Kona is Being SPLIT!?

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Kona is Being SPLIT!?

Рет қаралды 2,016

Күн бұрын

What you heard is right - The Ironman World Championships are being split between the men and the women! What will the race look like in the future? Will the long history of races in Kona forever be altered? Join us as we dive into all the facts and speculations - You won't want to miss out on this!
Tell us,
What's your stance on the split?
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ABOUT TJ:
TJ Tollakson is the original Dimond creator and the accomplished CEO of Ruster Sports/ Dimond Bikes. Tollakson began racing in 2001 and quickly proved himself a force to be reckoned with on the bike course. TJ is a proud husband and father to 3 children. You can usually find him pounding the pavement in Des Moines, IA or tinkering with his newest idea at the Dimond Bikes headquarters.
TJ has 10 Ironman podium finishes under his belt, with his favorite being his Mont Tremblant victory. After a bumpy road filled with surgeries and numerous setbacks, TJ used this race to prove he was still at his prime and leads the pack. One of his latest accolades was an IM PR of 8:04:17 at IM Arizona. He retired in 2021 with his last race being Ironman Des Moines 70.3 in his hometown.

Пікірлер: 17

@stevesears8241 Жыл бұрын

I appreciate your nuanced take. Moving the world championship from Kona is overdue to make the race internationally accessible, but the split of men and women is foolish, and make ultimately harm women in the sport. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that vendors will choose Nice over Kona since most of sales revenue is from men. Plus the fact that women are letting slots roll down means that the women’s age group “championship” is nothing more than a wealth check. Getting more women into triathlon would be great, but I find it hard to believe that women are currently not racing because it’s too hard to qualify for the world championship. Ironman doesn’t care about women, they want more entry fees.

@quengmingmeow Жыл бұрын

Only Ironman could royally torpedo the only thing most non triathletes know about Ironman: the world championship in Kona….shown on NBC for like the past 40 years. Ironman needed to be delicate after the locals didn’t have to deal with it for 2 years….but instead Ironman brought more crowds and royally P.O.’d the locals. The World Championships in Kona is a long tradition, now obliterated. Meanwhile, we get treated to over a hundred Ironman races through the year with almost none of them featuring a deep (and interesting) field. Ugh.

@michaelkennedy9064 Жыл бұрын

Where Ironman really Fucked up was the timing of this change. Athletes already qualified for Kona, scheduled time off work for Kona, booked flights and accommodation for Kona, had family organise to come and support in Kona, couple triathletes also made plans to race together in Kona and after paying Ironman for Kona, Ironman thought they would withdraw from following through with what they agreed with athletes. If they were going to make this change they should have announced that it was going to happen in 2024 so no athletes who had already qualified and were scheduled to race events to qualify them for the next race in Kona would be affected. It was a stupidly timed decision.

@RobHale81 Жыл бұрын

I personally love the idea of rotating the WC. The sport has evolved to outgrow Hawaii, so the race venue has to evolve as well. Plus, like you hit on in the beginning, it gives different athletes a chance to challenge for the W in different course climates and elevations.. And yes, I absolutely would love to get to Kona, but if I earn an entry to a WC not in Kona, it'll still be the IMWC to me and will be treated as such.

@bretzky9261 Жыл бұрын

Was given the option to differ to Kona the year after 🤙

@echunter100 Жыл бұрын

I have only been fortunate to race in Kona one time. From my perspective, everything about Kona makes that race more challenging than any other race. The greatest long-distance triathletes have raced there. Being able to experience that place was amazing. That is to me why racing in Kona is so special.

@10euclid Жыл бұрын

Its enough already with the whining about the heat and Kona being so hard, the history of the sport is Kona!

@rosiespalding7358 Жыл бұрын

Leave the race on Kona. BUT what matters more than the location of the race is that Ironman cannot call this a “ world championship” when spots to Kona or Nice roll down to 15th spot which is what happened in my age group this year. This results in age groupers traveling to the “ world championships” who are NOT the best in their age group, who are NOT the best of the best and are in turn NOT racing the best of the best which is the point of a world championship. I came 11th in my age group this year and technically could have taken a spot to Kona, but I didn’t for the reasons stated above together with the outrageous costs involved. I want to “ win” my spot not be handed it. Who wants to race people who are going to be finishing around 15 hours, that’s not racing the best of the best. Ironman is also ridiculously expensive, it’s a rich persons sport and if you’ve got money you get to race people who are rich not people who are the best in their age group. Leave the race in Kona, reduce the numbers ( shock horror) and only allow the best of the best to compete. Problem of overcrowding on Kona solved and then you get exciting racing and it remains a true “ World Championship” NOT just another Ironman race.

@joemoya9743 Жыл бұрын

A solution would be to temporarily expand the infrastructure in Kona by increasing housing and access to more volunteers by using cruise ships that support and house athletes and additional volunteers. If I was a cruise ship operator, I would see it as an opportunity to make money while athletes would find it an easier housing alternative. If you do the math, an average cruise ship can hold between 2,000 to 5,000 people. A couple of cruise ships holding 4,000 to 10,000 should be enough additional housing and facilities to make a double Kona possible. Plus, it would reduce stress on road traffic since ship-tenders could be used to transport people to and from various coastal drop-off/pick-up points. Each ship could provide facilities particular to bike equipment needs and allow spaces for sponsors and vendors as well. Logistically it may take some experimenting by the cruise liner company to make it work but I have a feeling if the cruise liner owners were accommodating this many people for up to a month before the event, they would become floating hotels/trade malls. The only big issue would be if very rough seas were to become an issue.

@trilete716 Жыл бұрын

Like nearly everything with IM, follow the money. They will put their brand on anything willing to pay (Huffy IM-branded bikes anyone?!?!) So they can cloud their decision to split the venue with whatever reasons, but at the end of the day - follow the money!

@enricobraglia6336 Жыл бұрын

Ironman WC is Kona, an Ironman Wc race in another place is a different think. The proof of this is that a world championship held in another place will never be remembered while a Kona winner will. As for 2022, everyone will remember Iden as winner in Kona while few will remember Blummenfelt's victory in St George

@TJ.at.DimondBikes Жыл бұрын

I agree that Kona is part of what makes the race special...now it will be more like the Olympics...every other year with Men in even years and women in odd years.

@roberthammond487 Жыл бұрын

This a horrible move which pretty much destroys this race. I believe that you are trivializing just how special this venue has been over the years ESPECIALLY because it included the best men AND women in the sport. Nobody who I have spoken to cares at all about going to a self proclaimed split “world championship” in Nice, France, chosen by the geniuses that make up the management of the WTC. Perhaps those in Europe will think differently. I would rather see Challenge Roth declare itself the “Iron Distance” world championship. The aura of Kona, Hawaii was what drew so many people to this race, not so much because it was deemed a world championship, but because the venue was so unique. The difficulty of the conditions (heat and wind) was what drew so many people to try to qualify (or lottery) for this race. This goes back to it’s first telecast on the Wide World Of Sports. It was what made me strive so hard to finally get there my first time in the year 2000, after watching the Mark Allen/Dave Scott duel in 1989 along with Paula Newby-Fraser almost break nine hours. Nice has it’s own history as a once great race, won by Mark Allen 10 times, which was separate from the WTC. The men and women should be racing on the same course on the same day. If that means letting less people qualify and compete, so be it. If Kona cannot handle the whole race anymore then find the unique venue that can. Should we alternate the Boston Marathon with another city just so we can showcase the women and men separately in different cities on alternating years?

@deanb61 Жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree with this decision 100%. In the unlikely event that I qualified, there's just no way I could justify the cost of going to Kona (I can scuba dive in the Maldives with my family for that cost). But Nice, sure, that's quite doable. History? Well it didn't start at Kona, it moved there in it's infancy...now it's grown out of it's infancy and it's once again time to move on. Times change, people grow up, move with the times people. But of course the rich crowd who pick up slots that other's can't afford, sure they'll moan about it, complain that it's not 'history' etc. Best just ignore them.

@AntonKomarov Жыл бұрын

I would identify myself as a woman to go to Kona 😂 it’s possible in the US

@davelaycock5016 Жыл бұрын

😂😂😂

@michaelvrbanac6923 Жыл бұрын

Zero interest in IMWC not in Kona. Total BS. Yeah, I heard Nice too. Really dangerous bike course at Nice, assuming they send athletes up into the mountains.