The great question is even if they decided to move the “world championship” name to another race besides Kona would people care? Or would Kona still be the main goal world championship or not? It think it would still be the A race for everyone involved.
The pros would care if the prize purse in the “world championship” race were greater than the prize purse offered at the Ironman Kona race. Also, the World Championship qualifiers (read: top age-groupers) would also care if that means that they get to compete against the best in their age group, even if it were in another venue other than Kona.
"It would matter to the Pros, in terms of publicity outside of triathlon being world champion of your sport means more than winning at Kona. "
Would it make that big a difference? Face it they are pro in a sport no one cares about and those who do the sport barely care what the pros are doing.
I take your point. But being wolrd champion is more marketable than winning a race in Hawaii, you know the one that the woman off ‘Biggest Loser’ did. How hard can that be.
Wouldn’t it be great if our sport had more holy places than just the energy lab and queen k? How much poorer would cycling be if we only had the Alpe D’Huez … and not Tourmalet, the Zoncolan, the stadium finish of Paris Roubaix, the Muur, the Pogio … or, off the roads, the sadly run down boards of the Vigorelli?<<
Get back to us when triathlon is 100 years old.
That’s two really dumb things you’ve said in this thread.
When does “history” and “tradition” officially begin? Is it 30 years? 50?
I’m with Tibbsie on this one. I grew up doing the Bud Light series in the mid 80’s. Our holy grails at the time were Hilton Head, NC (Bud Light series champs), Nice and Kona. We allowed the others to fall by the wayside, so now we have Kona. (Presuming you’re a long courser. For those that do sprints and Oly’s, then you have the national championships and Olympics.)
I like the approach that a few others have suggested, pick 5-8 of the best venues, and rotate the Worlds around them. It works for quite a few sports, not least among them the Olympics.
How’d you like to see what Lieto could do at IM St. George? Lanzarote? Malaysia? Somewhere where he doesn’t have to rely on weather to favor him?
What I’d like to see (Even though it’s probably a pipe dream) is for WTC to consider the interests of the sport as much as it does the interests of their bank account.
Actually, most sports move the venues for their WC around, but they don’t move the timing. Cycling WCs are always at the same time every year, etc. That’s what I was getting at…because IM venues are in such different climes, you couldn’t hold them at the same time every year…that’s what would make it difficult, not the fact that the venue was changing.
Spot
Current weather:
Lanzarote: 70-75 degrees
Port Macquarie NSW: 55-65
Frankfurt: 65-70 degrees
Nice: 70-75
Kona: 80-85
St. George 80-85
Are you seriously insinuating that all of the various IM venues would be workable in October?
Lake Placid today: Low of 41, high of 66…that would be a pretty damn chilly start.
Penticton for Monday…high of 53, low of 44…again, pretty chilly for an IM.
I would further note that by Friday, Frankfurt has a low of 37 and a high of 57…do you really think that is inside the doable range?
October in the northern climes is a serious crap shoot at best.
It doesn’t, but as I stated before, moving not only the venue but the time of the year as well would be a complication. No other world championships that I’m aware of moves both the venue and the time of the year. I would think that having each year’s world championship being at a different time of the year would be at least somewhat problematic to pros who focus their entire season on one race. Right now they know that it will be in early October; imagine trying to structure a long term training schedule around a constantly changing time of year for the biggest race of the year.
IM NYC = US Championship.
IM Frankfurt = European Championship
IM Melbourne = Asia/Pacific Championship
Kona = World Championship
Who said that the “Majors” have to be Ironman branded events? Let’s just pick three 140.6 events from around the world and call them the Majors.
That’s how the majors in the other sports developed. In fact, the golf majors used to be the U.S. Amateur, the British Amateur, the U.S. Open and the British Open.
Agreed that there are some complications, but if they did want to do this they would be able to work something out. The Olympic Games move around and are at different times of the year. Grant that’s a four year cycle.
I would think that they would confine it to the 3+ months of the Northern Hemisphere summer and the WTC now has lots of Ironman events in that time frame. October is late for a true world championship.
What this requires is for people to do a complete re-think and drop the dogma, the hang-ups, and attachment to everything Kona.
Are you seriously insinuating that all of the various IM venues would be workable in October?
Lake Placid today: Low of 41, high of 66…that would be a pretty damn chilly start.
Penticton for Monday…high of 53, low of 44…again, pretty chilly for an IM.
I would further note that by Friday, Frankfurt has a low of 37 and a high of 57…do you really think that is inside the doable range?
October in the northern climes is a serious crap shoot at best.
Spot
Insinuating? No. Flat out saying. First week in October, easily. Personally, I’d like to see how athletes compete in the cold as well as the hot. As has been pointed out, Kona favors athletes that do well in Kona conditions. How might Chrissie fair in a colder environment?
Variable conditions, variable races, you would get a wider range of winners.
**What this requires is for people to do a complete re-think and drop the dogma, the hang-ups, and attachment to everything Kona. **
No, it doesn’t require me to do anything, and frankly I find it somewhat annoying that just because I like the way things are, you decide it’s me who has a “hang up.” Some of us like the tradition of Kona. Like I said before, whether one prefers the WC to stay in Kona, or to move around, is really just a matter of personal preference and opinion. There is no right or wrong answer here. You obviously would like it to move around; I like the tradition surrounding the race in Kona. That doesn’t make you right and me wrong, or vice versa.
No, it doesn’t require me to do anything, and frankly I find it somewhat annoying that just because I like the way things are, you decide it’s me who has a “hang up.” Some of us like the tradition of Kona. Like I said before, whether one prefers the WC to stay in Kona, or to move around, is really just a matter of personal preference and opinion. There is no right or wrong answer here. You obviously would like it to move around; I like the tradition surrounding the race in Kona. That doesn’t make you right and me wrong, or vice versa.
Indeed, no right or wrong. My suggestion is that they move it around. I think there would be big advantages to do this, and for many of the folks here - here’s the biggest: While the the WTC’s “world championship” was elsewhere, there would still be an IM race in Kona on the second Sat in Oct, every year, and that race could be exclusively for lottery folks or some other form of general entry. Then bring the “world championship” back every 4 - 5 years. Win win!
How’d you like to see what Lieto could do at IM St. George? Lanzarote? Malaysia? Somewhere where he doesn’t have to rely on weather to favor him?
What I’d like to see (Even though it’s probably a pipe dream) is for WTC to consider the interests of the sport as much as it does the interests of their bank account.
John
See him do what? Overbike and then blow up? Always the same MO
Otherwise I agree with everything else. Rotate, showcase other venues.
BTW, The British Open (golf) moves around, but every few years it returns to ‘the cradle of golf’–St. Andrews.
Other than the Masters, all the golf Majors travel around. The Open Championship has I think either a 5 or 7 course rota, the PGA and the US Open also both rotate around to different venues.
The PGA and U. S. Open don’t have St Andrews. I think the British now has a 5 year return to St. Andrews and less often to the others, but I’m probably wrong on that one.
Kona is legendary enough, that it probably deserves to have the Championship every 2 or 3 years.
