#154: The time between now and the future
How might we have known it would go this badly?
issue #154: Sept. 25, 2025
All-sporters, we’ll be shifting to the Feisty email system next week. There might (probably) be a few kinks, but hopefully not too many — and you all should get an email from me welcoming you to the new family as we become an official part of Feisty. But other than that, you’ll just keep getting your regular Thursday morning email on triathlon and triathlon-related things. And, of course, the -ish.
- Kelly
If only someone could have warned us
I’ve had quite a few people message me or email or reach out wanting to know what I think about how the 2026 Kona new qualification is going — in light of the fact that the last couple of N. American Ironman races have resulted in just *one* spot out of the performance pool going to a woman, which means basically only winners of the women’s age-groups are getting through to 2026, which is simply flat-out discouraging (if you’re sitting there in the awards ceremony, thinking you did really well, you’re second in your AG, and then 50-year-old man after man gets called up and no women — like, that’s just demoralizing, period), which is not the bag of goods many people thought they were sold about performance-based qualification.
Here’s an actual report showing you that’s what’s happening so far. If somehow you don’t believe your own eyes, or me. (EDIT: The spreadsheet of qualification is from Phil, and the link is also in his bio if it’s being buggy.)
So, what do I think about how this is shaking out?
Well, what I actually think is probably not something I should write here. Because the way to win people eloquently over to your side isn’t to yell at them I TOLD YOU SO, but I’ve lost a lot of faith in the power of words lately, so I dunno, here’s my best shot:
I told you the premise was flawed, that algorithms are not how you qualify people to a world championship no matter how great you think the algorithms are. I told you I didn’t accept the assumption anyway that men and women should be compared against each other when they do not compete in the same race against each other, that we were pitting them for no reason other than that we used to. That finite resources are not actually unique to Kona, nor have they ever been an excuse for inequitable distribution of those resources. That if we had always simply sent the best 1,000 women and the best 1,000 men in the world to compete amongst themselves to determine who was best, and then we suddenly announced we’d now be sending fewer women because our algorithm said the women weren’t as good as the men, you all would have thought that was insane, because it would have seemed insane. It’s all a matter of perspective.
And my perspective is: I didn’t think this was going to go well, but it seems to be going even worse than I expected, not sure if I should feel good or bad about that. Probably doesn’t matter how I, specifically, feel. But it will matter how all the women feel, the potential and repeat triathletes, because that’s what Ironman should be worried about.
One last time, relax, have a drink with me
And, speaking of, here we go, my flight is in a week: Back to the island, for one last all-women’s Ironman World Championship.
And it is a big one **explosion emoji, etc**
The official start list is out and there’s only a couple of scratches. (Notably, Sarah True seems to be off, which was probably expected after Placid. We love you Sarah!) The list includes: Three Ironman world champs. Three 70.3 world champs. Olympic medalists. 1/3 of the field debuting. I was in the ‘Kat’s the one to beat’ camp, but now I’m eyeing Lucy CB’s run and Chelsea seems in a good place when we chatted for tomorrow’s Feisty Tri pod and the fact that we haven’t heard from Taylor may mean she’s just stacking block after block and Solveig obviously has some role models to follow coming out of Nice and Laura is in Maui training and and and and and.
Last chance to order your Kona merch is today — or you’ll just have to find us at Feisty HQ the Kona Canoe Club any morning during race week. We’ll also have a schedule next week of shakeout runs and brunch and live pods.
From the other races
T100 Spain: Should we talk about penalties? Probably not. Let’s just say the T100 hasn’t gotten it quite right yet. And Hayden hasn’t quite figured out how to follow all the rest of the rules either. But! Lucy Charles-Barclay jumped in and won on the run and looked so strong coming off a big Kona block. And Hayden Wilde beat Jelle Geens again, but I dunno I think Jelle can come back at some point here.
Supertri Jersey: I hope Jeanne Lehair is earning quite a bit of money for her Supertri year here. And, if you had no idea, Podium Racing is still winning the team competition.
IM Wales: Rosie Wild just made me laugh with this post.
Results: Supertri Jersey, T100 - Spain, IM Wales, Sao Paulo 70.3, Emilia Romagna 70.3, Cozumel 70.3, Challenge San Remo
Mark your calendar
Xterra World Champs: In Italy for the last year! Thursday is the short-course final World Cup race, and then Saturday is the big World Championship race. I’m rooting for Solenne Billouin to win her fourth because four is a lot — but Alanis Siffert is also coming off the road to try and beat her. And the race on the men’s side is very tight between Arthur Serrières and Félix Forissier, but I’m rooting for Sullivan Middaugh.
WATCH: Saturday at 1 a.m. PT/4 a.m. ET on XTERRA’s Youtube
WTCS Wehai: Another WTCS? So soon?! What is happening. (Yeah, the calendars this year are wild. Let it go.) It doesn’t have huge start lists just because of that timing and travel, but Beth Potter is racing and I’m rooting for Morgan Pearson.
WATCH: Men today at 5:45 p.m. PT/8:45 p.m. ET and women at 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 p.m. ET on TriathlonLive
The -ish
Some of the things worth knowing about this week in our sports — or that I just think are interesting.
It was hard to follow the track & field world champs just because of the time zones. (I love sports, but I’m probably not watching sports at 4 a.m.) But what I did follow was excellent. The rain on the last day didn’t seem that bad on TV, but then the photos make it clear how crazy it really was. Picks from the week: Holy shit, they DQ Cole Hocker from his Olympic gold medal event so he just goes and wins the 5,000m instead, Sydney McLaughlin (!) running her “B” event and going 47.7 in the 400m, the 100m-200m-4x100m triple from Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. (Twitter/Instagram/Youtube)
Also, always enjoy a little warm-up track drama. (Instagram)
The thing I did not enjoy: The headlines and breathless social media posts out of the one-day sports science summit at the world champs that said a presentation was made showing that 50-60 females athletes in finals over the last 23 years wouldn’t have passed sex tests — which is maybe true, but you can’t tell from the way it was reported because it raised more questions than answers. And you can’t find the original sources because it wasn’t a paper, it was just a comment in a keynote speech that wasn’t videotaped and isn’t available (as far as I can tell). My questions, for example: Saying those athletes went through male puberty is simply not the same thing as saying those athletes had differences in sex development (DSD) — yet the articles reported both things in the same breath as if they were the same thing (they’re not!); DSD athletes are athletes who have one of the rare variations on sex development that we’ve talked about before, but that’s not the same as someone who transitions nor does it mean at all that they “went through male puberty” or are male athletes or necessarily have any kind of advantage or even know they have a genetic variation. Secondly, I wondered how officials would have even known any of this since track wasn’t implementing sex tests during that time. The answer is it turns out those numbers were extrapolated based on testosterone levels from anti-doping tests. Which raises the third question: If the last time we had sex tests in track & field was in 1999 and those kinds of numbers were NOT found, and then these reported numbers are from 2000-2023, that means things would have had to have changed suddenly and drastically. All things which are possible, but which raise many questions. (The Guardian)
A related but different good essay on what it was like for an athlete going through the new sex testing process. (Good Sport Magazine)
The Boston Marathon released its acceptance numbers for 2026 and you had to run 4 minutes, 34 seconds faster than your qualifying standard. I guess the rumors are true: it really does seem like these bucket list marathons are exploding. (Twitter)
Speaking of: Video of the start of the 55,000 people who ran the Berlin Marathon. One of whom was Harry Styles (who ran sub-3). (Instagram/The Athletic)
And a guy ran a baby stroller mile world record in 4:26 and people apparently freaked out because his baby was only two months not six, and I dunno he was running on a smooth track for four minutes with his baby in a laying down position not on a trail for an hour with the kid bouncing around. Maybe everyone can just calm down. (Instagram/Runner’s World)
I meant to include this last week: RIP to legendary coach Jack Daniels. (Runner’s World)
World Triathlon is considering “cautioning” the Danish federation president for his criticisms of the whole scandal thing. Even though I was meh on the “scandal,” I am more not thrilled about trying to silence anyone criticizing the scandal. (The Inquisitor/Triathlonish)
Ironman has some more new races: A 70.3 in Italy, a full in Vietnam. Maybe the strategy is just to announce so many events that we’re overwhelmed and impressed by the sheer number of events. (Ironman/Vietnam+)
The UCI Road Cycling World Champs are also right now in Rwanda — making them in Africa for the first time. And bringing up a lot of questions about sportswashing in the country. (Cycling Weekly/Global Peloton)
I’m not sure about a bunch of the stats cited in this LinkedIn post on the value of investing in niche lifestyle sports (ie. triathlon), but it’s interesting to see investors considering the value of triathlon as not just a sports play but also a health and culture move. (LinkedIn)
Interesting story with Parker Spencer (who runs the Project Podium for USAT) on the financial costs of trying to make it as a young athlete. (Triathlon Magazine)
And Arild Tveiten, the mind behind the Norwegians, was on The Triathlon Hour. (Spotify)
Skye Moench’s episode of The Feed by Talbot’s docuseries is out. Worth a watch. I understand Skye’s postpartum fitness much more than some of the pros (though she’s still four hours faster than me or, like, seven hours faster). (Youtube)
This is an absolutely wild story about college recruiters setting up time trials in rural Kenya. I don’t even know if this is good or bad; I think it’s just a natural outcome of where things have taken us. (Washington Post)
And another crazy story about CBP holding Giant bikes and parts at the border. The feds say it’s because of indications of forced labor, but these days it’s hard to know if that’s true or if it’s just something that’s being said. (Slowtwitch)
Plus, your check-in from Outside Inc: Outside Just Fired Me Because of My Politics. (Wes Siler)
The best thing I read this week, which has almost nothing to do with sports except that it has everything to do with how the world sees and treats women. (The Lamp)
One last thing
Watch the video of this annual “triathlon” in Italy.
