Almost everyone who is above 40 knows of the moment when Triathlon and Ironman was put in the spotlight. When Julie Moss crawled across the finish line and Kathleen McCartney passed her up. Julie Moss - Wikipedia
Of the next two decades, triathlon experienced and explosion of expansion, participation, innovation. Not everyone would want to tri the full distance 140.6 triathlon so the Sprint and Olympic or middle distance triathlon were born. Then eventually the half distance. The height of the triathlon era peaking around 2015!
Then the original idea and heart of Judy and Dr John Collins, was then turned into greed and a monopoly on the sport.
My personal experience of a case of the take over: The Texas State Triathlon Club ventured off to Boulder, Co to participate in the Famous (Then) Boulder Peak Triathlon. This trip, I would have to say, was the pinnacle of my college career. We were the first full Texas College Team (Men and Women) to compete at College Nationals in Memphis TN, then Peoria, AZ. But Our CO trip was just off the chain in many ways.
The Boulder Peak Triathlon was a classic Olympic Distance Triathlon that had 1000s in attendance, with hot air balloons with the mountain backdrop... oh was it epic! My favorite part of the whole event, was they awarded the final finisher with an easy chair and a full ice chest... Boulder Peak was Classic Triathlon in the heyday.
Then on one glumly day, Ironman Corp came along to events such as Boulder Peak and dozens if not hundreds of events across the country and world and bought them out. Then brought in one of their cookie cutter events to take the place of the classic.
This is what started the monopoly and downtrend in participation. If you don't have local and shorter less intimidating races, how are you going to introduce people to the sport bone heads, really?!
This reminds me of the game Jinga. You know the game were you stack up the blocks in a perfect tower? Then one by one each has a turn in taking one peg out, and stack it at the top. Well we all know how the game ends, eventually.
This also altered and lifestyle and longevity of the athlete. By taking away a lot of the smaller and local events (this number was also greatly affected by c19) triathletes could no longer be weekend warriors or low volume, short distance training athletes. The thing to do, the roller coaster to ride, the main attraction in the sport is IRONMAN. So the majority of people who want to be triathletes, sign up for ironman or half ironman branded events.
This is all fine and dandy, and I am in no way trying to downplay or steal anyones thunder who has done an Ironman. We say, well Lucy down the street did one, so I can do one! This is a great thing, others motivating and showing others it is possible.
The problem is, ironman takes a lot of training and a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of time away from family. This can only last so long and then either burn out or threats of divorce or debilitating injury takes many out after 3-4 years of the madness.
This outlines the cycle Iron Man created and reasons for downward trend in participation.
Here at Athlete Guild, in order to Guild Athletes, we have to Guild courses and experiences, and trends! We have seen the history of running and multi-sport business trends and participation. We want to be part of the revival in movement, athletics, overall health and wellbeing for the communities we serve!
NicktothePLUS
