Maybe it’s just me, but if I ever got to the IM WC I don’t think I’d be remotely in the running for a podium spot, so I’d want to be racing somewhere that had a lot of history or that was a real destination race.
Kona has the race history and the Hawaiian islands would make for a great (if a bit expensive) holiday.
If the race moved around, I’m not sure that the mere fact that it was the WCs would be enough and I would be more selective about the location. I think this happens to a large extent with the 70.3 champs, where some destinations have a much stronger draw than others and consequently have a lot more competition for the slots.
No idea if it is but it wouldn’t surprise me. People would soon get over it, I reckon. It could make for better AG racing as the cost of travel to the IM world champs would probably drop substantially. There has been a clear strategy to be more global and not the US centric IM corp it perhaps was. Maybe this is a logical progression of that.
I am sure we all know a few who have been and found the experience a lot less than they had built up.
I get that Kona looks as if the sport has outgrown it much as for me I want to race where Mark beat Dave, slog out of the energy lab, feel the trade winds etc.
But Messick really needs to leverage the IM world champs more: he needs more folk on the start line, and more people feeling that Q is within reach. I bet he’s been gagging to do to the IM distance what has been very successful at 70.3.
I think he’d love to have various venues falling over themselves to host it; doing whatever he wants and more. Venues themselves would accept being put out for 3-4 days as it’s a one off and the exposure massive.
So this is an opportunity amidst the Covid/travel chaos.
For older people who’ve in the sport for many years, Kona (Hawaii) is synonymous with Ironman…it IS Ironman. But a future generation would get over that.
As much as it pains me, it would be like moving Wimbledon, and in that sense, it makes no sense.
I used to feel the same about Paris-Dakar, the Dakar, then i got over it really.
I’m a pretty old timer in the sport. (in Oz you used to have to properly qualify for IMOZ, not just a validation and Ken Baggs was ruthless).
I just can’t get invested it in it now. Once they stuck ‘Ironman’ on the 70.3, that was pretty much it for me. I’m not a hater, I like IM but it only suits me a certain times. It’s not a life defining thing.
I think they should try something over the next few years. If they do nothing, they are going to end up in a huge hole, the way it’s going. The pros have to have a championship. Other age group events are happening. Rotate it for the next 3 years around mainland US, Europe and Australia and then go back to Kona. See how it goes. It could work well. Kona could be kept as an annual non-WC race so that anyone could go and race it. A great point was made about KQ getting further and further out of reach compared with 6-10 years ago and beyond. You used to have 2-3 times the number of slots. In 2022 they will have one slot per age group. Jeez. So the WC could be a double-day event. Get creative with it. It doesn’t need to be men and women split. It could be split by expected finish time etc and be fantastic for athletes to get to watch a race too. Imagine the IMWC at Tenby! “Anything is possible” is it not…? Now is surely the time.
But no one is saying scrap Kona. Wimbledon is not the WC. Kona is still Kona without the WC tag.
IM could go down a similar route as tennis and have 4 majors one on each continent. To become IM world champion you have to get ranking points from each major
I’ve always thought continental champs should be the QF for the WC wherever they are and that there are guaranteed entries for AG winners/podiums/top 10 at tier 3 events in the same continent from previous say 2 years and a ballot/general entry system for the rest.
Quite agree. For those of us unlikely to ever qualify for Kona, a regional qualifying step would be excellent, and create more of an incentive to compete rather than complete
That is a good idea and solves many of the Kona problems without losing Kona. They could route Pro qualification through the regional championships as well, guaranteeing a deep, competitive pro race.
I could see that working for the Pro field, but I’m not sure many AGers would want to commit to racing multiple races across different continents in a season to accumulate ranking points.
I guess; but it’s the ‘same old people’ who have the money and time for this; talent often doesn’t come into it. Great if Ironman can capture (more of) these wallets though.
I would tend to agree on the talent bit - that wonderful quote of Alan Couzens that ‘anyone can qualify for Kona’. Of course qualified by needing to be able to spend 20+ a week training and being able to absorb years of a high training load (at least in hours). Do enough races and pick the right courses for you and there often seems to be an option - I know people who went to Langkawi to qualify because they knew there would be spots and very few people would ever take them up.
You don’t need to train that much, AC is a bit of an outlier in the number of hours he drives athletes to train. I train 16-17 hours a week
There are softer races, mainly because they are a real pain to get to. I KQ’ed in Lanza, and needed 5 to roll down, I guess I was lucky due to Corona Uncertainty. I think that it is not just luck, its matching a course to your strengths.
I remember hearing interviews from Epic Camp on IM Talk and almost the blokes on it were divorced. It sounded like their wives were sick of living like a single parent with some wannabe triathlete also living in the house that needs feeding and laundry doing.
I come from a place where 20 hours might seem reasonable… Thankfully my wife knew me when I was doing 200+k a week in a boat and sundry weights and rides. When you add faff time and travel to get to sessions (I mean even substitute sessions you’ve got to go to the gym or a rowing club, what sort of a psycho has a rowing machine at their home?), rowing knocks everything out of the park for time inefficiency
. Triathlon seems sensible in comparison: I can swim on the way to work, bike in the garage, run from work at lunchtime and in ccomparison I can train with it having little to no effect on real life (enign sessions are usually done and dusted before she’s woken up.
