One Day, One Race
In 2023, Ironman split the world championship into two separate days and two different locations. The women raced in Kona, Hawaii and the men raced in Nice, France. This year, 2024, women raced in Nice, France and men race in Kona, Hawaii. The men will start around 2400, the women had just over 1100 finish at Nice. While the intention was to have more inclusivity for women, the format of two races, two locations has failed.
Triathlon’s success is based on community. On a recent podcast, Andrew Huberman, the Stanford neuroscientist, pointed to the fundamental importance for adults to have strong friendships and community. Community and a sense of belonging are main reasons athletes begin with triathlon. It is a “community of pain” and surveys of triathletes, despite our narcissistic bent, return to “community” as the reason for starting in the sport.
So why separate us?
Why have two different world championship races? How does that format promote and encourage women in sport? It doesn’t. It separates us and puts women into an off-stage corner.
I started triathlon for the group atmosphere, for the social component, to find my people. While I am only one voice, I am a common voice. I was living and partying hard in Hollywood in the late 2000s, but that came to a halt when I stopped drinking, joined AA and lost all my “party friends”. It was a lonely time. In 2010 I was introduced to triathlon and the Los Angeles triathlon “team”. I did new and frightening things like open water swimming in Santa Monica. I bought a bike, like many new southern California triathletes, at Helen’s Bikes in Beverly Hills. I joined a run club. I rode with the 101 Ride in Malibu. I was in a community. I had a new happy hour.
As time went on, I made progress and began to want to see how far I could get in the sport. I hired a coach, improved little by little from the middle of the pack at Ironman to being on the podium. I qualified for Kona with a third place finish at Ironman California (three slots). My dream of going to Kona was realized. But as it turns out, this was the first year of a woman’s-only race and Ironman needed to fill the race with others who hadn’t made the podium. Ironman invited lots and lots of women to Kona. Women who came 50th in their age group were invited. While this helped with inclusivity in the sport, it eroded the racing excellence of Kona. For women, there was no mountain to climb, just a slot to be accepted. The result: the recent women’s world championships in Nice, France was a ghost town with only around 1250 women toeing the start line. The world championship is for the best of the best demonstrated through proper qualification. It is not and should not be treated as a ribbon participation event. While I am glad so many other women got to experience Kona last year, there was a missing piece: the community in total. The men.
For the integrity of our excellence, for the achievement of sport, for the quality of the world championship, we need less is more. Proper qualifications all around. Make it hard to get in. Make it a pinnacle. One day in Kona (or somewhere). Both sexes.
Will a single-day format hurt women’s racing on the big island? Will the professional women in particular be hindered? Maybe. But the achievements of women on the island are underscored by the witness of the entire community validating our achievements as fellow racers, as spectators, as brands, as vendors, as a collective humanity celebrating our joint achievements. We did it because we could. We did it together. And we bragged about it for the rest of our lives.
Good read, but I don’t agree completely.
I like the two-days of racing model more, but I don’t like the separate venues.
I hope they bring back the same venue model in the near future, but keep it in separate days. I find myself enjoying women’s racing more when it is done separately from the men’s.
When it’s held on the same day, it feels like the women’s race is an afterthought… “men are done. Now we can go check on the women.” But when it’s a separate race, it’s all or my attention from the gun (canyon).
I’d like to clarify that I mean this as an spectator. Maybe I would feel differently if I was participating in the event.
I really appreciate the community argument. Solid point. And it provides a way for Ironman to save some face if they decide to backtrack that they didn’t fully appreciate the effect of splitting the community, etc.
That said it seems there are a few points which work crossways with your argument.
Nice wasn’t a success because it didn’t have a good turn out, but you’re also ok having it somewhere else besides Kona, which wouldn’t have as good a turn out. – I guess you’re point is that’s ok because it’s more exclusive?
If the race was 2 days in Nice, the turnout of women wouldn’t be that much different. Maybe it adds 100 racers. Clearly not worth the burden to the community to buy that extra 100 with another full day of shut downs and volunteers etc.
Better to just let that 1100 racers willing to go to Nice grow to 1300-1500 next time. Isn’t that the more likely result? That base of the pyramid grows over time, and as that base grows, the pointy end gets faster and the qualification process becomes just as exclusive as it does for the men?
I think even now to talk about water down fields in the female age groups is interesting because the competition in the top 10 in the AG you took 3rd on (congrats!) separated 1st - 10th by nearly 2 hours. Meanwhile among the males in the same AG it was half as much with 1 hour difference between the top 10. That’s not to degrade any particular performance, but to point out that the exclusivity (the hard factor) is obviously going to change based on how deep the fields are. And the best path to getting deeper faster fields is to get more people in those fields in the first place.
So world championship exclusive arguments, if they take the long term view, would have to recognize these changes as planting seeds that can take years to germinate.
The danger of course, is that they never do, and maybe you needed to have those rows of trees spaced closer together…planting them on opposite sides of the planet might negate any future growth in the process.
So ya… count me as one that says the best thing Ironman can and should do is simply make the best decision that’s financial viable and sustainable, period. And it sounds like at this point in time, they’ve made the wrong bet with the females and are subsidizing the effort with the males. Perhaps one more Kona cycle of women-only racing will build up the next round excited to go to Nice and elsewhere beyond. But if the numbers don’t bring in enough $$$ then IM should figure another path that makes the most financial sense.
Yessssss we need more “one day versus two day, Kona versus Nice” threads.
Hey, at least it’s not an “IT ONLY COUNTS IF IT’S IN KONA” thread.
I like the fact that it’s so easy to comment on front page articles now, but don’t love the fact that de facto forum posts are now published by the management as front page articles.
I thought the article title was a Trump election day get-out-the-vote slogan.
I like the 2 day format but at the same location. Unfortunately the town of Kailua-Kona is becoming really run down and the citizens dont care for it anymore. My wife and I racced Kona 3 times together in the mid 2000s which isnt possible for couples anymore and when it was actually a real challange to get in and this was part of its allure, IMO its gone the way of the Boston Marathon which isnt much of a challange to get in for a dedicated athelte.
I just looked at the entry fee for 2004 and it was $450 with no processing fees I believe its around $1,600 today. We were there last year for a family vacation in Waikoloa and I can say that I have no interest in racing it ever again.
I read the separated venue as product of what happened out of the pandemic:
-The 2 day format in 2022 was partly a product of clearing the backlog, but also giving women (mostly) their own day
-Ironman jumped the gun and figured they could sustain a 2 day Kona WC, to which Kona said “one day only”
-By the time Kona said no, Ironman had already given out about half the slots for the 2023 race on a 2 day format, so by that point they needed to do a 2 day event for the 2023 race.
-They “owed” these slot-owners a race in Kona, so it was difficult to just pick up and move to a 2 day format elsewhere.
-So they settled on a split format and deferred the men who already had a slot. Nice wanted a 4 year commitment, and so they were obliged to do 2 cycles of the format.
Once the 4 years are over, IMO, the best option is to reunite the two races, but as a 2 day event. Its hard to go back to a 1 day event, now that women have their own race - even if that event is 50/50 gender balanced. As well, just about everyone agrees that the split location format isn’t in the best interest in the sport.
So the logical outcome of this is, in theory, a 2 day event away from Kona, in a place that can support this kind of ask from the triathlon community. Rotating (either a semi-permanent set of 3-5 places, or ongoing bids as with the 70.3) makes sense since supporting a 2-day event every year is hard.
The only question remaining then - is IM’s commitment to giving women their own day stronger than Kona’s draw as WC (and its impact on qualification races)?
They should just go back to one day, both genders, in Kona. I get the sense that’s more of the consensus feeling on the ground here this week.
Some good selection bias going on here. Consensus of men (who aren’t as impacted by a switch to 1 day), who are already in the sport at a high level, who’ve already chosen to go to Kona and have the means to go, agree that the WC should be in Kona.
Huh? Is it the case that women don’t have the means to go to Kona?
I’m honestly pretty sick and tired of reading posts like this. You’re trying to hide your purely elitist attitude under a guise of “community”. Well you want to know what doesn’t make people feel like they are part of a community? People like you claiming that some of the people in Kona or Nice don’t deserve to be there. This elitist attitude is such a turnoff from the sport and it needs to end if we want this sport to still be around in a few years. If you REALLY want a feeling of community, you need to accept that everyone on course with you is as deserving as you are. Based on your photo and time, I am assuming that you didn’t get top 10 in your AG. So guess what? the person who finished dead last in you AG got the EXACT SAME finisher medal that you did. First or last, everyone completes the same course and the same distance. If you get a slot to a WC race, you deserve to be there. Period. The End.
As to your claims re: needing men on course with you to feel some sort of community or validation…please forgive me while I throw up all over myself. The women’s race will always take a back seat to the men’s race unless women are given their own day and platform to shine. Right now we are witnessing the growth of women’s sports in every way and it’s so damn exciting for triathlon to be a part of it. Sure, it make take a few years for registrations to grow and for this women’s movement to really flourish. But, one day the little girls who watched mom compete in a women’s only WC will grow up into strong and powerful women. And if they want to do triathlon, do you really expect them to be totally fine still taking a back seat to the men!!!
Tout Le Monde Regards Le Sport Feminin. A shift in women’s sports is happening. And you can either join the movement or you can sit here trying to put women back in the kitchen.
This particular consensus is made up mostly of men who do have the means to fly to Kona. Obviously there are women who do have the means (they’d be underrepresented in this sample)
Well, there is also not insignificant cohort of women triathletes I know who feel the same way. Both those that have raced here as an all women’s event and Nice. The majority would prefer to be here every year with the men.
The basic issue is that Ironman doesn’t care about athletes, it’s a money making enterprise and i’m sure that they make more money with 2 races; more athletes = more money against a fixed cost for a race
Unfortunately we find ourselves in a situation where a for-profit company has a monopoly on the LD side of the sport. Until/unless that changes don’t expect any decisions to be made which hurt the bottom line but help the athletes.
The best thing for the sport would be for IM to go bust IMO, but hey, one can dream.