#114: Is the T100's inaugural season a C+ or solid B-
Or are you gonna try to make a case for As.
issue #114: Nov. 20, 2024
All-sporters, we had a good Book Club chat about ‘The Norwegian Method’ last week — and you can see the Q&A here. And a few weeks ago I did a piece on how to become a pro triathlete.
We’re also wrapping up the season (kinda? sorta?) and, at least here in California, we’ve got a big storm, which makes things feel distinctly wrapped up and holidays approaching-y.
This is your Wednesday weekly newsletter on all things triathlon-ish. So, what’ll we talk about once the tri season is over?
- Kelly
In which we all really should learn by now where exactly Dubai is
Now that the ad hoc T100 Grand Finale in Dubai is over and the world champions are crowned, the first season of T100-ing is officially done — though I, personally, think acting like it was completely inaugural and as if all faults should be forgiven forgets the previous iterations of Collins Cups & US/European/Canadian Opens — but, anyway, now here we are and we can rule on how 2024 went.
My overall T100 grades:
Race quality and athlete performances: A/A+
Feedback from athletes on the overall experience: A
Broadcast delivery (as judged against what was promised): C+
Execution of events on-the-ground (mass participation aspects included): B/B-
Business deliverables and overall ‘taking the sport mainstream’ KPIs with respect to actually achieving previously stated goals: D
Maybe I’m wrong about the last one. Maybe I’m wrong about all of them. I don’t hate the PTO, I think the racing is really good and I think the organization has done some interesting things to push the sport in certain directions. But I also think it’s probably important to remember all the things the PTO has promised to be since it inceptioned in early 2020. It didn’t promise to be very good races, with perfectly fine broadcasts and OK mass participation events, while expending far far more revenue than it brings in. It promised to revolutionize professional long-course triathlon as a global spectator sport, while representing the interests of the professional athletes first and foremost.
I’m measuring against that scorecard?
The men’s race
But, the races! As is generally the case: The actual races in Dubai were excellent.
I’m convinced that Marten Van Riel is like the kid in class who knows exactly how to do the 90% necessary for an A. He seems to excel in the crowded everyone-leaves-T2-together type of runs. And I really do think middle distance is his future. Though he is, evidently, going to do Ironman Cozumel this weekend because why not.
It also would have been nice if Jelle Geens hadn’t had flight problems and could have made it to the start, that would have been a battle, but still was great to see Ali Brownlee sneak in for a podium after what’s been a tough year.
The women’s race
And then in the women’s race what is there to say other than: Can anyone beat Taylor Knibb? Right now, the answer is no, not at any middle distance. Though I did appreciate the lengths Ashleigh Gentle went to to try to win — and sometimes that’s what it takes first before a breakthrough comes, just other athletes trying everything they can to see what sticks.
Taylor’s also probably right in what she said after that we could be having an entirely different conversation next year. Flora Duffy ran fastest in Dubai, people are figuring out the distance, jumps in performance are happening, and so things could all change as athletes improve and learn the tactics.
Of course, the unfortunate viral moment of the whole race came when Taylor asked her cameraman, on air, to not film her from behind because she had “shit” herself. When I saw the clip making the rounds over weekend I thought: Oh no, she didn’t realize they had cut to her, and I thought: Maybe it would stay within our smaller triathlon-ish circles. But it went super super mainstream, especially in the UK oddly, which means there’s no putting that back in the box now and no pretending it didn’t happen. So the best thing she could probably take from it (if she happens to be reading this) is that everyone, every comment everywhere has pretty much agreed it was the most endearing, relatable, and charming moment of the race, oddly, and made her even more likeable than if she’d simply won without issue. It’s impossible not to like Taylor.
I was actually thinking about her last week, when I was doing some work on female athlete branding and sponsorship contracts — and thinking about how the only option for so many female athletes is to simply be “vaguely inspirational.” When, in reality, most of the women on the circuit are actually funnier and bitchier and more interesting than they’re given credit for. But they keep that inside because of the pushback they get, and so it’s hard to be authentic when you can’t actually be authentic. And, yet, somehow Taylor manages. She always seems to just be being herself at any given moment.
A short side note: There’s been a lot of outcry in the surfing community for the World Surf League including the UAE on its Tour circuit when one of the Tour surfers is gay and being gay is technically illegal in the UAE, which is where Dubai is tbc.
Would she be charged or arrested while there? No, almost definitely not. But it’s still a tough sell to put a contracted location on the tour schedule when some of the contracted athletes aren’t legally allowed. Not sure how triathlon will have to deal with this in the future.
The final results and standings
Top ten in the final standings secured automatic contracts for next year (and payouts for this year, of course). Six athletes will then also be picked for 2025 based on the overall PTO rankings (not on T100 standings) and on “standout performances.” And then we’ll have four additional hotshots.
So: Who would you like to see added to the race circuit in 2025?
Women’s top 10
Taylor Knibb
Ashleigh Gentle
Julie Derron*
Kat Matthews
Flora Duffy
Lucy Byram
Laura Philipp
India Lee
Imogen Simmonds
Paula Findlay
Men’s top 10
Marten Van Riel
Kyle Smith*
Rico Bogen
Magnus Ditlev
Alistair Brownlee
Sam Long
Mathis Margirier
Pieter Heemeryck
Youri Keulen*
Fred Funk
*wildcards
Can we also all just take a moment to appreciate what Kat and Magnus pulled off this season in terms of sheer quantity of high-level performances?
Results: T100 Dubai, full year-end standings
USAT & World Tri & finances & COVID recovery
Slowtwitch, this week, published USAT’s 2023 financial statements—with a breakdown of what’s in them and what’s changed. It’s pretty straightforward and you can see some of the challenges they’re facing and that many national governing bodies have struggled with coming out of COVID and that tri/mass participation sports continue to deal with. You can also see the financial statement, itself, here.
But a segment of the tri interwebs appears to be acting like 1. the financials were some huge secret (they’re not, they’re literally publicly available and required by law) and 2. USAT is wildly mismanaged.
I’d like to talk about the second point for a moment. The concerns come down to a couple of things: 1. USAT’s revenue is down slightly from 2022, it loses money on events and has lost some on partners, 2. USAT’s main expense and service is providing insurance (60% of its expenses), 3. the CEO makes $346K, one other person makes $213K, and there are I believe six more people who make in the $100s, and 4. a feeling then that USAT should be spending more, in light of that, to support high-performance.
Here’s the thing, though: Those are pretty normal salaries for a $20M organization. Like, look it up. Revenue has been down across all triathlon things — USAT actually had to do some hardcore cost-cutting back in 2020/2021 and, I believe, sold their building in Colorado Springs; plus, that’s why they’ve been getting out of the event-putting-on business largely. And, yeah, they’re a constituent insurance organization — maybe people didn’t realize that, but it’s always been true.
The question at the heart of USAT then always comes down to: What other value can they provide? And are they fundamentally a grassroots membership-driving grow-the-funnel organization or a high-performance win-medals one? It’s one of the few governing bodies that really does both.
All of which is to say: It’s not like USAT doesn’t have real challenges. They definitely do in the coming years. World Tri does even more. But, I’m not sure there’s some huge scandal about those challenges; I think they might just be many of the same challenges that the sport, on a whole, is facing?
The best of the rest of the races
Laguna Phuket: Someone was super talking up this race to me last week as a ‘must do bucket list’ event. So, now I’m curious even though the humidity sounds terrible. Hayden Wilde won the 30th anniversary handily and Kate Waugh defended her title from last year.
Mark your calendars
IM Cozumel: This weekend, where the most interesting entrants are a tie between Marten Van Riel and Cam Wurf (though do you think Cam’s actually doing it? I dunno).
And then there are a few big ones left with Bahrain 70.3 always attracting some fast times and Georgia TB making her 70.3 debut. And then we’ve still got Western Australia + 70.3 Worlds left on the IM Pro Series schedule. So, no, the season’s not quite done yet…
Results: Challenge Canberra, Laguna Phuket Tri
The -ish
Stuff from around our sports worth knowing about this week.
The final World Triathlon world rankings are out (men & women) — but it’s more than a little confusing since WTCS rankings are different from world rankings. Because what we need is definitely less clarity in the sport. (Instagram)
The PTO will have T100 races in Vancouver for next year and Frejus & St. Raphael in the French Riviera (which is just south of Nice and kinda by Saint-Tropez). (Triathlon Magazine/PTO)
Race Ranger is looking for investors to expand into mass participation, which is interesting and I hope means they have some ideas on how to make that work on both a technical and business level. (ie. It seems like the obvious way is for Ironman, for example, to charge a fee for athletes who want to compete for Worlds spots — which then comes with additional anti-doping testing, separate mass start wave in front, rack spaces, and Race Ranger; kinda just makes sense). (Instagram)
One of the things I’ve been talking with a lot of women about is how short it seems like people’s memories are. It’s as if everyone forgot how successful Women’s Kona was last year and how much the women (age-group and pros) felt the need for their own championship race without male interference. So to remind you all: Here’s a new post from Coeur about why a women’s race is important, and Laura Philipp talked about it again on last week’s Tri Talking Sport podcast — worth listening to. (Coeur/Tri Talking Sport)
Cam Wurf got his Instagram account back. Don’t you love building followings on platforms you have no control over. (Instagram)
Sebi Kienle is full-on doing Hyrox now, just like everyone. Which kinda makes me want to try Hyrox. (Instagram)
Noah Lyles raced some famous Youtuber for $100,000. (Citius Mag)
And way way too many of us all tuned in to watch another Youtuber (turned ‘boxer’) “fight” Mike Tyson. And I put that in quotes because it was truly a super big dud of an event — and not just because we were all disappointed to not see Jake Paul get knocked out. The best parts of the night were 1. the incredibly good women’s headliner match (and I don’t even care about boxing), which has now become the most watched women’s sporting event ever, and 2. the random trash talking and hype. When Amanda Serrano’s coach grabbed the mic — in the ring, as the belt was being awarded — and started absolutely shitting on Katie Taylor playing dirty, all I could think was: We need more of this in triathlon. (New York Times/ESPN/Irish Echo)
I can’t decide if the Every Woman’s Marathon was the kind of event that sounds awesome or sounds like it isn’t really designed for me — which is fine, not every thing “for women” has to be for every single woman. Women can, literally, be different and have different types of events for different types of people. (Outside Run)
I don’t super follow the kind of globe-trotting endurance expeditions that are increasingly popular, but this year’s The World Race (7 marathons, 7 days, 7 continents) has had some legit fast people running some fast-ish marathons basically every day. (Instagram)
Grand Slam Track has fully announced all of their four locations for 2025: Jamaica, Philadelphia, Miami, L.A. (Instagram)
And Shaun White announced a new halfpipe league, The Snow League. And part of me thinks there can’t possibly be an ecosystem for all of these new sports leagues, right? (AP)
A $2.5 million grant is going to USA Cycling to help fund its women's high-performance efforts.
CIM, the People’s Marathon (and by “People’s Marathon” we mean the “Truly the Sub-Elite Runners’ Marathon”) put out its pro list and CJ Albertson is on it — and, holy hell, how many professional-level marathons is he going to do this year?! I’ve got: US Trials, Boston, Chicago, New York (and he ran an Olympic standard qualifying time down in Baja right at the end of last year just to make sure he had it). That’s a lot of marathons in a year. (CIM/World Athletics)
Interesting details in this about the 50-mile world record Courtney Olsen set — including that she basically spent all her prize money on paying for drug-testing in order for the record to get it certified, and had to drive a couple hundred miles right after the race to meet the drug tester. (Outside Run)
Eric Lagerstrom ran a 50K course record. (Instagram)
A good anonymous Q&A with an athlete agent/manager on the details everyone wants to know (h/t from the Morning Shakeout). (A Matter of Brand)
And just because it seems like a lot of people who care about the environment don’t know this fact but should: Every query to an AI system is like leaving a lightbulb on for 20 minutes and uses 10x the energy of a regular search query, AI-generated photos use more. Data centers are going take up 8% of the US power grid (up from ~3% right now) by 2030. Like, look, if you want made-up answers that are wrong half of the time and only deeply mid the other half, I’ll make them up for you without even destroying any of the planet. (NPR)
One last thing
Apropos of nothing, normal runners try to steeplechase.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Triathlonish to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.