I do not get why each group as an individual do not like us as triathletes. Just finished reading the Swim Forum link, read the runners forum a while back and sometimes get a snub from cyclists. What gives.
In my masters groups over the years everyone that I have dealt with has been great and asked about triathlon. Always saying that they would love to be able to do all three sports. I have ridden with roadies and the same thing. They were always nice and welcoming.
When I first started out in Victoria , our running group was a cross of a lot of sports. We had Roland Green (roadie back then), Andreas Hestler (mountain biker), Peter Reid (just moved to Vic) all of which ran out of the running room and Roland and Andreas swam in my masters group in the fast lane. Was great training there back in the day.
I just do not get why it seems that everyone is hating on the triathletes. Please lets not make this a thread where we dis the other sports. I just do not think we would go there.
The swimming one got to me the other day especially after I was reading about Andy Potts. Here is a elite swimmer making the transition to triathlon and doing a great job. How is that guy a master of nothing. The guy could pop into any masters swimming group and kick ass. I am sure that he could probably jump into a road race and a running race and kick some ass too. He was keeping pace with Walton on the bike. The guy has got skills.
You have a few bad apples in every sport. Personally, I too have never met a swimmer hostile towards triathlon (in fact, I know quite a few that have made the transition from swimmer to triathlete.)
No matter where you go, you will always find someone who thinks their sport is the greatest and refuses to ackowledge any other form of athleticism. An example would be, if you were to post here that profesional football players are fitter/more athletic than your average triathlete. That would bring the house down.
We’re not immune from this attitude. Being a triathlete doesn’t make me better than anyone else. I’m better than everyone else for a whole bacth of other reasons.
Maybe because they take themselves too seriously and can’t laugh at themselves? So a thread poking fun at triathletes is seen as ‘hate’ when most of it was just tongue in cheek?
It’s just a friggin sport for chrissakes, not a holy crusade.
Most of it is tongue in cheek. Some of the roadies and runners like to take fun pot shots as us but lots of single sports people actually appreciate the fact that trigeeks concentrate on three sports instead of just one. I know some very fast dedicated runners who are in awe of the fact that we know how to ride a bike or how to swim since they don’t do either.
I agree with you on that. I had an arguement a while back with a guy that played baseball. He said that he considered himself a great athlete. I said I am sure that you are but really baseball is not that tough a sport. Well the guy got pretty pissed. I then mentioned to him that I had played ball for 15 years while growing up and had been pretty successful with it. I also had played soccer for the same 15 years and again had been pretty good. Then I told him that there was just no comparrison. Not saying that our sport is better but really we do not stand in the feild, sit on the bench, or run to a base every so often.
every sport has a small group of a-holes in it. just like we have in tri.
its all the same everywhere I go, most everyone is very nice and happy to have you join them. its the 1-2% that create the geralizations we are talking about.
When I first started riding with a group of bikers from a local bike store in the late 80s I was surprised at the bikers’ hostile attitude towards the few of us who had aero bars on our bikes, a dead giveaway we were not true bikers. After observing this for a couple of years, I hypothesized that people attracted to the sport of bike racing may not have been good at other sports and found that bike racing was something they could compete in without having to contend with the “jocks.” When triathletes showed up, maybe they felt threatened that the “jocks” would discover their sport. I could be all wet about this (i’m sure I am about to find out shortly), but it was the only explanation I could come up with for the hostility.
I know at on my Masters team, it’s a running joke when another new person joins to train for a triathlon, along the lines of, “oh great, another triathlete. Doesn’t anyone just swim anymore?”
It’s like mountain climbing, striving to achieve the pinnicle of your individual sport only to realize other athletes are running, swimming, and biking on by striving for the higher pinnicle of mastering multi-sports. That “left behind” feeling.
I’ve been a runner only, than went to cycling only and now a triathlete. I’ve found runners and triathlete groups very friendly, but cycling is something else. When I first started in cycling, I was at the bottom end of competition. Each event I went to, we’d race and after the race, everyone would leave and no one stayed around to socialize. (runners & triathletes socialize a lot after races). I also noticed the top guys would never talk to me or acknoledge my existence, UNTIl I started staying with them and winning some races. Then and only then they started talking to me. They seem to have this superiority complex. I think the problem is, in cycling, if you can’t hang in with the pack, you loose drastic amounts of time and finish well behind them, whereas in running or triathlons, it’s more an individual sport, so your only competition is time. Because of this, the lead pack has this erroneous idea they are MUCH better than the other cyclist (or any other sport). This feeling of superiority seems to carry on to how they feel toward other sports. That’s probably one of the reasons I went from cycling to triathlons.
"No matter where you go, you will always find someone who thinks their sport is the greatest and refuses to ackowledge any other form of athleticism. An example would be, if you were to post here that profesional football players are fitter/more athletic than your average triathlete. That would bring the house down.
We’re not immune from this attitude. Being a triathlete doesn’t make me better than anyone else. I’m better than everyone else for a whole bacth of other reasons. :-)"
Triathletes are the best of the best in all round endurance. That’s what the sport was specifically designed for more than any other formalized sport. Doesn’t matter what any redneck, dickhead says it’s just a fact.
Footballers players are fitter and more athletic in specific areas such as burst of power and speed and pure anaerobic strength. In each sport requires different types of fitness and athleticism not always directly comparable.
Tri obviously has athletic fitness and skills which swimmers, cyclists and runners cannot thus claim to have sole proprietory of. Maybe that’s what really bugs some of the young fragile ego driven bucks in those sports.
But it wouldn’t do any harm in reducing flak if triathletes stopped sporting them man bras n boy bikinis. Reckon attire along the lines those suits the swimmers use especially made for breathing capabilities and padded for cycling should be used more cuz they look stylish in a manly and not gay boy way.
Just an opin cuz I’m sure many still prefer the man bra outfits.
And Gopha you may wanna check what those whole BACTH of other reasons are that make you so good. -
I also noticed the top guys would never talk to me or acknoledge my existence, UNTIl I started staying with them and winning some races.
You just summed up why I am hesitant to start riding with a local cycling group. But I also think that the “attitude” stems from the long history of respect in cycling. You have to earn the respect to be noticed. Just look at the tremendous respect commanded by the top riders in the TDF and the guys at the back of the pack got the shaft. It is just the way cycling seems to be.
There does seem to be a fair amount of hostility expressed here about the interactions with single sport folk. I have never seen that in 20 + years. I regularly swam with swimmers, cycled with cylists and ran with runners, and never had any problems. There always seemed to be a great deal of respect back and forth.
Part of where I could potentially see friction is when you show up at a work-out and stick out like a sore-thumb because you are the TRIATHLETE - you look like one and all you talk about is TRIATHLON. I say check the tri-look and attitude at the door and you should be fine.
