Ironman has lost its virginity
August 28th, 2008 by Glen
Yes I know we all want Ironman to be right up there on the global scale of being one of “the major sports”, but man!! I think we have taken a wrong turn somewhere and Ironman triathlon has lost its virginity.
I have only been in the game for 20 odd yrs, so that makes me relatively speaking, a newbie , but I truly believe that triathlon and ironman in particular, has lost its pure innocence from the early days and I am not sure if I like it or not!
Let me briefly explain, and I will try and look at all sides of the coin. From a competitive and professional athlete view point (which I do have incidentally, and at a fairly good level) I think that the vast majority of pro’s today are suffering. I am not necessarily talking the guys at the very top, winning week in week out, for them the sport has never looked sweeter. I am talking from position no 5 through to no 10 and onwards. Its no open secret that the life of a pro triathlete is no real glitz and glamour, each one will tell you a different story of how “they had to do this and how they have to do that” in order to survive and put bread on the table. I am talking about pro’s these days having to pay large sums of money to enter events with the prize money potential on offer, not even allowing them to break-even. Gone are the days when race promoters called you up on the phone and asked you to come and race, all costs on the house. It still happens, but oh so frequently it would seem! There is a huge pie offering at the moment in terms of events being staged world-wide, prize money seems to be bigger at certain events and race promoters are pushing the limits in terms of trying to be bigger and better than the next.
Unfortunately, as the sport and Ironman events grow, so too does the number of individuals trying to earn a living from this sport we love so dearly. That means a few big slices for the top boys and girls whilst the rest fight for the crumbs. The least race directors could do (they make enough money from the age groupers entry fees and sponsors ) would be to offer the pro’s a bigger incentive to come down and race without squeezing the last out of them. I am not saying all race directors and events companies, but too a large extent, the vast majority. It’s a business they are in and that means making money, so who can blame them right? That’s what I mean by triathlon in general loosing the pure innocence (virginity) that once was. It’s all business these days, pay the entry fee or we don’t care if you line up or not!
Globally speaking, there are more Ironman events on the planet now to compete in and possibly make money from, than what there were a few years back. With the exception of a few key events that have splashed out hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money, the average event is either paying as much or less than it was 10 yrs ago. Take inflation and the cost of living and competing into account, and you get a negative growth trend at the top of the tree. Not so good for one of the “fastest growing sports” in the world is it? The days of home stay with the race director and his family members are either limited or completely over. Business is business but I preferred the more laid back approach of triathlon that first attracted me to the sport.
Now before I get everyone jumping on my back, age groupers included, let me defend their plight as well. Entry fees are in most cases excessive and this all adds up for the working class stiffs. Factor in all the costs when entering these events, and your suddenly looking at a semi elitist sport. Once again, it’s not all the events and in some cases, you get great value for money but the overall, you get stung pretty bad when shelling out your hard earned cash on entry fees.
Besides it being just too expensive these days, you have to enter sometimes 12 months + in advance, long before you even start thinking about and training for the event. If you don’t, you miss the boat and get put onto a waitlist. There are thousands of athletes wanting to sign up for some of the races and if you’re not prepared to cough the dough now, then you can forget about getting onto the start list. What is the solution? Put on more events, increase the numbers and lower entry fees? To be quite honest, I do not have any solutions to the points I have raised herein. I merely wanted to bring to attention how much the sport has changed over the last couple of years and whether or not, it has changed for the better or worse!
Am I just being cynical here? Or do I raise some valid points! Ironman distance events in general are definitely growing in numbers and that’s a good sign for most! No longer a backseat player, triathlon and IM are taking their place amongst the world’s elite sports. The only problem I see is too much commercialism and the drive to make it into a profit only type sport to the financial detriment of those competing in the sport.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I do not agree with you:
Ironman PROs are very unprofessional and pay little attention to marketing. Difference between an average Ironman PRO and most other athletes are substantial when it comes to marketing themselves. Also Ironman athletes are left to their own devices which means they have no skilled staff to compensate for their lack of marketing skills.
This of course makes an Ironman PRO one of the worst investments. Competitive hot dog eating is I think a much better investment.
However I do think there is more and more money for PROs, that is for sure. There are quite average Ironman athletes getting quite good money on the basis of various reasons. It is a matter of business sense. This kind of financial backing was not possible before. And it will only grow.
Also NA Sports, organizer of Ironman races on North American continent, offers free entry to PROs, so entries are free.
As for the price of a race I think it is quite cheap to get a race like Ironman for only few hundred euros. Consider we do only two or three a year than it is fine, 1000 euros per year for few such elaborate events is acceptable even to people in my place which is quite low on GDP list.
Money, as always, is a matter of motivation. Considering I used to pay shirts or dinners as much as an Ironman race costs I think Ironman is not expensive, its quite cheap. Maybe at 1000 euros per race it would be expensive, at up to 400 euros it is quite OK.
I do not agree with most of your article Glen but I welcome the discussion.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Has triathlon lost its virginity, Absolutely!
By that I mean we no longer compete for the pure enjoyment of the sport. It’s no longer John Collin’s and his buddies entering into what seemed like an insane adventure purely to see who was the better athlete, today the sport is big business and big business runs the sport.
Just like in other sports it will take someone hugely talented and brash enough to stand up to the big businesses before demands that the athletes are treated equably are met. Ilie Nastasie did it for tennis in the 70’s, Greg LeMond did it for cycling in the 80’s, and so who is that person going to be for triathlon? It’s a pity that Lance Armstrong chose cycling because he had the right stuff.
Until then the sponsors and organisers will continue to invest in the sport and grow it at unprecedented rates. Why not? It’s a cheap option compared to something like football and given the extreme nature of triathlon (particularly Ironman) it’s bound to deliver plenty of drama and excitement.
Olympic distance racing was reformatted to make it appealing to advertisers and while I can’t say I enjoy the drafting aspect of the sport, I do acknowledge that is has brought triathlon to millions of people who would not normally have given it a second thought.
So is this all bad, I am not sure but I don’t think the sport would have survived if it hadn’t happened. Right now we find ourselves like teenagers who have had their cherries popped but are uncertain of what the future holds and still need to learn a lot of lesson’s before we are ready to take on the big bad world.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I have high hopes for the recent purchase of Ironman. As you said, it is quite frustrating to have to sign up a full year in advance, and if you’re an hour late, you’re SOL. There does seem to be a huge demand for the races. In addition, if hosting Ironman is all about making money, then why aren’t there more of them. We can see that more events hosted in North America will likely still fill up. This provides more revenue for the company, more opportunities for the athletes, and hopefully less of a commitment in signing up 12 months in advance.
The trouble I see forming from that is Kona qualification. If they keep it to one race, top X in your age group, and you’re in, then it becomes luck of who is in your race, but at the same time, it’s nice to know the night of your race whether you made it.
As for the pros’ financial incentive, it sucks. It’s certainly nice to see a few people making a lot of money off of these races, but there are some amazingly talented athletes that dedicate their lives to this sport, and can’t make a living. If they were fortunate enough to be better at standing in the grass for a few hours, swinging a baseball bat, and throwing a little ball, they’d be making millions, but instead they are some of the most fit and worst paid athletes in the country.