Chrissie Wellington

AEDIC

Was watching her on Sky Sports News this morning and I dont know why but I never really looked into her splits in these Iron Man events...

I am always impressed by any IM event, the fact that people still have it in their legs to run a full Marathon at the end etc but she is particularly amazing with her splits..... she would finish in the top 10 women in most of the big city marathons with her IM marathon leg of around 2hrs 45 and would certainly qualify for most countries Olympic Marathon team (she was aying she could probably push to 2hrs 30 if she just ran the Marathon)...

Anyway enough of the admiration..... what do you guys think of the IM event being an olympic sport? I know commercially it is tough with it being 8 hours and keeping viewers interested for that time might be hard going..... but isnt the whole idea of the Olympics to be testing faster, longer etc etc.... Its taken Tri a long time to get a foothold but I really think there is a place for an IM event.

zico10

AEDIC wrote: »

Anyway enough of the admiration..... what do you guys think of the IM event being an olympic sport? I know commercially it is tough with it being 8 hours and keeping viewers interested for that time might be hard going..... but isnt the whole idea of the Olympics to be testing faster, longer etc etc.... Its taken Tri a long time to get a foothold but I really think there is a place for an IM event.

Would it not be too close to the World Championships in Kona? I don't think these will ever be superseded by an Olympic gold medal. It would be quite a double to pull off though, but I think you would only end up with a situation, where athletes target one, to the detriment of the other.

robinph

AEDIC wrote: »

... but isnt the whole idea of the Olympics to be testing faster, longer etc etc.... Its taken Tri a long time to get a foothold but I really think there is a place for an IM event.

Faster, Higher, Stronger.

But if you were to add "longer" into it as well, I don't think they would use it to mean longer in terms of time, longer in distance yes for throwing type events. But not longer in terms of an event you have to time with a calendar.

Not looked closely at the times she is knocking out, but I'd have thought that if she is doing 2:45 after a long bike ride and splash about in the sea that 2:30 should be pretty simple if she cut out the other sillyness and just did the running.

AEDIC

'Would it not be too close to the World Championships in Kona?'

Yes next year I guess it would, but not every time the Olympics cam round... bit like Tour De France and the Olympics next year I guess....

'Not looked closely at the times she is knocking out, but I'd have thought that if she is doing 2:45 after a long bike ride and splash about in the sea that 2:30 should be pretty simple if she cut out the other sillyness and just did the running. '

haha I will leave that to the Tri people to counter but surely tests of ultimate endurance have their place in the Olympics too?

Izoard

Leaving aside the scheduling issues - We have 100m -> Marathon in athletics and 50m -> 10,000m in Swimming, as Olympic events, so having OLY and IM distance for tri is not a major stretch.

tunney

Would make for terrible television, no telly, no money, no interest.

robinph

Izoard wrote: »

Leaving aside the scheduling issues - We have 100m -> Marathon in athletics and 50m -> 10,000m in Swimming, as Olympic events, so having OLY and IM distance for tri is not a major stretch.

But they are all done and dusted in under 3hours, have been trying to think of any Olympic event that takes longer but not sure there is any. Although I think the cyclists may spend a day in the saddle.

Also with only three people from each country able to take part would it be possible to get a competitive field together for IM tri? The marathon is likely to be three Kenyans disappearing into the distance on their own and arguing over who gets what colour medal with everyone else following along 5 minutes later and I can't see that an IM would be any improvement on that kind of "excitement". When your talking about an event that takes as long as the IM is there any spectator value in an exciting race to actually watch? Yes, there is for those of us round these parts, but there is more people watching the Olympics than just us and it would be a nightmare for TV coverage.

Izoard

tunney wrote: »

Would make for terrible television, no telly, no money, no interest.

Triathlon in general makes for terrible television.

ITU is a 10k run with a warm up and IM viewing, well...

robinph wrote: »

But they are all done and dusted in under 3hours, have been trying to think of any Olympic event that takes longer but not sure there is any. Although I think the cyclists may spend a day in the saddle.

Also with only three people from each country able to take part would it be possible to get a competitive field together for IM tri? The marathon is likely to be three Kenyans disappearing into the distance on their own and arguing over who gets what colour medal with everyone else following along 5 minutes later and I can't see that an IM would be any improvement on that kind of "excitement". When your talking about an event that takes as long as the IM is there any spectator value in an exciting race to actually watch? Yes, there is for those of us round these parts, but there is more people watching the Olympics than just us and it would be a nightmare for TV coverage.

Both Decathlon and Pentathlon takes days to finish.

I'm not a fan of watching triathlon, but the boredom argument can be applied to many sports, if you are not a fan.

Test cricket, anyone?

robinph

Izoard wrote: »

Both Decathlon and Pentathlon takes days to finish.

If you're going for that angle then the soccer takes even longer, it starts a couple of days before the games even open. The decathlon/ heptathlon/ pentathlon are multiple short events bundled together in one, but shown in small easy to view chunks.

And more importantly the heptathlon has Jessica Ennis in it. :P

Izoard wrote: »

I'm not a fan of watching triathlon, but the boredom argument can be applied to many sports, if you are not a fan.

Test cricket, anyone?

Been a while since they had cricket in the Olympics, but if there were to bring something like that back then it would only ever be the short version of the game.

AEDIC

robinph wrote: »

But they are all done and dusted in under 3hours, have been trying to think of any Olympic event that takes longer but not sure there is any. Although I think the cyclists may spend a day in the saddle.

Also with only three people from each country able to take part would it be possible to get a competitive field together for IM tri? The marathon is likely to be three Kenyans disappearing into the distance on their own and arguing over who gets what colour medal with everyone else following along 5 minutes later and I can't see that an IM would be any improvement on that kind of "excitement". When your talking about an event that takes as long as the IM is there any spectator value in an exciting race to actually watch? Yes, there is for those of us round these parts, but there is more people watching the Olympics than just us and it would be a nightmare for TV coverage.

Its a great point about the Marathon and the Kenyans going off and sorting out the medals between them..... but isnt that also a good reason for having an IM, it levels out the playing field and makes it less predictable... which unfortunately is where the Marathon is going. Still makes it a great event and dont get me wrong, I am not saying 'just because the Kenyans are good at it lets do something else', but I just think it would be a different type of challenge and one in keeping with traditional Olympian ideals.

On the scheduling, I think people would dip in and out of whatever they felt grabbed their interest, and to be honest the coverage on TV whould probably shorten it all down tot he vinegar strokes of each event anyway.... I am sure all of the shooting events arent done and dusted in a few minutes but thats all that appears on tv. (have to say I am constantly amazed at the viewing figures that Channel 4 gets for the TdF and that is hours and hours in the saddle...

'And more importantly the heptathlon has Jessica Ennis in it. '

Best and most valid point ever

robinph

With the marathon, although the Kenyans run away and claim all the medals, everyone else is still all finished within the next 20 minutes of them or so. I guess that in IM that a "close" finish might be a 20 minute gap between 1st and 2nd?

The TdF goes on for hours, and the Olympic cycling stage, but would usually just come down to an exciting sprint finish with Cavendish winning. You don't actually need to bother paying that much attention to the rest of the event.

nerraw1111

I wouldn't underestimate the pull of an Olympic medal. Look at Chris McCormack who's gone back to Oly distance after a gap of 9 years, turning down a chance to defend Kona.

DHinSeattle

Chrissie Wellington is a triathlon machine. She's a marvel. She's NEVER lost an IM event she's entered. That is beyond impressive. And she's a really sweet person too.

Macca's efforts at making the Olympic team is a good indication that other IM pros would be interested in going for the gold. These folks are super competitive and the chance for a gold medal would be too enticing to pass up.

Agree that triathlon isn't exactly a TV friendly spot -- especially at the IM distance -- live. However, it could be condensed down to a packaged replay -- much like NBC covers the Ironman Championships here in the states. Tri-heads like me can follow the action live online.