Are Triathletes worth the dues they pay toward Masters Swimming?
I say we force all Triathletes to spend one day a week in the sprint lane, one day a week doing stroke (i.e. IM) work, and then make them focus on their starts and turns.
This invasion needs to be controlled.... :-)
John Smith
:)
I will add another observation about the order and why swimming is first. Tom H is correct in everying he stated and the big concerns of safety. You would not want to have swimming last or in the middle because athletes could be tired and the risks are higher for danager. There are dangers in the other two disciplines but medical attention could be done quicker on land than at sea.
The reason the triathlon distances are set the way they are is the person that invented the Iron Man triathlon combined the 3 toughest races that were held in Hawaii and sought to see if anyone would be of interest to do this. This was back in the 1979 and the fields back then were nothing like they are today. When triathlons really started to grow the other distances were figured out by what the % were in the Iron Man.
Because there was only a 2.5 swim race, the bike race was 112 miles, and then the standard marathon running race, it was never ever meant to be any other way than it was. Obviously the swimming gets the lower end and maybe that is the attraction to non swimmers that get into the event. I am not sure how they figured the Olympic distance but the swimming portion is still low compared to the others.
I will add another observation about the order and why swimming is first. Tom H is correct in everying he stated and the big concerns of safety. You would not want to have swimming last or in the middle because athletes could be tired and the risks are higher for danager. There are dangers in the other two disciplines but medical attention could be done quicker on land than at sea.
The reason the triathlon distances are set the way they are is the person that invented the Iron Man triathlon combined the 3 toughest races that were held in Hawaii and sought to see if anyone would be of interest to do this. This was back in the 1979 and the fields back then were nothing like they are today. When triathlons really started to grow the other distances were figured out by what the % were in the Iron Man.
Because there was only a 2.5 swim race, the bike race was 112 miles, and then the standard marathon running race, it was never ever meant to be any other way than it was. Obviously the swimming gets the lower end and maybe that is the attraction to non swimmers that get into the event. I am not sure how they figured the Olympic distance but the swimming portion is still low compared to the others.
