issue #152: Sept. 11, 2025
I think it’s been a tough time for a lot of people lately. A lot of things are going badly. And a lot of the triathlon world was heartbroken last week for Lucy Byram when news came out that her boyfriend, Sam O’Shea, had been hit and killed during a bike ride. I don’t know either of them personally, but it’s a small community and that particular group of friends had already gone through a tragedy earlier this year when Jack, a popular photographer in the sport, also lost his wife. Sam & Jack were two of the three friends behind The 1x Podcast. It’s probably worth listening to their final episode.
I’ve had some really rough bad years, but nothing like what they all must be going through. And I’ve found people are always tempted, in these times, to try to say something wise or deep or meaningful or optimistic, but there really isn’t anything to say. There’s a space where words don’t reach.
I’m sorry you all have to go through that. I’m sorry so many people are going through so many things right now. I hope you survive it, I hope you have each other. And one day you can tell other people how to survive it.
- Kelly
Did you know Men’s Nice is happening?
OK, on to triathlon.
Oh, you did know Men’s Nice is happening. And you don’t need another preview? Weird.
Turns out if you actually hand out spots and tell people it’s legit, 2,500 athletes will go to France to race a world championship! Crazy, who knew. Plus, all four of the previous world champions and a whole bunch more podium finishers in the pro field. I dunno, just a thought, but maybe all that hand-wringing about Nice v. Kona and slots rolling down too far (etc etc etc) wasn’t really about any of those things but was just about giving something new a little bit of time to grow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Oh well, too late now.
For your Ironman World Championship Men’s Edition consumption:
Triathlete has a live blog going from the ground (which lol in the year of our lord 2025) and a good preview and a spectator’s crib sheet.
ProTriNews will have daily pods and, oddly, a wind prediction forecast because we have taken triathlete-ing to a new level of triathlete-ness.
Thorsten has his super detailed World Championship data report.
I thought it was kind of fun to have Marten Van Riel doing a full super real (riel?) preview.
And then of course there’s your standard gear stuff: Prototype bike pics, Norwegian hole-y trisuits. The usual.
My picks?
I saw someone’s “take” today that: It could be Laidlow but also Blummenfelt is very good. And, you know, touche there on that biting analysis.
On paper, Kristian Blummenfelt is the favorite. Hands down. BUT. Word is he failed one of his last key sessions last weekend (gasp!) — which I don’t really know if it matters (may mean he’s ready as much as it means he’s not), but it did absolutely kill me in terms of how gossip-y the pros are.
Personally, I kinda think Magnus Ditlev is my pick. After 3rd, 2nd, I think he knows where and how he overcooked here in 2023. And I think the tough bike is good for him (even if he’s a “bigger” athlete). Someone pointed out on our (kinda) preview show last week, though, that he’s either been super quiet lately because things are going really well or because they’re going really not well.
If you want the safe bet, then duh, Patrick Lange is a championship day racer. I’m hesitant to pick him, because I think everyone—Sam, Magnus, Rudy Von Berg (don’t forget about him!), Kristian—is going to work hard together to drop him before the run. But what do I know, I was hesitant to pick him last year and boy was I wrong.
Sam Laidlow’s a wild card. In every respect of the word. I don’t think it’s his year. I think he’s right, though, that it’ll take a sub-8 this year.
I will also always root for Gustav Iden, but it seems like it’s probably a top 10 year? A rebuilding year as they say?
And then you have Marten Van Riel, who I wouldn’t count out even with the ankle injury — and a billion other guys (Kristian Hogenhaug, Leon Chevalier, Dr. Matt).
Start list. WATCH: Sunday, Sept. 14 at 7 a.m. in France/1 a.m. ET on Outside Watch in N. America, Ironman’s Youtube, DAZN globally
I tried to come up with a clever subtitle for this section and landed on: Siiiiiigh.
This is just your reminder that Ironman handed out ~40% fewer spots for Women’s Kona this year than for Men’s Nice. Which no one seems to realize. So when we get to the Big Island in October and everyone’s all ‘why is it so much smaller, gee women just don’t want to do it, there aren’t enough competitive women,’ I want you to remember this is the product of specific and deliberate choices.
This past weekend was the first N. American Ironman with the new world champs qualification system. And I got a message from a reader who said only 11 of the 40 spots at IM Wisconsin went to women — with only one of the “performance pool” spots going to a woman. (They also said it was really discouraging, whether you think it’s fair or not, to sit there and wait for the performance spots to be called and have it be man after man after man after man after man.)
Reminder: The way the qualification system works is that each age-group winner gets a spot; that spot can roll down to 2nd or 3rd but no farther. Then, after those podium spots are given out, the rest of the spots are handed out by going down the rankings of age-graded results.
I am reminding you all of this, because it became clear that the Slowtwitch forum-ers have a lot of opinions about whether the system is working, with many completely incorrect understandings of how the system works.
You can see the IM Wisconsin age-graded rankings here. When I previously calculated the results of the new system, I assumed no rolldowns because I couldn’t know if a rolldown had happened and because that would still give us a rough understanding of how it played out with the age-grading. It does sound, though, like there were at least a couple of rolldowns in Wisconsin.
Still, it gets you to 27% women out of Wisconsin. Which is surprising because if you ran last year’s IM Wisconsin results through the new system, World Champs spots were closer to 45% women. Given that 1. when people put previous race data through the new system, the U.S. races were generally more like 40-50% female spots and 2. there’s no outside reason I’m aware of to explain why 2025’s Wisconsin would vary drastically from 2024, then we have to ask what is different about the fields this year from last year.
My guess: N. American women are doing Kona this year. We know Kona leans N. American — and way (!) more so for the women. We know there’s a defined number of women who can/will do multiple Ironmans in a year right now (because of many factors). We also know that when the timing of 2024 qualifying races were scheduled right around 2023 Kona it ended up limiting a lot of the women’s numbers.
We could just know all of this. But I bet Ironman polls people instead.
I read this Bloomberg story with Ironman CEO Scott (even paid for a trial subscription) because I thought it would illuminate some new information, and I read Triathlete’s annual World Champs sitdown with him with the same hope. I suppose it’s possible to glean some nuggets out from between the lines, but mostly it’s the same things it’s been. He’s polling, he’s listening, etc etc etc.
It’s really all in the branding, though, isn’t it. Because *all* CEOs go to their own events and talk to their customers. All CEOs conduct market surveys. All CEOs mingle with the CEOs of other brands and try to learn from competitors. All of them say things about customer experience. This is not unique. But CEO Scott has really sold this as his thing. And part of me keeps thinking: Maybe you wouldn’t need to ask so many athletes whether they want their nutrition bars wrapped or unwrapped at aid stations if you were an athlete. Maybe that’s mean, but if you’ve done a triathlon (or hundreds of them), then you know the answers to some of these questions without needing to put an outsized value on the random input of the specific triathletes you happen to surround yourself with.
One nugget in the Triathlete interview: So far the new qualification system has broken down to about 27% women. Yet, only 22% of the accepted slots are going to women. Which is literally worse than the old system. So, naturally, they’re planning to poll women to find out why they’re turning down slots and don’t want to do Kona or another Ironman or what the issues and barriers are. Which would be a completely reasonable action to take. If we didn’t already have dozens of organizations and groups and decades of years of people who already know the answer to that question.
Eventually, dude’s gonna poll himself right out of a job.
Mark your calendars
The other big race this weekend: WTCS Karlovy Vary! Everyone’s been raving about this course since it was moved up from a World Cup to a Championship Series race — primarily because it has legit hills and technical descents, and so could play out differently than we’ve seen the majority of WTCSs play out so far this year. Of course, Matt Hauser will probably still win. But still! It’s unlikely we see a pure run race on the women’s side, so that’s something.
Start lists here. WATCH: Sunday - Women at 3:45 a.m. ET & the men at 8:45 a.m. ET on TriathlonLive
Results: Santa Cruz 70.3, Poznan 70.3, Knokke-Heist 70.3, Gerardmer XL, World Triathlon Para Cup - Alhandra, World Triathlon Duathlon Long Course World Champs
The -ish
Some of the things worth knowing about this week in our sports — or that I just think are interesting.
RIP Valerie Silk, who took Ironman to a global level back in the 1980s. This is an interesting interview with her from Tinley on his triathlon history site. (Triathlete/Tri-history)
Track & Field World Championships also start this weekend in Tokyo. (Technically, Friday evening in the U.S.) And Citius is previewing every single event, because. (NBC/Citius)
SwimRun World Champs were also last weekend: women’s winners, men’s, mixed. And this is an event I still really want to do. On my list of events. (Instagram)
Best story of the Vuelta is the return of Egan Bernal after his headfirst crash into a bus in 2022. (Roleur)
Hayden Wilde responded to the shoe controversy. In short, he says he mixed up shoes. Sure. (Instagram/Triathlonish)
CEO Scott teased that “something exciting” was coming from Oman. And turns out it’s what you thought it would be: A 70.3 and full. (Muscat Daily)
There’s also a new Ironman Jacksonville, which is supposed to attract all the Ironman Florida athletes who were bored of doing that same course but now will do a new nearby course. (Endurance.biz)
Also in Florida: Endurance Exchange in January. (USAT)
Speaking of things I’m having a hard time getting super excited about: A six-part docuseries with Jan Frodeno and Gordon Ramsay. I am sure they’re very cool guys who have done more cool things in their lives than I ever will, and Florida is fine (I went to Kindergarten and 1st grade there), but I dunno, it doesn’t feel new or fun? (Ironman)
Challenge Roth did 65 doping blood spot tests of age-groupers, and they were all negative. fyi. (NADA)
Joyline Chepngeno, who just won the OCC race two weeks ago, received a two-year doping ban dating back to Sierre-Zinal in August — which invalidates the win at OCC. Which is a super shame, because her win was very emotional. Her coach/manager apparently is now also banned from Sierre-Zinal because he had previous athletes who got popped for doping. Which really makes it seem like a systemic problem, not an individual problem. (iRunFar)
An 85-year-old became the oldest man to bike across the U.S. It took him 44 days. And a 102-year-old became the oldest person to climb Mt. Fuji. (Guinness World Record/CNN)
This is a kind of wild story from Zoe about a shortcut on an FKT attempt that led to a court trial. (iRunFar)
And a good read from a small running shop owner about how the tariffs are playing out. Hint: Not great. (Running Wylder)
One last thing
Kinda wanna run on this track.
I just wanted to say thank you for writing about the awful news of Sam and also of Jack's wife Vic from earlier this year. x