issue #197: Aug. 5, 2026
Presented by Mint & Honey Co.
a unique public relations and digital marketing firm where the founder is an active part of the same active industries as her clients
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You all, apparently I had turned off my Triathlonish email when we merged with Feisty and my email responder (ie. if you pressed reply to this email) was all messed up the last two weeks, so a lot of you ended up in spam. Sorry, you’re not spam!
I’m 99% sure it’s fixed now and you can email me at kelly@triathlonish.com again, or at my regular email, or text me or WhatsApp me or comment or utilize the Substack Chat features or slide into my DMs. Basically, lots of ways to get ahold of me.
If you got ahold of me, I’d tell you that I’m booked for Kona — even though housing on the island is definitely more heavily impacted this year. (If you’re still looking, check out the hostel. Then let me know how it is.)
And, I am, also, excited to have Lynette at Mint & Honey Co. sponsoring the newsletter this month. I’ve worked with Lynette before on stories for some of the clients they represent and we’re going to be highlighting some of the athletes, races, and work the firm does over the next few weeks.
Now, your free weekly Wednesday newsletter…
- Kelly
Last stop before Kona
Start lists are officially out for Ironman Kalmar — which is the very last qualifying race for Kona with three spots each for men and women. So we can now officially know who is making one last attempt to get their coin.
Here are the full lists of who has already Kona qualified: men and women.
Some key people making their final bid in Kalmar:
Daniel Baekkegard
Gregory Barnaby
Jonas Hoffmann
Pieter Heemeryck
Robert Wilkowiecki
Robert Kallin
Jeanne Collonge
Some key people who will 100% be missing from the Big Island:
Jelle Geens is not going to give the Ironman thing another try this year. Is all in on 3x 70.3 world title instead.
Lionel Sanders is probably not a surprise at this point, but confirmed he won’t be back in Kona.
Holly Lawrence, as mentioned, is too injured.
And, obviously Lisa Norden is also too postpartum.
And the last stop to Nice: Maybe worth mentioning that Sam Laidlow has announced he’s missing 70.3 Worlds to focus on Kona (and will be doing some other Challenge race instead on Nice weekend). People are acting like this is shocking, but I don’t think Sam has ever done 70.3 Worlds and lots of long-course specialists skip the mid-distance champs and he’s probably gonna make more bank at Challenge. So is it really shocking.
Two more things about 2027 T-Whatever
T50, T100, what do we call the overall series now? Do we really still think it’s the *Professional* Triathletes Organization?
OK, yes, one thing I didn’t say last week because I thought it had sorta already been covered: All the T-Whatever races for 2027 will also include age-group events alongside. That also means the Test Event in L.A. — which we can’t call the Test Event, btw, because LA28 doesn’t want to call it the Test Event — but does mean age-groupers will get to try some version of something similar to the Olympic course.
And, a good question from PTN Kyle led me down this hole: The PTO/T50 will NOT produce para-tri races. The World Para Series races (which is para’s WTCS equivalent) will continue to be produced and run by World Triathlon. That includes the para races at the (not calling it) Test Event — which will have individual elite, para, and mixed relays. And, evidently, age-group. Except PTO/T50 doesn’t like to call it “age-group.”
So, there you go. That’s all we have about that today.
Are triathletes ready for mainstream viral attention if they get it?
Honestly, no.
Having covered Olympic sports and endurance sports and women’s sports for about 15 years, I’ve watched these things grow and I’ve watched what happens when a moment or incident achieves velocity and suddenly goes beyond the sport’s immediate networks. What happens is that these athletes are not prepared for that mainstream viral level of mega-attention. They think they’re prepared because Slowtwitch was mean to them once, but they’re not. Steph Curry, LeBron James, the Big Name Athletes have the money and security to manage the level of scrutiny they get; they have had years to build up their defenses and resources, to scrub their personal information from the internet. Alysia Liu, Ilona Maher, Caitlin Clark were thrust into this. They did not and do not have the same structural support.
This is part of the reason stalking (etc) is such a problem during this era of women’s sports exploding. Because the fandom and the platform have come so quickly (also because misogyny etc).
I was thinking about this after the Winter Olympics, when athletes in sports that look a lot like triathlon in terms of size and niche-ness suddenly found themselves in the center of political maelstroms. And I was thinking about it with the Tour de France Femmes, as some of these teams have more support and funding and figuring out how to manage it than others during this growth period. And I worry about some of our triathletes ahead of what are going to be a very tense and very attention-heavy L.A. Olympics. They should start getting prepared now.
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From the races
World Cup - Rio: I didn’t know who Braxton Legg was until he achieved a top ten WTCS last fall, and now with his World Cup win in Rio I think he’s probably my top pick out of the many up-and-coming U.S. guys you could pick. And if I had to choose, Kelly Wetteland is probably the U.S. woman I’d be watching; she got another World Cup silver in Rio.
Norseman: Alistair Brownlee was there, but a different Norwegian named Kristian won.
Krakow 70.3: Congrats to Nikki Bartlett, who looked very very happy to be back on form.
Results: World Cup - Rio, Krakow 70.3, Norseman
The -ish
Some of the things worth knowing about this week in our sports — or that I just think are interesting.
I love the photos from Ashley & Dominique at the Tour de France Femmes. And the post-race interview with Sigrid Haugset after her wild long (so long) breakaway win. Now broadcast the whole damn race. (Instagram/Youtube/CyclingWeekly)
Obviously, the “bra-boosting” TDFF headlines are headlines. But, really, shoving stuff down the front of your jersey is a repeat of that year triathlon went through where all the pros kept swearing this just happened to be where they store their hydration. (Velo)
If you were wondering why we didn’t talk about the Commonwealth Games, it’s not just because we’re still confused by the Commonwealth, it’s also because triathlon got booted out. (Triathlon Magazine)
Slowtwitch finally got me to reset my forum password just so I could read what’s been said about me previously in the threads on podcasts. (For the record: If you’re looking for women-led tri pods right now, Jackie Hering is doing a good job in the pro interviews and pro race recaps category + Chelsea Burns does the best nuanced detailed conversations and she knows all gossip.) And what I learned in the forums is somehow these discussions always include something about me being kinda mean and also something about “the [40-year-old] boys being boys.” So I would just like to point out — because I’m not going to actually comment in a forum, don’t be nuts — that the reason people think I’m funny but a bitch, but think Jack or Mark are hilariously irreverent, is partially because you can get away with saying crazy shit if you have a British or Australian accent, but also it’s mostly because of the gendered thing. (Apple Podcasts)
Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden are doing their post-Kona random race in Taiwan this year. (Instagram)
Ironman allocated the spots from the canceled Nice races via a lottery that all athletes who had previously completed a 70.3 or full, respectively, were entered into.
Russ Cox has done the math for what the new multiplier is for 2027 70.3 Worlds qualifying (which is the number you multiple your time by to find out your age-graded time). (Facebook)
A fun story from Triathlete about illegal concept bikes. (Triathlete)
Sophie Woods’ fastest overall known time around the Alps — mentioned a couple weeks ago — has gone relatively mainstream now. (Los Angeles Times)
New course records were set at Badwater, but former triathlete Ashley Paulson was going for a sub-20 and passed out. (Instagram)
Jeannie and Justin Metzler had their baby. (Instagram)
And lots of love to the family, friends, and crew who were with triathlete/runner/swimmer Becky Thompson when she passed away from a cardiac event during her Catalina crossing. (Instagram)
There’s definitely the possibility that the U.S. might finally be ready for short-course tri growth. It’s possible. Or it’s just that long-course here is dominated by Ironman and finally everyone is acknowledging that. (Triathlete)
Bowlers are not happy about the Wall Street investment. (Wall Street Journal)
Soccer was not happy about FIFA’s plan to sell off investment in a new spinoff. (The Athletic)
And, if there was a competitive/recreational chance to try now the PACER test from high school gym class then, I would definitely do it. (New York Times)
One last thing
Weirdly, Nike has continued to post more outfits since this.
