Should the PROs draft or not?
October 8th, 2009 by Nikola
I am trying to understand the position Ironman PROs are in when it comes to drafting.
PROs are making a living from Ironman and triathlon racing which is super hard. If they do not draft they will drop 10 positions and might even be beaten by age-groupers who might draft. This will result in their sponsorships being lower. No drafting = less money.
One Ironman PRO I know has been collecting money for ten years now to buy his own place. He gets bonuses for being in top ten. Rewards for being out of top ten are not good, especially if a sponsor does trully understand the sport and only looks at results and sees the PRO is slower than some age-grouper. It is a matter of quick impressions and decisions.
Ironman PROs can loose their salary they race fair. Their job is on the line in every race. There are no promises, no securities.
So Ironman PRO has to draft because other Ironman PROs will draft and also strong age-groupers will draft.
But if Ironman PRO is caught drafting that the audience hates him. He/She is a cheater, and the audience is right. Audience will never hate an age-grouper because he/she is not a public figure, but an Ironman PRO is a public figure, an athlete who they identify with.
Being an Ironman PRO is balancing how to cheat and not get caught?
Maybe this is how PRO sports are everywhere – boxing, cycling, football, basketball… All top athletes cheat and hope not to get caught because when the money is on the line (medical insurance, house payments, school for the kids…) they do their “worst”…
But in Ironman this situation might be most extreme. There is very little compensation as most Ironman PROs can not really save money, maybe top few %, but others have to coach and do other jobs to get a semi-decent life. Also difference between drafting and non-drafting results is huge, unlike other sports where difference might not be so extreme.
Conclusion might be not to blame the PROs – they are at the end of the chain.
They have to satisfy the audience, the sponsors and the marshals. No one cares about them too much and as soon as they are out of luck they are forgotten. There are always new PROs. Ironman PRO racing is harsh and it is an extreme sacrifice which obviously includes the sacrifice of morality as well. They chose the game and they play it, but they did not make it such.
The ones who make the game as it is are the audience, the age-groupers, the race organizers and the sponsors.
Let me know what you think?
November 8th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
[...] and increase the temptation to push the rules and draft an difficult issue we’ve dealt with before. They could utilize the PRO registration to combat this [...]