#102: Does everything have to happen in France?
#102: Does everything have to happen in France?
And one thought about doping.
issue #102: Aug. 28, 2024
All-sporters, no, I’m not back in Paris — when you think about it, the Olympics & Paralympics really need to be back-to-back or, like, six months apart; it’s nearly impossible to send people to cover both if you’re not a big outlet. I am at home instead messaging with some people doing content for us in Paris, recovering, and getting ready to head back to France for Women’s Nice in two weeks.
This past weekend, we did send out a preview from Tim on the Paralympic tri race, and will send out a detailed breakdown probably early on Saturday, too, to get ahead of the races.
- Kelly
Paras take Paris
UPDATE: All 11 races will now take place on Sunday to get ahead of an expected storm.
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The Paralympics start today, with the triathlon races on Sunday and Monday mornings (which is 11:15 p.m. PT/2:15 a.m. ET in the U.S. — oof), and there are a lot of storylines to keep track of.
Arguably, though, the biggest storyline is, again: THE SEINE! (Bet you didn’t see that coming.)
This time it’s mostly about the current (but also a little bit about the water quality). With how strong the current continues to be and concerns about forward athlete progress, they may move the start upstream and do a point-to-point swim aiming for a total duration/time. One of the challenges, however, is that two of the categories — wheelchair and visually impaired — utilize headstarts to equalize the playing field by level of impairment. So depending on the time/duration of swim calculation and where the athletes start from, the headstarts could be slightly off and totally impact the outcome of a sprint-distance race.
It’s a quandry. Tim wrote a mini-preview that went out on Sunday and which I’ve opened up for everyone here:
We’ll send out a more detailed breakdown of athletes and some answers in an early weekend newsletter (likely Saturday) and there are details on when & how to watch in our preview, but here’s the simple version:
Sunday: Ambulatory divisions (ie. PTS2-PTS5 — the higher the number the lower the impairment level; women’s PTS3 is not being contested)
Sunday: Visually impaired and wheelchair divisions
WATCH: On Peacock in the US, CBC in Canada, and global broadcasters listed here
Now, here are some of the races I’m excited about:
Women’s PTS5: Grace Norman hasn’t lost a race in two years. What was one of the last races she didn’t win? The Tokyo Olympics. To who? Her bridesmaid, Lauren Steadman!
Men’s PTS4: Alexis Hanquinquant is, like, a celebrity in France. The cheers for the Tokyo defending champ at last summer’s test event were nutty.
Women’s VI: Susana Rodriguez was on the cover of TIME, did you know that? And she won basically everything, but she actually finally got beat at the world champs last fall and again this spring by Italy’s Francesca Tarantello. Should be a close match-up.
Men’s wheelchair: Jetze Plat is crazy good.
Women’s wheelchair: In Tokyo, the sprint as Kendall Gretsch overtook Lauren Parker in the final meters was the highlight of the Games and the pick on ESPN. (Seriously, rewatch it now!) They’re both back — and Lauren is definitely the favorite to grab gold this time.
And a random fact: The Paralympics is dropping the ban on Olympic rings tattoos.
Trail v. tri — time for UTMB
This week is also UTMB Week — complete with all the acronyms of the week’s various races that no one has ever been able to keep track of in the history of the event, it’s not possible.
Along with UTMB Week comes the culmination of the ongoing debate about whether UTMB is ruining trail running or not. Which I am 100% allowed to enjoy as a third-party observer who really wishes they would all learn from us and from triathlon’s past mistakes.
Two takes on the topic for your reading pleasure: Ambivalence at this year’s event and a fine line in this golden moment. So take that for what it’s worth.
And you can read our Q&A with the guy who wrote the book, so you have the background and UTMB history, too.
My picks for the crown jewel race? I’m 100% here for Katie Schide and Jim Walmsley — but I think a Schide-Germaine Grangier power couple win would also be adorbs.
And, I think I’ve decided to hold onto my lottery tickets until the 2026 race, because I definitely am gonna have to practice my hiking and use of poles between now and then, and my sleep deprivation. Here’s what makes UTMB so hard, theoretically.
WATCH: UTMB has a full Youtube playlist of highlights & live coverage on UTMB Live
One thought about doping
OK, so, of course I assume there’s some doping in triathlon. I’m not stupid. But I don’t actually think it’s everyone or even close to a plurality of athletes. Or, put another way: I think most pros are clean and I think it’s still very possible to win the biggest races fairly. And, most importantly, I think most pros believe that, too.
Because here’s the thing: One of the key requirements for any system to maintain its effectiveness, authority, and legitimacy is for people to continue to believe in its effectiveness and authority and legitimacy. As in: If most pros continue to feel like most athletes who cheat get caught and most clean athletes don’t get wrongly accused, then they’ll continue to feel like the system works and they can still win without doping. And so then there will continue to be no underlying fear that “everyone else is doing it” or that “they have to in order keep up.” BUT! If and when belief in that system erodes, for any number of reasons, then it will also start to erode the natural guardrails on our own systems of beliefs.
Consider it this way: Police can not literally catch every criminal. That’s not possible, we don’t live in a police state and no matter how intense the penalties or how large the overreach there will always be some crime. Yet, most people don’t commit crimes and mostly order is maintained. It’s when people start to lose faith in the system and think that everyone else is getting away with things that they then start to bend the rules themselves too, and then you start to have a breakdown of the system.
What’s my point for triathlon?
When I hear other people immediately assume an amazing performance is the result of drugs, and they start going on and on about the system’s failures, about how we need to implement Gestapo-level tactics, and how there are “so many” athletes who aren’t getting caught, I don’t think it has the effect those advocates think it’s having. I think it has the opposite effect. I think arguing that the system is failing, when actually it’s structurally not, contributes to making everyone believe there’s more crime than there really is. (And I live just outside San Francisco; I know what it’s like for other people to believe there’s more crime here than really exists.)
Yes, there are things that need to be fixed in anti-doping, of course. I have my list and others have theirs. And, yes, there are a number of things that could easily compound and lead athletes to start to lose faith in the system. But, no, I don't think that system is fully broken yet. I think we can still right now believe that mostly the top athletes aren't doping. And I think we mostly should continue to believe that.
The rest of the results & races
Tallinn 70.3: Caro Pohle pulled off an impressive start-to-finish win in what has to be the weirdest swim start ever.
Ironman Canada: When Sara told me the water temp could change very abruptly because of the depth of the lake and inversions, I didn’t realize it could change *that* much that quickly. The cold brought the temps outside of required standards and led to a canceled swim. Lionel Sanders & Sarah True then won the 138.2.
Supertri Chicago: Sounds like there really were 8,000 age-groupers again and like other people are coming around on Supertri being fun. Hayden Wilde and Georgia TB won this week.
Results: Tallinn 70.3, Ironman Canada, World Triathlon Long Distance Championships, Supertri Chicago
The -ish
Stuff from around our sports worth knowing about this week.
USAT College Club Nationals (which, IMO, is still the real college nationals) is going to be held *at* CLASH Miami in March. Which, also IMO, is a really good pick and should be what nationals needed. (USAT)
PTO Ibiza start lists (men’s & women’s) are out for the week after Women’s Nice and we’ve finally got the Olympians (Flora Duffy, Taylor Spivey) at the T100 distance. And we’ve got six people doing the Nice-Ibiza double (at least, allegedly) and all the contracted women currently planning to line up. Plus, everyone must have been required to post about it on their social medias because I haven’t seen this much scheduled enthusiasm in awhile. (Instagram)
The London Duathlon was canceled over fears of speeding after there was a fatal accident where a cyclist hit a pedestrian. And the Challenge race in Norway was canceled this past weekend, on race morning, after locals pulled down traffic signs and barricades so they could drive on the course. So, things are going great. (The Times/Triathlon Magazine Canada)
Wildflower is opening registration for 2025 at the end of September. (Instagram)
A correction: The survey that was sent out to Ironman Pro Series athletes did not actually include language about exclusivity, as has been reported. It did ask athletes about the factors that affect their decisions on which events to race — and I’m guessing athletes inferred that Ironman was exploring the possibility of contracts, but having seen the question in full now it does not say or imply that.
We talked a little more about both the TriBike lawsuit and about the IM Pro Series on last week’s podcast. Sarah True’s point (which I think is totally valid) is that the Pro Series should be less condensed; it’s hard to get three full Ironmans in between spring and mid-September. Now let’s get the next season’s series announced and started earlier! (Feisty Triathlon)
Lots of renewed hand-wringing lately about how the NCAA’s implosion is going to affect smaller Olympic and women’s sports. But all I can think whenever I see those talking points is: Man, the NCAA’s PR & lobbying firm is really earning their fees. Look, I’ve said before but I’ll say it again: We can choose to rebuild and change the system however we want. (Twitter)
Triathlete had an interesting piece on the underrated performances of the year. I’d probably pick Julie Derron at the Olympics as my add (though it’s hard to be underrated if you got a medal). (Triathlete)
Brad Culp is writing a book on the Norwegian method (or probably already wrote it since it comes out in two months, but that wouldn’t be the Culp I know). So I think we have a pick for our winter Book Club. (Simon & Schuster)
Renee Kiley announced her retirement. (Instagram)
Patrick Lange announced he’s changing coaches. Which, in all fairness, a number of top athletes have changed coaches this year—Taylor Knibb, Chelsea Sodaro, Ashleigh Gentle—they just don’t usually announce it. (Instagram)
David Roche has been sharing a lot (a lot!) of detail about his training and fueling for his Leadville course record. Of course, the part that always kills the applicability for me is when the “low-mileage” plan is still 75 miles/week — like, what I take away from that is that I still need to up my mileage. (Twitter)
Speaking of: 27% of British people think they could make the next Olympics if they started training right now. (The Independent)
Mondo Duplantis (who has a Southern U.S. accent, just fyi) broke his pole vault world record again by one centimeter, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen broke the 28-year-old 3,000m world record (which is mostly because it’s rarely run outdoors) and apparently he wants to break all the distance world records so good luck with that. (NBC/Fansided)
The Mountain Bike World Champs are also this weekend in Andorra and three of the five women the U.S. sent are from my small county! (Olympics)
And, the beer mile world record holder is giving up the event. (NPR)
One last thing
Upside down synchronized swimming is wild to watch.
The Tallinn swim reminded of a) an LA Triathlon swim start at about the turn of the century when there was a super low tide at Venice Beach, and b) when there was a super low tide or other freak of nature for the Kona swim, as I recall, before the turn of the century that allowed many athletes to walk the swim and led to cutoff times (there weren’t any before). On the cutoff times, I recall a story one of the early Ironman athletes from before, I’m certain, the Mark Allen & Scott Tinley era that Bruce Babbitt shared with our tri club (also before the turn of the century). It went something like this: you know you’re having a bad race when the (morning) newspapers being delivered (while on your run) has the results of the race you’re still in.