State of the sport

Triathletes number half-again as many as raced only four years ago and that’s no secret. Membership in USAT is up far beyond that. USAT reports that annual membership numbers through the end of April are already breaking last year's record numbers. Thus far into 2003, 17,319 individuals have become annual members as compared to 14,105 during the same time period in 2002. The current annual member roster is 45,274 multi-sport athletes. While USAT has budgeted for flat growth in annual membership, privately the national office has set a stretch goal of 50,000 annual members by year's end, and that seems reachable.

The rate of increase has brought inconveniences. One used to be able to register for a triathlon the day before the race. Now, in some locales, one has to take out a line of credit to pay for his entire season’s entry fees before the season opener—that, or forget racing. This sort of growing pain is what happens when athletes vote with their feet and the vote tally takes the market by surprise. In every sport a little rain must fall.

Yes, the market is larger, and that is well known, but less well known is the gender breakdown of the newbies. A third more male triathletes compete than were racing the late ‘90s, but the women’s field has doubled since that time. Much of the industry seems curiously unaware of the trend toward women’s participation in running- and cycling-related events. Just in triathlon alone, Reebok is rolling out the second women’s only national series of triathlons, to join Danskin in this market. Imagine: two women’s-only series in a market not currently sustaining even a single mixed-gender national series!

According to USAT's national office, women made up 9% of the annual membership in 1990. Now it's 29%, and its impossible to predict when the ratio will stabilize. The numbers of women in sprint triathlons have skyrocketed, and in some venues they reportedly make up more than half the field.

This follows a trend in marathons, where 40% of a large marathon field may be made up of women. Likewise, marathons that lead the nation in first-timers also tend to lead the nation in women's participation.

Reebok's triathlon series coordinator Jim Curl realizes he has an opportunity, and is treating this first year with care. "I thought it not best to try to guess what women want in a triathlon. I went to a lot of races and I just asked the women who were racing what bugged them, and what they'd like to see different.

"So there are a lot of little touches. A choice of white or spaghetti strap finisher's shirts. And then what we call an 'info cafe.' After you finish registration there's a real cafe. Free starbucks coffee, and if we get everything we want, there'll be free phones, free internet. Or just a nice place or sit, and to talk or to look at what's going on around you.

"Now, it's not exactly everyone's choice of conversation topic, but there's the toilets. We'll have them in groups of 10, with a single line for each group, as you would line up for bank tellers. There will be an attendent for each group of toilets, and then there'll be a cleaning person employed. If the bathroom needs cleaning, you hang a flag when you leave, and then it gets cleaned before the next use. Would any business allow dirty toilets? Why does our industry allow dirty toilets?"

Curl says he eventually wants showers at the finish line. At race registration you hand over your bag of clean clothing, you get it at the finish. Athletes take a shower, they come out and enjoy the party, "...instead of looking like the cat just dragged them in," says Curl. "Men don't care. A lot of women do care."

Reebok's races are in Chicago—6/22, Boston—7/13, Tampa/St. Pete—9/7, San Diego—11/19. Three of the four RDs are women. Active.com is the registration engine.

Is this the future of women's triathlon? Who knows? Frankly, the model doesn't sound all that bad for both sexes.

Furthermore... (5.12.03)

The Danskin series kicks off this weekend with its opener in Orlando, Florida. This is news not only to triathletes, but to the readers of USA Today. The vignette at right was on page-1 of the sports pages on the May 12th, 2003 edition. The graphic shows the Seattle Danskin race as the country's largest, at over 3500 finishers, with both the Austin and Denver races having over 2000 cross the line. The data appears to have come off USA Triathlon's website, which lists finishers of the various sanctioned races (USAT's B.J. Hoeptner-Evans was not contacted by USA Today for the purposes of this published graphic).

The USAT website lists the finishers by event, and the Seattle race may only be the country's largest if each of Chicago's and Wildflower's events are considered separately. Both have between 7000 and 9000 entrants over their weekends when short, long, MTB, and kids triathlons are all considered.

Capri Events, the organization behind the Chicago Triathlon (formerly the Mrs. T's Triathlon, now the Accenture Chicago Triathlon) begs gently to differ with USA Today's numbers. "We love Maggie [Sullivan, director of the Danskin Series], and we respect the great job she's doing," said Capri's president, Jan Caille. "But you can put all of Maggie's Seattle entrants into my transition area and I'll still have room for four-thousand bikes."

Caille maintains that his sprint and Olympic distance races go off at the same time, and the bikes are racked together, so it's all one race. Danskin splits Caille's races into the distance constituents in order to maintain its claim to number-1.

"We've got 6,750 registered for 2003, and an additional 300 will toe the line," said Caille. "Add that to kid's race on Saturday, we'll have close to nine thousand racing."

Still, the Danskin numbers are impressive, and not only can the Seattle race claim at least the number-2 spot in the U.S. (and probably the world) it's certainly both the largest women's field, and also the largest sprint-distance race.