New professional membership fee by the WTC
There’s currently an interesting discussion regarding the recent decision by the WTC to implement a mandatory $750US licensing/membership fee for all professional Ironman and 70.3 Ironman participants. From www.ironmancenter.com/pros: explains what the membership program’s intent is, “to compliment the creation of the Ironman Anti Doping Program, WTC has launched the Professional Membership Program in an effort to streamline and enhance the quality and athletic standards of Ironman branded events as a global brand. Membership to the Program is MANDATORY to all athletes who intend to race in the Professional Division in any recognized Ironman or Ironman 70.3 event. By virtue of this membership, all Professional athletes will be included in the Ironman Anti Doping Program, and are subject to the Code of Conduct and Rules.”
You can read an interesting thread relating to this topic here.
Here are my thoughts on this matter:
1) Kudos to the WTC for listening to the pros collective voice regarding our interest to have more drug testing in our sport. From my assumption, I’m anticipating the membership will include more out of competition drug testing, as well as post-race testing for the top performers on race day. Many pros have been asking for this – and now, apparently we’re getting it. This, I trust is similar to what has happened with the rising drafting debate,…pros have been recently more vocal in their collective interest to have improvements in calling drafting penalties – there seems (at least from my perspective) to have been notable improvements in calling drafting penalties in recent races. Overall, the pros must be content knowing that they are being listened to.
2) One part of racing as a pro Ironman athlete that is a difficult pill to swallow, is the fact that competing as a (true) pro is a financially (not to mention not-so-healthy) risky decision – and the $750US provides yet another barrier to the sport. For an athlete to truely become a professional Ironman athlete, you must first have a financial base – exclusive to or any combination of self-investment, spouse/family investment, line of credit/including a loan from Canadian Tire, or even a simple floor or couch to crash on. The beauty of Ironman racing is that it ultimately rewards hard work, discipline and consistency in preparing for the event. Therefore, if you are willing to do the work and take on the sacrifices necessary to succeed, you will ultimately find yourself on top. The risky part of Ironman racing is embedded in the absolute risk of repetitive overuse and/or systemic injury that isn’t a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ you will develop a setback. Further, the fine balances in life that need to be first attained before success can come in this sport is considerable, and sadly often is insurmountable for upcoming/developmental triathletes. Ironically, the sport that requires years to develop peak performance, often only allows for relatively small windows of opportunity to do so. I’m not so sure that introducing another financial barrier ($750US/year) to all aspiring and current pro Ironman athletes is the best move to further develop the sport. Time shall tell…
Scott
