Actually, surely it will cause problems for the qualifying races as well for men? If the last qualifier is ~August it isn’t long to recover for the WC!
Spoons will get a slot at Wales next year
3 Likes
Bit of a bugger for any over-achieving couples who’ve both qualified for the WCs 
2 Likes
Yeah, that’s me!
Always wanted to do Nice and would definitely have taken my slot at Wales had I known it would have been there rather than Kona
I’m supposed to race Bolton and then Copenhagen next year. The family were sold on Copenhagen cause they want a holiday there so I won’t back out of that. If i qualified at Bolton would I take the slot and do 3 Ironmans in 3 months? Nah, probably not for both physical and financial reasons
Bummer
12 Likes
Just saw this, is it real?
There was a husband and wife both qualified at California, they won’t be pleased!
1 Like
Nice and Lanza were my preferred WC alternates, hoping this is real.
3 Likes
Yeah, wasn’t he one of the group of Kona athletes who missed out during covid that were given a window of years to defer to. That’s ridiculous if you’ve now picked the “wrong year”, and they don’t let you defer again to get to Kona.
I don’t mind the change in general on a forward looking basis, but you can’t pull the rug under from people who had paid their moneys to go to Kona.
2 Likes
Agree with all said. Like the change long-term, wonder if European option will always stay Nice or also rotate.
Biggest kick is for people like TRO, and really hope they don’t get shafted.
Already cancelling my Kona accommodation for next year. Selfishly wish it was the other way round with mens Nice 2024 but nevermind, we’ll see what life brings, 
for 2025.
6 Likes
Probably worth thinking that Ironman website says Kona for those dates, and this is all unconfirmed at the moment.
Feels a very confident report to not be substantial though. Will know for certain in the next 3 days, they can’t let more people take slots this weekend without knowing… Surely.
1 Like
Seems like a decent compromise and may well stop the long roll downs in the European races.
Got lucky this year with the 2 races…it was a great bonus being able to watch the womens race on Thursday
3 Likes
Seems like a good way forward to me. For people for whom it has to be Kona they can qualify for the Kona year. For people for whom Kona is prohibitively expensive they can qualify for the Nice year. Bit crap for the guys who have already qualified for 2023 on the understanding it would be Kona, though
4 Likes
Wonder if/when they’ll confirm it? If the cat is out of the bag.
People will want to cancel accommodation and rebook for Nice fairy soon. It is late summer season in Nice so would be popular but it coped with the 70.3
1 Like
Yes I’m due to race KOna in 2023, accomodation and car hire booked and paid up front for.
Obviously in the FB world there’s uproar, folk talking about lawsuits etc. The rumours are strong enough to suggest it’s real although nothing official has been notified.
Personally I think it’s a good solution long term - an iconic 1 day Kona race (it definitely felt like the 2 dayer was too much for the town) and another WC rotating. Really the best of both; for AG’ers who can;t afford Kona, for Pro’s who are not suited to KOna conditions and for those who actually go to Kona who will get an experience that is closer to the original concept, albeit one gender only.
The tough thing is those of us who are M agers down for 2023. Although we’ve not been notified I would be staggered if they don’t offer us the you can enter 2023 Nice OR you can enter Kona 2024. They may create a legacy/special wave that men can compete in in 2023 as well.
We shall see!
9 Likes
I think Nice is an excellent and worthy venue for the IMWC. However, I feel a sense of relief that I booked Wales last week. If I hadn’t I would 100% be looking at how to qualify for Nice.
I love the idea of an alternating or rotating IMWC, if this is the plan going forward, then I will certainly try to race again (but not in Kona), so 2024 is out.
What really does upset me is the way this is being handled by Ironman. Given the KQ normally starts 14 months before the race, this type of change needs to be made before anyone has qualified. Ironman have royally screwed up, by allowing 5000 people to take part in 2023, without getting proper authorisation from the authorities in Hawaii, they have had to make a dramatic U turn. How many people have booked non refundable accomodation and flights? What about all the people who defered from 2020 to 2023 in order to race in Kona? I think a better solution is required for 2023
8 Likes
I am completely with you, I think there needs to be a transition year, like St G this year. Maybe give people, who have have a place in Kona the option of Nice or Kona, and make all further KQ events this year Nice only
3 Likes
Yes, and I’m pretty certain they will. They have always given us options and although some want Messick’s head on a spike I’m pretty certain they will again. When Kona 2021 was cancelled they offered 2022, 2023 or 2024. When the 2022 70.3 WC in Taupo was cancelled they offered StG 2022, Lahti 2023 or Taupo 2024.
I’ve noticed they’ve pushed back this year’s legacy applications to Jan 2023 - this suggests they know they will be offering those of us males on the 2022 start line options and want to know where we end up before working out how many legacy slots they can then allocate after.
5 Likes
I don’t think that the IM management team have covered themselves in Glory: On one hand IM is owned by private equity company, and they are looking for a big return, I am sure that the pressure on Andrew Messic and his team is imense. IM was a pretty big stock market flop and investors feel that they should be able to extract far more money from the brand, this pisses off athletes, but is reality. The big problem for me is what happened with negotiations with Kona authorities. I am speculating, however, it seems that IM felt that they had a binding agreement for 2023, but it appears that proper consultation was not done and the agreement may not be valid. Following this year’s WC, a consultation was done with the locals and businesses and a 2 day race was rejected. If it transpires that IM did not have a proper agreement to run a 2 day race, then this was pretty terrible oversight. If Kona is now renegining on a binding contract, then I would expect some form of legal action from Ironman. It’s all rather messy
5 Likes
I’d guess Kona agreed to the 2 day event in 2022 subject to review for further years. There’s no way they would have committed beyond the initial year and IIRC Ironman was calling it a ‘trial’ in the early days.
They seemed to stop calling it a trial after a while…then started planning for a 2 day event in 2023, before the 2022 event had happened.
I’m guessing they did this because from their point of view the 2 day event was a success before it ran (5000 entry fees vs 2500 entry fees), and they probably hoped to bully their way to a 2 day event in perpetuity. I’m guessing they were emboldened by holding the May St George event and the threat of moving it, and thought Kona would buckle…looks like a huge misjudgement.
Interesting times…
3 Likes
