We Noticed: End of an Era as Vasa Shuts Down, IRONMAN Race Fields and More

Triathlon Forum
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Photos: Vasa

To say that Rob Sleamaker and I go way back is the king of understatements. I first met Sleamaker in the mid 80s as a university runner – he was working at an exercise physiology lab in Vermont and did some testing on me. We stayed in touch ever since, and I applauded his work with former triathlon pro Ray Browning on the book Serious Training for Endurance Athletes.

Sleamaker came up with the concept of an indoor swim trainer in 1986, and the first Vasa Trainer swim bench was introduced in 1989. Once available, the Vasa Trainer quickly became a mainstay on college swim decks.

“The Vasa Trainer is a dry-land exercise machine that strengthens the most vital swimming muscles – and then some,” Alex Kostich reported when he reviewed the trainer in 2013. In fact, the Vasa Trainer can simulate swim training so well that we reported on how age-group champ Sam Gyde did all his training on one heading into IRONMAN Texas in 2018.

Sam Gyde and His VASA: Shut My Mouth

Sleamaker’s endless imagination allowed for lots of adaptations to the Vasa Trainer so it could be used for lots of other activities. Thanks to a platform and strategically placed surgical tubing, the Vasa Ergometer in my basement quickly converts to a “pilates-like” trainer that allows me to work on my leg strength. In addition to getting swim training sessions done, it’s also a great coaching tool that I use to show athletes exactly what I mean by a “high-elbow catch” and to finish their stroke.

This week Sleamaker sent out a message letting us know that he was shutting things down at Vasa.

“After 38 incredible years of building and operating Vasa, it is time for me to retire,” he wrote. “This decision has been made with thoughtful consideration and deep gratitude. From the very beginning in 1988, our mission has been to help athletes train smarter, stay healthy, and perform at their best. Along the way, we’ve had the privilege of serving competitive, swimmers, triathletes, coaches, surfers, Nordic skiers, physical therapists, and fitness enthusiasts around the world.”

For those who own a Vasa Trainer, the website remains live for at least the next three months “so customers can continue to access important resources.”

Sleamaker is hoping that the Vasa legacy will continue under new ownership, and he’s currently seeking “the right buyer to carry Vasa forward.”

It would be a shame to see Vasa end up the same way Computrainer did. For decades that company was the undisputed leader on the electronically controlled trainer world, but never really innovated. Despite the bomb-proof hardware and excellent power accuracy, the Computrainer software and connectivity never really changed, and the company would eventually close down in 2017 as the competition surged by.

Vasa’s equipment featured the same bomb-proof durability and Sleamaker was quick to jump on the Ant+ connectivity that would allow data to be exported. That would be upgraded to Bluetooth connectivity in 2022, allowing athletes to record, store and analyze data while using applications to create specific workouts. I hope Sleamaker finds that owner, but most of all, I wish him well in retirement. (Although, knowing Rob, there’s some other patent he’s no doubt working on!)

London Marathon Events Acquires Frankfurt Marathon

I found this to be an interesting development – the company that runs the London Marathon has made its first international acquisition, taking over the company that runs the Frankfurt Marathon. In addition to the flagship marathon, London Marathon Events (LME) runs the Mini London Marathon race for kids, the Big Half (half marathon), London 10,000 (10K), the Westminster Mile, Great City Race (5K) and the Loch Ness Marathon and Etape Loch Ness.

It’s not like other major marathon organizers don’t put on a variety of different races – the New York Road Runners organizes more than 60 events every year – but those are all within the New York area. LME appears to looking to expand on a more international scale, so it will be interesting to see if this is just the first of many acquisitions coming down the line, following a similar event-based business model as IRONMAN.

Don’t Forget Us! South Africa and Valencia Pro Fields

We wrote about the “insanely competitive IRONMAN Texas field” earlier this week, but next weekend (April 19) also signals the start of the European race season with IRONMAN 70.3 Valencia, and there’s also the IRONMAN South Africa African Championship with its US$150,000 prize purse and four pro qualifying slots per gender for Kona taking place that weekend, too.

Matthew Marquardt wins the 2025 IRONMAN Lake Placid. Photo: Hector Vivas/Getty Images for IRONMAN

Highlighting the South Africa men’s field will be American Matthew Marquardt, fresh off competing at the 600 km Cape Epic mountain bike race, and South Africa’s Jamie Riddle, who finished fifth last year in his IRONMAN debut. Others in the field to keep an eye on include 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series champ Matthew Barnaby (ITA), Germany’s Frederic Funk, Brit Joe Skipper, South African Bradley Weiss, Belgian Pieter Heemeryck and Sweden’s Rasmus Svenningsson.

BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY
M1 Matthew Marquardt United States
M2 Jamie Riddle South Africa
M3 Rasmus Svenningsson Sweden
M5 Gregory Barnaby Italy
M6 Joe Skipper United Kingdom
M7 Bradley Weiss South Africa
M8 Michael Weiss Austria
M9 Dominik Sowieja Germany
M10 Benjamin Hill Australia
M11 Mattia Ceccarelli Italy
M12 Matt Burton Australia
M13 Tristan Olij Netherlands
M14 Stenn Goetstouwers Belgium
M15 Andreas Dreitz Germany
M16 Mikel Ugarte Ramos Spain
M17 Pieter Heemeryck Belgium
M18 Florian Angert Germany
M19 Louis Richard France
M20 Ollie Turner Jersey
M21 Andrew Horsfall-Turner United Kingdom
M22 Pim Van Diemen Netherlands
M23 Cameron Macnair South Africa
M24 Keegan Cooke South Africa
M25 Marc Eggeling Germany
M26 Zoran Nikolics Hungary
M27 Paul Loiseaux France
M28 Pascal Franken Netherlands
M29 Tim Gošnjak Slovenia
M30 Adam Lennell Sweden
M31 Matt Ralphs South Africa
M32 Giel Meesen Netherlands
M33 Jacob Lind Knudsen Denmark
M35 Wojciech Kopycinski Poland
Katrine Christensen. Photo: Challenge Sir Bani Yas

The women’s field includes Denmark’s Katrine Græsbøll Christensen, who won Challenge Sir Bani Yas earlier this year, and also won IRONMAN Sweden and finished third in Nelson Mandela Bay last year. There are a number of Germans ready to take on Christensen, though, including Merle Brunée (fourth at the Sir Bani Yas race in January), Laura Janson (fourth in the IRONMAN Pro Series last year), 2022 South Africa and Frankfurt champion, Daniela Bleymehl, and Julia Skala. (In fact, seven of the 18 athletes in the pro women’s field are German.)

Here’s the full women’s pro list.

BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY
F1 Katrine Christensen Denmark
F2 Merle Brunnée Germany
F3 Laura Jansen Germany
F4 Anna Pabinger Austria
F5 Penny Slater Australia
F6 Daniela Bleymehl Germany
F7 Rebecca Anderbury United Kingdom
F8 Julia Skala Germany
F9 Henrike Güber Germany
F10 Fiona Moriarty Ireland
F11 Katie Colville United States
F12 Kyra Meulenberg Netherlands
F13 Clarice Chastang United States
F14 Marit Lindemann Germany
F15 Antonia Milowsky Germany
F16 Daisy Davies United Kingdom
F17 Claire Hann United Kingdom
F18 Michelle Krebs Switzerland

There are over 100 pros set to compete in Valencia, including 2023 IRONMAN world champion Sam Laidlow (FRA), who has rarely competed at 70.3 races in the past. (I can only see a DNF from 70.3 Rueben in 2017 in previous results!) He’ll take on defending champ Johannes Vogel (GER), and his countrymen Fabian Kraft (runner-up last year).

BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY
M1 Johannes Vogel Germany
M2 Sam Laidlow France
M3 Lasse Nygaard Priester Germany
M4 Rostyslav Pevtsov Ukraine
M5 Fabian Kraft Germany
M6 Nick Emde Germany
M7 Simon Viain France
M8 Gabriel Sandör Sweden
M9 Sebastian Wernersen Norway
M10 Cedric Osterholt Germany
M11 Gábor Faldum Hungary
M12 Samuel Studer Switzerland
M13 Valdemar Solok Denmark
M14 William Draper Isle of Man
M15 Thomas Davis United Kingdom
M16 Wilhelm Hirsch Germany
M17 Jack Hutchens United Kingdom
M18 Louis Buttrick United Kingdom
M19 Rafael Lukatsch Austria
M20 Will Grace United Kingdom
M21 Valentin Rouvier France
M22 Quentin Barreau France
M23 Dylan Magnien France
M24 Simon Westermann Switzerland
M25 Nick Thijs Belgium
M26 William Even France
M27 Hannes Butters Germany
M28 Florent Lefebvre France
M29 William Mennesson France
M30 Bastian Peitersen Denmark
M31 Niek Heldoorn Netherlands
M32 Vincent Größer Germany
M33 Ernest Mantell United States
M34 Malachi Cashmore United Kingdom
M35 Neilan Kempmann Germany
M36 Michiel Stockman Belgium
M37 Pierre Stieremans France
M38 Patrick Benz Switzerland
M39 Arne Leiss Germany
M40 Sven Thalmann Switzerland
M41 Ivan Cappelli Italy
M42 Arthur Horseau France
M43 Lilian Pierre France
M44 Filippo Candeo Italy
M45 Sergio Lopez Spain
M46 Thomas Teofili France
M47 Robin Hermann Switzerland
M48 Joona Lehtonen Finland
M49 Antonio Limoli Italy
M50 Matthew Palmer Denmark
M51 Louis Heukemes Belgium
M52 Maxence Castel France
M53 Gwenaël Millot France
M54 Marek Janisz Poland
M55 Brecht Van Vooren Belgium
M56 Arthur Serrieres France
M57 Ivor Feunekes Netherlands
M58 Nacho Galvez Spain
M59 David Ponce Spain
M60 Arthur Blasco France
M61 Maxime Berland France
M62 Patrik Sauve Germany
M63 Kelvin Krelke Gibraltar
M64 Damián Gomez Spain
M65 Juan Martínez Colombia
M66 David Baz Germany
M67 Matthias Prada Denmark
M69 Frederik Malagon France
M70 Rémi Gravendyk Wester Denmark

Danielle Kleiser (GER) is back to defend her Valencia title. She’ll face some stiff competition in the form of France’s Marjolaine Pierre, Germany’s Lena Meissner and Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds.

BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY
F1 Daniela Kleiser Germany
F2 Marjolaine Pierre France
F3 Lena Meißner Germany
F5 Kaidi Kivioja Estonia
F6 Marta Lagownik Poland
F7 Anastacia Damm Nielsen Denmark
F8 Aurelia Boulanger France
F9 Leana Bissig Switzerland
F10 Sif Bendix Madsen Denmark
F11 Alexandra Tondeur Belgium
F12 Michelle Stratton United States
F13 Milan Agnew Australia
F14 Rachel Brown United Kingdom
F15 Sofia Aguayo Mauri Spain
F16 Laura Strack Germany
F17 Cathia Schär Switzerland
F18 Molly Savill United Kingdom
F19 Alice Betto Italy
F20 Marie Luyckx Belgium
F21 Sophie Delguste Belgium
F22 Chloe Nicolas France
F23 Loanne Duvoisin Switzerland
F24 Mareike Guhl Germany
F25 Courtney Wevers Australia
F26 Brooke Gillies United Kingdom
F27 Chloe Sparrow United Kingdom
F28 Mimi Carlton United Kingdom
F29 Sophie Evans United Kingdom
F30 Friedel Cuypers Belgium
F31 Larissa Jasper Germany
F32 Cindy Lefebvre Belgium
F33 Francesca Smith United Kingdom
F34 Sonia Tomegros Regalado Denmark
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I love my Vasa swim erg. With the Vasa, bike trainer, and treadmill, indoor triathlon season is all winter long. While you can access the Vasa site for info for three months, they shut down purchasing. This is unfortunate as I would have like to purchase various parts for future maintenance. I wonder if Concept 2 (rowing ergs) would be interested in taking over Vasa.

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I had the Vasa Swim trainer. I never got around to getting the Vasa swim Erg, but recently I bought the Concept 2 Ski Erg. Realistically, I think the Concept2 ski Erg is actually a better machine for swimming than the Vasa Swim Erg because the concept2 Ski erg integrate the connection between the arms and feet through the core that the swim erg does not (it is still awesome).

I THINK as swim teams figure out how to use the Concept2 Ski Erg it will become a mainstay for swim squads. I actually attached my stretch chords to the ceiling during the pandemic and trained for swimming standing up (rather than lying down as on the Vasa Swim Trainer) and I found that orientation superior than bending over and trying to do stretch chords in an L shaped body position trying have the upper body mimic lying down in the water. Rather, rotating everyone 90 degrees to standing with my attachment point in the ceiling was a better approach to real swimming.

I think the Concept2 ski erg accomplishes this really well . You don’t really need to modify it to attach swim paddles as the ski handles are fine for conditioning the main muscles and core.

Having said that, I would like to thank Rob Sleemaker for his innovation and contribution to several sports

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A local pro athlete gifted me a vasa trainer and it has been such a staple for me. Sad they are going away.

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well, you can also use treadmill mode on your watch using a bowflex total gym as the cheapest way, which is what I do.

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I actually reached out to Rob about the vasa. We talked for about an hour a year ago. I saw this coming. It’s sad though. It’s such a great product. I have one. But it’s BORING. Yes it has ant but the apps are limited and yes you can use trainerroad but I don’t want a second bike power number. A guy reached out to me about an app he was creating that’s like Zwift called swymline. It’s got promise but I need to use it more often.

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I’m surprised a company like Concept 2 hasn’t made their own swim trainer. It seems to be right their wheel house. Presumably some of these fitness companies would be interested.

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Interesting. I also have the concept 2 ski erg (for Hyrox training) but always have used it with a cross country skiing style. Inability to rotate has always been the chief limitation of the Vasa. Someone made an erg that did have the ability to pivot but it disappeared quickly. Regarding Apps, Trainer Day works with the swim erg and allows you to create custom workouts.

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How do you guys use your Vasa swim ergs? You mentioned boring but whether I am on a swim trainer, swim erg, ski erg, rowing erg, elliptical trainer, I just use it as part of some kind of a circuit (use it as a station) usually not more than 20 min in one shot. That’s not enough time to become bored. Other than a bike trainer, I don’t use any equipment as a replacement for the real world sport. Even my treadmill runs are 20-30 min max. I just warmup, then I do some treadmill hills to get heart going, then I stride out and I am done.

Would you guys actually use a Vasa swim erg to replace a full swim. Even when I swim, I barely never go more than 400m free continuous. I am literally changing strokes every 2 minutes or going into kicks and drills and I can last two hours. I won’t last in the pool doing freestyle for 40 min. But doing all strokes, 2 hrs no problem.

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I’m sad to hear Vasa shutting down. I’m actually really surprised too, I thought it had enough popularity by now that it would be bought by enough serious triathletes to stay around.

I’ve posted a ton about my erg in the past, I still think it’s absolutely great, even if isn’t a complete pool replacement. (Obviously you can’t learn to swim or improve your subtle swim technique with it.)

But it’s a great piece of equipment - even though I’m almost all pool swimming now as my kid aged up, I don’t hesitate to jump on my erg if I miss a pool session, pools are closed, or just want a more arm-focused less-cardio swim workout.

I do two main types of Vasa erg workouts that both work great, and both have definitely translated into pool benefits, and very quickly:

SHORTER: 20-40 mins super hard intervals of like 1-2 minutes on and <1 min off. Kinda like similar to a set of 15-20 x 100 in the pool, almost as hard as you can go without fading. I feel that on the erg, without the oxygen debt, you can hammer your arms even harder than the pool on these, and yes, it’s not a fun workout! But these get me in pool swim shape the fastest, to the point I’m usually surprised I’m hitting my best times in the pool sometimes with barely swimming in the pool when schedule is tough. Seriously, 20 minutes of 8-10 of these all-out intervals is a really good swim pull workout for almost no time, I should do it more, they’re just physically hard to do!

LONGER: 60-120 mins of continuous, easy-moderate effort erg. I honestly think these are great for developing that long endurance so you don’t fade at HIM or def IM distance. At least for me, these invariably get surprisingly challenging at the 60 min mark, no matter what shape I’m in. For me they def translate to being able to swim long swim workouts like 90+ mins and not fade. A key move here as well is to put a laptop down on the floor and fire up a really good movie, with bluetooth headphones. It’s still not exactly ‘fun’ after 60 minutes, but it def makes the time go a lot faster with a great show. When I’m replacing important swim workouts, I’ll do things like do some 2-5 min intervals scattered in there as well, with action movies it’s fun to do them when the action starts!

I’m going to see if I can pre-emptively order a Vasa cable replacement set as I’ve worn out my cables from use before. (Just checked they’re sold out! Hopefully someone will come buy the company.)

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It’s really sad news about Rob and Vasa, but I echo the sentiments and wish Rob a happy retirement. Thanks @TriathlonJoe for mentioning it. I have been working with Rob for the last couple of months, and we have created software that connects to the Vasa Swim Erg via Bluetooth and is a bit like Zwift for swimmers. Hopefully, he finds a buyer to keep supporting dryland swimmers.

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Maybe this is just me, but I imagine it would be so much fun if you could actually gamify this stuff. Like you pass somebody and click a button on Zwift and it drops a banna peel in front of them, which causes their bike erg to loose torque and suddenly they are spinning at low power for 3 seconds.

For swimming, imagine you’re displayed as a shark, eating up people you pass. Has anyone actually gamified these apps yet, or are we just still pretending we’re racing but with silly avatars on screen?

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Funny you mention it, I was just reading about https://www.gtbikev.com/
I’d be all about it if there was a racing scene but to my knowledge there is not.

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It would be friggin’ awesome if someone did that! Unfortunately, I suspect there are too few users of the Vasa erg to get a regular community going like zwift, but man, that would be fun.