Who coaches the drafters?
July 11th, 2009 by Nikola
Several triathlon coaches support Say NO To Drafting. This is great.
Coaches are usually the ones who introduce the sport, step by step, to triathletes. Even the greatest had to learn from someone and this was probably their first coach. Is this when their understanding of the sport was imprinted?
If we agree that triathlon coaches to some extent influence how their triathletes understand the sport, then we can say that triathlon coaches have a very important role in preventing drafting.
Triathlon coaches in theory only give training information but in practice they teach triathletes how to respect the sport and its rules. How a triathlete behaves should also be a responsability of the coach.
So who coached the drafters?
Who are these coaches who’s triathletes do not respect the most essential rule of the sport and cheat? Do they pretend they do not know their triathletes or do they support this behavior? Do they just try not make fuss and look the other way?
PS I used another Ironman Austria photo – thank you Ironman Austria for a never ending resource of photos of drafting. 
July 11th, 2009 at 5:18 am
I have a skewed perspective I guess, having started in triathlon in 1992 where there was no drafting. And everybody was outraged when someone drafted back then.
I don’t think coaches have that much to say, simply because I think most triathletes get their start in our sport without a coach (does anyone have any numbers?).
So it’s a question of values and culture and teaching people that drafting makes you a cheater. And that cheating is bad, because surprisingly many people think cheating is OK as long as they don’t get caught, but I think that’s a problem in the larger context of society.
Just please keep sports clean and honest. It’s where we are all supposed to have fun.
/Morten
July 11th, 2009 at 8:57 am
> I have a skewed perspective I guess, having started in triathlon in 1992 where there was no drafting. And everybody was outraged when someone drafted back then.
The good old days
> I don’t think coaches have that much to say, simply because I think most triathletes get their start in our sport without a coach (does anyone have any numbers?).
Possible. I wrote the article trying to understand who actually coaches these drafters. In Ironman 70.3 Austria there was a girl I passed and she immediately got in behind me, like on my wheel. I googled her name after and found out she was part of a team in Austria. I emailed her coach how she behaved but got no reply. I always wondered how they reacted. Are they surprised or do they tell her to act like this.
Maybe this girl took someone’s slot for World Champs?
> So it’s a question of values and culture and teaching people that drafting makes you a cheater. And that cheating is bad, because surprisingly many people think cheating is OK as long as they don’t get caught, but I think that’s a problem in the larger context of society.
Agreed. Here we try to focus on one detailed issue. Maybe fixing small details like this can have an influence on the bigger picture.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
I thought drafting was NOT allowed in triathlons. Did something change recently?
Drafting makes riding a team sport. If you want to watch/participate in a team sport, then take up bike racing!