The USAT qualification for elite says, “Elite athletes must submit ONE race result in which the athlete finished within 8% of the winner’s time at an event that offered a prize purse of $5,000 or greater.”
However, looking at this year’s NYC triathlon, not a single elite athlete was within 8% of Ben Collins’ winning time. Last year, only one elite male was within 8% of the winner.
What am I missing? Does “winner” mean the elite winner? Not the pro winner?
Also, the NYC triathlon site says to qualify as elite you must have done an Olympic in 2:10 or less in the last 12 months. It doesn’t say you must meet the USAT elite qualification rules.
I can kinda help cause I’m playing this game now. Races like NYC top 3 elite amateurs would earn their pro license if the money offered is 20k and they’re within 8% of winners time. That’s because the race size is so large and it tends to draw in more competitive fields. When saying elite what you mean is pro the terms are interchangeable. Elite Amateur is the “elite” division in this case. Sometimes an 8% doesn’t happen but athletes can petition that it gets looked at when someone like Ben Collins dominates a race like he did. Other ways to earn your elite license or pro license are detailed on usat’s website.
The USAT qualification for elite says, “Elite athletes must submit ONE race result in which the athlete finished within 8% of the winner’s time at an event that offered a prize purse of $5,000 or greater.”
However, looking at this year’s NYC triathlon, not a single elite athlete was within 8% of Ben Collins’ winning time. Last year, only one elite male was within 8% of the winner.
What am I missing? Does “winner” mean the elite winner? Not the pro winner?
Also, the NYC triathlon site says to qualify as elite you must have done an Olympic in 2:10 or less in the last 12 months. It doesn’t say you must meet the USAT elite qualification rules.
I’m thoroughly confused.
There’s ‘Pro’, and then there’s ‘Elite’. Elite is typically meant to be ‘Elite Age Group’ - which is what NYC is. The elite min qualification is for elite age groupers and is a sub-2:10. This puts you in the third wave (after Pro Men, then Pro Women). The problem is two fold - one is that USAT wants to use the terms interchangeably - thus the very finite differences. According to the USAT site, it’s merely an ‘Elite License’ - which means in your head, anytime you think pro, substitute ‘Elite license’, but don’t confuse it with ‘Elite AG’ or ‘Elite Amatuer’.
The pro field in this particular race requires a USAT Pro/Elite Card, which is where the 8% rule kicks in. But, there will certainly be races where the Pro (with a pro/elite card) field that shows up just can’t get within 8%. In this case, it’s likely that the field was lower as so many top folks were in London.
Of course, one could argue about why there’s an Elite AG field at all - but then you have to get into the lack of structured development advancement system in USAT…and that’s another thead.
The USAT qualification for elite says, “Elite athletes must submit ONE race result in which the athlete finished within 8% of the winner’s time at an event that offered a prize purse of $5,000 or greater.”
However, looking at this year’s NYC triathlon, not a single elite athlete was within 8% of Ben Collins’ winning time. Last year, only one elite male was within 8% of the winner.
What am I missing? Does “winner” mean the elite winner? Not the pro winner?
Also, the NYC triathlon site says to qualify as elite you must have done an Olympic in 2:10 or less in the last 12 months. It doesn’t say you must meet the USAT elite qualification rules.
I’m thoroughly confused.
Basically what you need to know is that elite amateur or elite age group != elite.
USAT refers to the pro card as an Elite lisence. Elite though actually means ‘Pro’. You have to qualify for the lisence using the criteria you listed. Elite Amateur, on the other hand, is self declared. So you could have a guy who is going 1:52 and beating a bunch of the ‘pros’ and another guy who is going 2:22. Usually though it seems most people are pretty honest about it and it’s a pretty fair representation of the fastest amateurs in the race.
It seems in the past few years that the idea of having an elite amateur wave has really taken off. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense for those athletes competing for the overall - who aren’t really interested in age group placing. Allowing them to go off first means that they have an equally fair race, compared to 2 people “racing” where one went off in the 1st wave and the other went off in the 10th.
I think your math is a little off, there were 10 Elites within Ben’s winning time. 1:48 = 108 minutes – 8% = 1.08 X 8 = 8.64 mins. At that race there was the Elite/Pro Race which Ben won and the Elite Age Group race. If you were just referring the Elite Age Group race then you were correct there were not any age groupers close to gaining Elite Status at this race.
Not sure how you define it but it seems that in several recent elections, that it’s the “elites” of our society that seem to be getting blamed for just about everything!
To confuse matters even further, some events have an “Elite” wave, where you get to race from the front, but forfeit AG prizes.
Not sure there’s any specific qualification for this honor, other than registering for it.
Example: In spite of finishing 6th & 7th OA the last 2 years at Toughman, I have once again declined to be in the Elite wave.
First off - have you seen me swim? I’d be solo the whole way after the first :10 seconds. That doesn’t sound like much fun.
Secondly - I do best when having somebody slightly less lame to draft offa in the swim, and I get motivated passing lots of folks on the bike.
Thirdly - I like winning AG schwag, particularly at Toughman cuz they have some really nice stuff. I have no chance for top 3, since there’s usually a coupla 2-3 Pros there, and then a few fast young AG doodes.
Lastly - in spite of having to work my way thru the earlier waves, I still do just fine, and end up beating all the folks I’d beat anyway - like Zack P, who in spite of having a clear course in front of him, and outsplitting me by 6 mins in the swim, I beat by 20 mins. Doesn’t sound very Elite to me.
Cue Zack with the lame excuses in 3… 2… 1…
According to the USAT site, it’s merely an ‘Elite License’ - which means in your head, anytime you think pro, substitute ‘Elite license’, but don’t confuse it with ‘Elite AG’ or ‘Elite Amatuer’.
Doh! OK it all makes sense now.
Well, except for the decision to use “Elite” for both. That’s absolutely retarded.
