The World Tri champs are this weekend…just curious does anyone really care about the draft legal world champs. Or do we really only care about the IM world champ? Seems like the super bowl and BCS champs gets more chatter on this triathlon forum then the triathlon world champs.
Really, myself, I dont really care…skipped the awards cerempny in Shreveport and lost my slot to go to POrtugal
M. Schumacher 4
Rest of World 0
I’ll bet S. Taormina, L. Reback, and S. Williams care. But, then, they don’t post here so whether any of “us” care is still debatable. Wait, I do, all the aformentioned are PC’ers.
Frank
Guess it must not matter a lot to some…currently taking a first aid course with one of Canada’s top up and comers who should be there instead. But it must matter to another local boy, Matt Reid, who got a front page spread in the local paper recently (nothing like shameless self promotion…Go Matt). When all is said and done wearing the Oly gold matters more I suppose. Good thing Simon is finally finding his form.
Frank, if the ITU has some “REAL” marketing then we would all care. At the moment, so one even knows that the ITU world’s are about to happen this weekend, because you have a bunch of bureaucrats running the ITU instead of some real businessmen who can market a valuable property like the tri world championships.
As far as I see, a lot of “local races” like Muskoka, Eagleman, Lubbock and others get more press !
You are right. ITU is a big wasteland marketing wise. Doesn’t even look like there is any TV this year even on OLN. If it weren’t for the Olympics this type of racing would have died out a long time ago.
I agree, beside Hunter K, I dont think I know who the other American Male racers are, and Ive been doing this sport since '91.
I think the Ballys Fitness Race for Hundreds of thousands of dollars is more exciting personally…at least we get to watch it on TV. We will never se the Portugal Worlds on TV…maybe one or tweo pics in Traithlete mag or Inside TRI…if we’re lucky maybe a few extras on xtri.com.
Being an Oly. year…I bet the racers are even relatively “less” interested in the Worlds race this year comnpared to others, as they would probably liketo win the Olympics more.
M Schumacher 4
Rest of World 0
in the US for the most part it’s all about IM. Most of the rest of the world focuses on ITU racing. ITU would be more popular, even more so than IM, if the ITU had competent visionary leadership.
For a triathlete like most other sports winning 1 olympic gold is worth more than winning 2 or more IMH’s. who is the more popular triathlete in the world peter reid or simon whitfiled. simon
For a triathlete like most other sports winning 1 olympic gold is worth more than winning 2 or more IMH’s. who is the more popular triathlete in the world peter reid or simon whitfiled. simon
I don’t neccessarily agree with either of these assertions.
I care, but only because there are valuable fantasy tri points at stake.
What’s the point of a World Championship in an Olympic year anyway? This year’s real World Champions will be whoever wins in Athens.
Cos of your tag I assumed you meant Formula 1! & the answer would have been a resounding NO, top 6 cars on same 6 corners 50+ times, DULL. Then I read the post and saw you meant ITU, last week I would have said no, but after recording the scheduled IMNZ TV coverage to see Bjorn and if Tom D appeared. Sat down to watch… and ITU from Ishigaki, so I can’t even be bothered to say no, but if it’s on later I’ll watch it just to boost Tri viewing figures for tv, after all you never know.
I care!!!
there are some friends of mine that can still qualify for the olympics like Bruno Pais and Maria Areosa not to speak of Vanessa Fernandes (that is qualified for quite long time) and sure will battle for the front spots.
There will be others Portuguese short course triathlon guys like my junior team mate Tiago Neves, and not so team mates Duarte Marques and Paulo Antunes that will be at the elite start. All these guys train in the same pool that I train at the same hour, so I will have plenty to care about in the weekend 
For those of us that are the hard core, yes it is fun to watch a highly competitive race. Usually I get to be there racing in the age group race to see it, but along with Dan, Emilio, and hoards of my other friends, we bailed out of the race this year. It was just too early in the season for us, too close to big half Ironmans here, too expensive to get to, and just a hell of a long way to go. I really feel bad for any Americans that had to train anywhere east of the rockies. They got slammed right up to the time of leaving. I don’t believe our AG’r team will be too competitive this year.
On another subject, I don’t know if you realize that the AG’r entry fees basically pay for the pro race to happen. I have no problem with that, except that next year we don’t even get to do the same race as the pros. They race in Japan I believe, and we race in Hawaii. There is something wrong with this disconnection. That was always one of the great things about our sport. You get to be where the best are, do a little hob knobbing, and have a few beers afterwards with the elite. Our entry fees are paying their $200,000 prize purse, should’nt we get to at least watch them?
This year the Muskoka Long Course tri will use the same format as Bally’s. Gals start first, several minutes ahead. First across the line takes the cash. They will be racing for $20K of prize money so not too shabby for a regional race. The good thing about this format is that the ladies will be up out there doing their own race and not have to worry about the elite age group men’s race catching them and interfering with their race. Should be a fun race. I’ll have some coverage of this race up on xtri.com.
Generally, speaking we should care - the ITU is the world governing body for triathlon and we all care about and compete in the sport of triathlon. That being said, I 'll do some soapboxing here: Most other sports do not hold World Championships in Olympic Years. Why the ITU is doing this, is a good question, which I would like to know the answer to.
I care! It’s the last qualifying race before the Olympics, so it’s an important one. And if you don’t care about the Olympics, then you simply don’t care about sports.
Also I have an athlete I coach racing Junior Worlds
Yep. I have a few friends racing the Junior World’s too. The ITU does a pretty good job with the online timing and race developments, so it’s pretty interesting even if you’re not on-sight.
btw gl to Tiago, p.
Most other sports do not hold World Championships in Olympic Years. Why the ITU is doing this, is a good question, which I would like to know the answer to.
IMO, it’s all about the money. Most sports don’t have age-groupers competing at the World Championships.