still providing for your family to then go after his swim weakness all the while still racing every big race in the sport that you are opining for him to do. It’s’ the best of both worlds. Again if this wasn’t an option, he would most definetly have gone after the IMPS by default cus that’s where the money is.
Now his swim training seems to be one of the biggest “secrets” in the sport. Who’s guiding/helping/coaching seems to be a bit of a mystery. From every video there seems to be a ton of solo swimming, but maybe that’s only when he’s getting video’d. So I don’t know how he’s tackling the swim other than from his own words of swimming more now than in '24 (when he admits he slacked on it). From my experience I think being in a swim group/squad can help a ton from a motivation/share the misery standpoint + it likely means he gets “eyes” on him during those swims (even if only half the swims, etc). Maybe he has that, maybe he doesn’t. There’s not a ton of explanation of how he tackles the swim basically his whole career. LS the past few years would show his Aqua Bears sets and coach on his videos about every month. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an SL at a swim coached workout video ever. Maybe he has, and I’ve just not paid that much attention to every video he has put out.
Chess not checkers
