Is Ironman compition a joke? Wesfly qualified for the world championship in his first try

And don't forget about all the anti-aging treatments. I've never seen so many 50 year olds with 8-pack abs, as when I did a triathlon.

Your writing skills are shockingly poor.

Maybe should’ve spoken more on this in my original post on gear…. Besides the 10k bike comment, these Ironmans are like $1200+ per race. If you haven’t done a half you have to do the “legacy foundation” entry too where you raise money for their charity iirc.

even the most expensive marathons don’t come close to this. The leadman challenge that gives you 5 races is only 1k. Ironman races are mostly for very wealthy/ middle aged people, aside from pros and such. That’s why a lot of the time in young age groups there will only be 3-4 competitors, it’s whoever gets their parents credit card

12-15 hours?

Those are weekend numbers.

I think you need to double it to be competitive at World level.

This is much more of the Kona Qualification system being flawed than an amazing performance. IM Waco was the same weekend as Kona so you're already gonna get a watered down field. There were 54 slots available for 380 finishers. Kona Qualifying isn't like Boston. Imagine if a big city race had a limited number of BQ spots & that that limited number was the same as a small/local marathon? The Chicago marathon only has 100 BQ slots but the Illinois marathon also has 100 slots even though the 101st finisher at Chicago would be faster than people in the top-100 at the latter. So in triathlon you race who shows up in your age group. Typically it is a lot more difficult to qualify.

This race gave out 4 slots for M18-24 with only 20 finishers. You get a score rating in triathlon from USAT. He got an 85 (106 is elite), which should basically never get you close to Kona. There's another website called Obstri that gives ratings and he got 6 total points (you can get over 100). Look at a race like Ironman Arizona from this past weekend. M18-24 only had 1 slot on offer & it took a 9:20 to get it. You had tons of athletes not coming near a KQ who went under 10 hours. He picked the right race & got lucky. Don't knock the sport or what people put into training because the qualification system isn't perfect. You had to go 9:12 to get a slot in M30-34 at Arizona. The top-3 were all 8:50. Those are all professional marks. Race selection matters and there will be better athletes left out of Kona because they chose a more competitive race.

Nah. That’s another misnomer around triathlon, just like the “I can’t be good without a $10k bike” trope.

plenty of age groupers qualify for Kona on an average of 15 hours a week of training, some less than that.

you don’t have to be the best in the world to qualify for Kona. You just have to target a race with a weaker field for your age group. Just like the guy OP referenced, he got in with a 12:30ish finish. That’s a very weak qualifying time. But kudos to him for playing the system and snatching a KQ.

The reality is that in his age bracket the serious athletes are in the pro division or racing ITU. There are very few serious age groupers that young. It is expensive and most normal people don’t have the time or money at that age.

Which race was it?

At the recent Ironman Arizona, fully 22% of the female finishers qualified for the World Championships. LOL

Basically anyone with a pulse can get into the USA age group Nationals also. The top 35% in an age group can get invited to Nationals if you do a state qualifier race (which anyone can sign up for). I was invited to age group "Nationals" after literally my first triathlon ever, lol

Exactly. Let him show up to Kona and have his bass handed to him by legit euros his age that are aiming to become pro. Thirsty stunt by a content maker.

Show up to AG Nationals and see what happens not just in your age group but overall. Even the women will trounce you.

Wesfly proves that CONSERVATIVES DO IT BETTER!

I don't disagree. It would go about as well for me as it will for Wesfly in Kona with his 12:30 time. I was more emphasizing the wide net these events can cast, as others have pointed out.

This.

It's like qualifying for Olympic trials marathon or even Boston. Challenging target, but does not mean you will be in contention to win.

Qualifying for Kona can be both easier and harder than qualifying for Boston. Show up at a highly competitive race and you can have the race of your career and still miss out if people faster than you have a good day as well. Or you can show up at a weak race toward the end of the season and get in with a slower time.

Boston is a little simpler. Run at or under your qualifying time and you’re good to go.

The bike ride was in 95 degree heat. The 29 percent dropout rate was the worst in Ironman history. Smulders stopped at an aid station and laid down covered with ice for 20 minutes in order to keep going and had to jog and walk the last 10 miles.

Probably due to all the medical emergencies Waco has already permanently cancelled the event. Smulders will easily be 90 minutes faster if he sticks with it. He was only 4 minutes behind the overall winner in the swim.

Qualifying for Kona is much more difficult than BQ. Perhaps closer to qualifying for auto entry to NYC marathon if you want to make this sort of analogy.

Boston is simpler to qualify for but also much much easier so maybe not a super great comparison. I don't know if there's a good running comparison really. I would say generally that around the BQ range off the bike is a reasonable expectation for a KQ (some weird situations like this aside)

He raced a 95° Ironman with a 30% dropout rate and still got 4th in his age group. If you finished, you made worlds. Ironman is a sport of cherry-picking qualification races.