Best in Show
Triathlon Business International (TBI) highlighted its 2013 conference by serving steak and lobster to attendees. Oh, and it handed out some awards too. This is the only award ceremony honoring the best that the multisport industry produces.
The awards and banquet were the highlight of a conference that featured speakers Phil White (pictured), president of Cervelo Cycles, Gary Hall, Jr., 10-time Olympic medalist and newbie triathlete, Andy Potts, fast in the water but for a rare change maybe not the fastest swimmer at the conference (at least over 100 meters shorter), and USA Triathlon’s CEO Rob Urbach.
The categories honored at this year’s conference were Best Image, Best Print Story, Top Product, Top Retailers, and Ron Smith Award recipients.
Lava Magazine writer Jay Prasuhn’s profile of Lance Armstrong, “Junior’s Roots,” was deemed the best published article of 2012.
The winner of the category Best Published Image if of 2012 winner was Nils Nilson’s “Parting Shot,” the image capturing Manny Huerta’s Olympic qualifying moment.
There were several in the running for this award, including XLAB’s Torpedo, SRAM’s new Red group and Brooks’ Pure Connect shoe. Three finalists were whittled out of this group, and these were the Garmin 910XT, De Soto’s innovative and very functional Riviera TriBib, and Cervelo’s P5 Six. The P5 Six won the award as most innovative during 2012.
Most triathletes today have no idea who Ron Smith was and why he was chosen as the namesake for the one athlete award this industry group hands out. Those who’ve been in the industry, and in triathlon for a long time, can answer that question easily, but, on Slowtwitch there sits a description that cannot be bettered. TBI gives out this award as its way of displaying its own idea of an athlete who, by his or her own deeds and behavior, pulls the entire sport forward.
This year’s finalists were 4-time Olympian Hunter Kemper; the very compelling season of Andrew Starykowicz, who outlasted 6 weeks of house arrest and injury in Abu Dhabi for colliding with a volunteer during the bike leg to subsequently set the fastest bike split ever during an Ironman race while winning Ironman Florida; and Slowtwitch favorite, and its chief technology officer, Jordan Rapp. The 5-time Ironman champ, former long course World Champ, was chosen for his race performances, his overall knowledge shared with enthusiasts, and for the $160,000 so far raised for World Bicycle Relief. It no doubt did not hurt that after one of his Ironman wins, in Arizona, Rapp returned to the finish line with 40 In-N-Out Burger meals for volunteers and staff. Jordan is pictured with Mike Reilly, aka The Voice, who is also secretary of TBI, along with TBI’s president Jack Caress who produces, among other races, L'Etape du California, and the Los Angeles Triathlon.
The women’s winner was awarded to the duo of Kathleen McCartney and Julie Moss, who rematched last year in Kona to commemorate the most notable Ironman race of all time. No, not the Ironwar in 1989, but the iconic, impossible to forget, duel that placed Ironman on the map and inspired so many people to raise up off the couch and become Ironman athletes. They are pictured with Cervelo’s Phil White, and Nytro Multisport’s Skip McDowell.
Also honored were the top 10-retailers in the United States servicing the multisport community. This list is noted separately. Super swimmers Andy Potts and Gary Hall, Jr. each spoke at the conference, and talk swimming (one assumes) below.
[Images, other than Nilson's winning image, are from Brian Choy of Chris Chase Design.]
