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We had the first big race of 2023 in Pucón, Chile last weekend, but there was much bigger news at the end of last week. The Ironman World Championship is experiencing its biggest change since it left Oahu for the Big Island in 1981. As you’ve probably heard, men and women will split the races between Kona, Hawaii and Nice, Francefor at least the next four years, starting this year with women’s races in Kona and men’s in Nice.
For those who have long lobbied to move the World Championship around the world, this is a small victory. For oldies who think Kona is too magical to play with, this is a big loss. For ordinary people who just think a mixed event is just better, it seems a little strange.
The Kona Problem
Kona and Ironman have had a very good arrangement over the past 40 years. The two benefited from each other, but Ironman much more than the island. Ironman is also a global company. Few other brands hold so many events in so many countries, and it continues to grow year after year. It’s a very good thing for the sport. More triathlons in more places will always be good.
Kona is a very small town. There aren’t many small towns that host Ironman. Unlike Ironman and hopefully triathlon as a whole, Kona is not growing. This is a very good thing for Kona. Hosting a two-day event over a weekend in 2022 was a unique thing in a pandemic, and as we’ve seen, it didn’t go very well. The Aloha that existed between Kona and Ironman would wear very thin, very quickly if they tried it for even one more year.
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Ironman wants to grow. This is the nature of a global business. It is not a governing body like World Triathlon. It is beholden to its shareholders, not to sport. That’s not to say there aren’t hundreds of people working for Ironman who care deeply about the sport, but making money will always come first. Two events mean doubling the athletes and doubling the qualifying places at the growing number of races around the world.
The beautiful solution
Like many triathletes, I have no interest in running Kona. It’s way too hot, and apart from the swim and the finish, the course is boring and lonely. Doesn’t sound like a fun day to me.
I have a lot of interest in the race in Nice. I’ve never been there, but I bet it’s pretty hard to get bored on this course. And the weather seems more reasonable for those of us who don’t want to exercise in a furnace all afternoon.
Nice is also steeped in triathlon history and was the sport’s epicenter in Europe throughout the 80s and 90s. It’s big enough to hold a world championship event without shutting down the whole city, it’s is very easy to get to from just about anywhere in the world except Hawaii, and that’s the damn French Riviera. It’s hard to think of a better location for a triathlon world championship. I like it so much I might want to qualify. All of a sudden I might be able to qualify — and that’s one of the problems.
The risk
A big part of what has given Kona a unique mystique within triathlon and endurance sports as a whole is exclusivity. Like the Western States 100 or Race La Ruta, not everyone can do it.
There is also a mystique to the island itself. The event has an energy unparalleled in sport as it takes place on volcanic rock as far from the rest of the world as possible. Trying to manifest even a part of that energy and atmosphere elsewhere – with just one gender – is a daunting task.
But they don’t really need to recreate Kona in Nice. They just need athletes to compete in qualifying events, wait to hear their name on the drop list, and pay big bucks. I don’t think they will have a problem doing that.
The biggest problem will be preserving Kona with only men or women racing. No reasonable child wants to go to an all-girls or all-boys school. No reasonable adult really wants to go to a bachelor or bachelorette party. And no reasonable triathlete wants to compete in a single-sex event. Part of what makes endurance sports great is that men and women compete together on the same course, usually at the same time.
Giving women their own day to run in Kona last year was great, but it may not have been a long-term solution. I’m also not sure that deleting a sex every year is really a solution, and it’s also a huge risk.
For 40 years, Ironman has owned the Super Bowl of triathlon. I don’t believe it can still be that in this format. Too much of the anticipation, drama, and atmosphere is reduced. Let’s not forget that this will be the first year without Mike Reilly on the microphonenor is it a trivial change for the atmosphere of the race.
Ironman could very well cede the de facto title of the most important triathlon in the world to Roth Challenge. It’s the only event with an atmosphere and finish on par with Kona, it has history, it’s not beholden to shareholders, and it has community support in a way that no other event on earth has. do not do.
There’s a good opportunity for Roth to become the most sought-after triathlon on earth, and it’s something Ironman has had for virtually the entire history of the sport. (Roth is currently working on a lottery system for its roughly 3,500 annual entries.) After 20 years of trying to keep Challenge from becoming a true global rival, it seems like a very risky thing to just give away for short-term profit. . . (It is important to note that Challenge Roth is owned and operated separately from Challenge Family events.)
There was no perfect solution for the future of Ironman in Kona. In my ideal triathlon world, the Kona race would never exceed 2,500 athletes, and it would be ridiculously difficult to qualify. Maybe there is a way to have a race like this in Kona every two years, with a bigger event in Nice in off-peak years. Going two years between events in Kona isn’t perfect, but it would preserve the importance and atmosphere of the event for athletes, spectators, sponsors and the media. That would keep Kona as the sorting Super Bowl.
All I know is that I won’t be so excited about Kona for the next four years. And I probably have a chance to qualify for Nice. I don’t think that’s a good sign for the sport.