2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Men’s Long Course Athlete of the Year
Our next set of nominations comes to the men’s Long Course Athlete of the Year. It was a banner year for long course events, between the two IRONMAN World Championship races, T100’s series, and more. Who will take this one?
As a reminder, voting is still ongoing for the women’s ballot.
Ryan: We had a good spirited debate on the women’s nominations for this award. Let’s turn it over to the men. Who’s on your short list?
Kevin: Well, this should be fun. I am sure you will be shocked that I would put Patrick Lange on the list – while his year wasn’t super-consistent, he came through on the biggest stage in record-setting style. While he ended up short on the IRONMAN Pro Series title, he still finished second in that. As I mentioned earlier with the women – being an IRONMAN world champion in Germany is huge (yes, I know he lives in Austria, but that won’t affect anything on the sponsorship or appearance front). Taking a third Kona title puts him in some pretty rare company, and 7:35:53 … well, that just takes it all to another level, too.
While I feel Magnus Ditlev deserves mention for his Roth performance and general consistency through the year, I really don’t think he can factor into the discussion as he didn’t get a world title or contend for the top of the podium in either the T100 standings of the IRONMAN Pro Series.
I think you have to put Marten Van Riel in the equation (especially since we’ve decided T100 distance is “long”) – the guy won three T100 races and finished second in the other one he competed in. He also managed a seventh-place finish in Cozumel despite having to wait to file a police report after his accident.
And then there is Jelle Geens. He ticks off the box of having won a world championship (Taupo) and was the only person to beat Van Riel in a T100 race this year (Lake Las Vegas). He was consistent in his other 70.3 appearances – second in Zell am See, third in Tallinn and fourth in Oceanside – and also managed another Olympic appearance (his third) before truly turning his sights to the long-distance stuff.
Is there anyone you think I’m missing, Ryan?
Ryan: I think you have to put Gregory Barnaby in the discussion given the reasoning you have for eliminating Ditlev; winning the IM Pro Series has to count for something. Again, dueling top 10s at the two IRONMAN World Championships, plus three podiums on the year, counts for something.
But I also would put more weight on Ditlev’s season than you did, Kevin. Although he didn’t wind up contending in the season standings, it’s not like his results at T100 were lackluster. In four races he took a win, two fourths, and then an eighth at the finale – which came just a few weeks after his second place in Kona.
This is probably controversial, but I think we might have to look at eliminating Lange from this. Yes, he’s the reigning IRONMAN World Champion. Yes, he also won IRONMAN Texas this year. But his 70.3 performances were abysmal by comparison. And I think we have to wind up giving more credit to athletes who are able to excel across the spectrum of what we’re calling long course. (No matter how important winning a world title is in Germany.) That logic also tends toward us eliminating Geens, despite the 70.3 world title.
So for me, this becomes a discussion of Van Riel, Ditlev, and Barnaby. Obviously Ditlev and Barnaby were both more successful at the full distance this year than Van Riel was. Van Riel’s got the world title in his pocket. Barnaby’s consistency got him a $200,000 bonus. And Ditlev was really strong at the two biggest full distance events in the world and had a solid run of T100 races.
I feel like now we have to get very nitpicky, Kevin.
Kevin: I hear you. And I agree that Gregory should be added to the mix, for sure. While I believe that we need to acknowledge his season, it seems crazy to me that we’d give him the Athlete of the Year award over guys who beat him at all the major races. The IRONMAN Pro Series rewards consistency, but are we ready to give the award to someone who was sixth at the IRONMAN World Championship and ninth at the 70.3 worlds?
I would be happy to leave Magnus in the discussion, too, but remain reluctant to leave Patrick out of the equation. Maybe it’s the era I come from. Back when I was racing, Dave Scott won Kona more times than he didn’t, and often didn’t perform super-well at other races through the season. There was a reason his nickname was “The Man,” though – that ability to come through on the one day that really counted amounted to a lot. Patrick did that in style this year – his win didn’t just net him a world title, it put him in some very special company as one of the all-time Kona greats. The list of three-time Kona champs? Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Peter Reid, Craig Alexander, Jan Frodeno and now Patrick Lange. That, to me, is worth acknowledging.
Ryan: Here’s the thing I struggle with on Lange: yes, he won Kona. And he wound up earning the win in Texas, albeit a few months after the fact due to Tomas Rodriguez-Hernandez’s anti-doping sanction. But his record at 70.3 this year was atrocious – his best showing of the year was 16th place at Oceanside, more than 15 minutes behind winner Lionel Sanders. (Yes, forum readers, we’ve officially hit our Lionel quota for an article on men’s racing.)
And yes, to me, “of the year” by definition means we are looking at the entirety of the season, not just one race or performance. Just like a win in Kona or Nice or Roth carries a heavy weight, not being in the mix at another distance (or for a bunch of the year) should also carry a lot of weight. To me, Lange was so far behind in 70.3 events this year that it pulls the value of his two IM wins down.
Perhaps this all puts Ditlev’s season into further perspective – he was competitive every time he started, won the largest full distance race not named IRONMAN World Championships, and took second at IM Worlds (in the fifth fastest time ever in Kona). For as much as I like Barnaby, and that IM Pro Series consistency paid off in a healthy paycheck, I think Ditlev’s year probably outweighs it.
So to me it’s a Ditlev vs. Van Riel conversation. Ditlev was more successful at long course, and competitive at T100. Van Riel was near untouchable at T100 with a well deserved world title, and was on track for an excellent finish in Cozumel until that unfortunate collision. Results are results, though…
But I think we should put it to our readers at this point.
Sometimes there is no real rhyme or reason you have an opinion on something. I’d give this easily to Lange for that Kona performance, and yet I voted Knibb for her “overall” year. I think it was the way in which that race went down and he had such a good swim to setup himself up perfectly. That seemed to be the “perfect” race for him.
I still will raise my fist to the clouds slotting T100 (and to a degree 70.3) into “long course” but I get it, it’s basically more or less non-draft vs DL that seems to slot all non-draft into that category by all PTB’s.
Patrick Lange is without question the long courae athlete of the year. His victory means more than all the other ironmans combined. Second, t100 amd 70.3s are not in the same category is ironman. Anyone who trains and races those events knows this to be true. A middle distance category should be created for those distances.
Can’t see a poll anywhere… agree with @rrheisler’s takes 100%. And I’d go with Ditlev.
the introduction states that polling is still ongoing for the women - I’m assuming that means polling for the men won’t start until the former is completed.
No love for short course or overall triathlete of the year? All around: Knibb (t100, olympics double sport) and blu for top 10 in olympics plus crazy 140.6 course record on low training
Will there be a thread in which Alex Yee gets nominated or are we trying to find ways to avoid that?
It’s obvious that the Ironman world champion is the long course athlete of the year in the same way that the Olympic champions are triathletes of the year.
Does that mean no respect for other achievements? No, but “of the year”, the champion is the champion. It’s kind of in the definition of the word. There was no more prestigious title in long course triathlon than the IMWC and so both Philipp and Lange stole the show there and with superb performances.
Sorry, did you come to this thread to suggest that it shouldn’t exist?
It’s not Joe’s fault, that the redactors decided to:
If this award is to differentiatie from a single race win (even if it is THE race of the year) to decorate the 2024 most consistent full yesr Triathlete of that year, then Jelle Geens seems the right winner for this (despite Lange’s IM WC win - which means for me Lange is certainly the winner of the “2024 single day best result” award, hence the name WC, but not the 2024 athlete of the full YEAR"). So lets take the readon of the award in consideration … at least I did and voted GEENS.
Not to pick on Joe, it’s just that “It’s obvious that the Ironman world champion is the long course athlete of the year” negates the need for the article and the thread. Doesn’t it?
No, not at all. With t100 in the mix, not all the best athletes are showing up to IMWC
Geens wasn’t as long course consistent as Van Riel even. Ditlev with the Roth record and 2nd Kona and a T100 win and consistency in that series. But Geens had two amazing races at the end of the year. Before that, nothing really worthy of most consistent LC athlete of the year.
You are fully right dfru, sorry. Consistency is both valid for Ditlev, Geens, Van Riel; but I should value Ditlevs Roth and Kona 2nd higher as real LD.
Stats of both:
https://stats.protriathletes.org/athlete/jelle-geens
Marten Van Riel - Pro Triathlon Results | PTO - incl Cozumel incident
Magnus Ditlev - Pro Triathlon Results | PTO
So Ditlev outperforms indeed !
You can pick on me, for this thread anyway, I’ve been on the internet for a while now…
My exasperation was that having expressed my disbelief that triathlete of the year excluded Yee the next damn thread created is another one excluding Yee! You couldn’t make it up!
Of course everyone will disagree on the criteria for what makes an athlete of the year, that’s the whole of sports discussion in a single point. And - being a bit more constructive - it should draw out the performances of some lesser known athletes…Kieran Lindars anyone? If you’re doing a new comer / underdog thread, you might want to check him out. Sorry I think the vernacular is “rookie” or something.
Doesn’t change my opinion though!