Men’s IM World Championship Notebook

A few random musings after attempting to catch up on sleep a day later…

I Was Wrong

Consider me a skeptic of having the IRONMAN World Championship move out of Hawaii. I was squarely in the “you don’t move the Masters Tournament from Augusta National” camp. And although I recognized that IRONMAN needed to do something to accommodate two days of racing, I could not wrap my head around the idea of the World Champion being crowned anywhere but in Kona.

And then I watched the race. I saw an idyllic location, with spectacular scenery. I saw dramatic performances on an incredibly difficult bike course. The thousands of spectators all over the run course. It was everything that you could want as a fan of the sport, even with Sam Laidlow off the front and putting the result out of reach for a while, for a World Championship.

I was wrong. Nice is a phenomenal site for a World Championship. I just hope that we can eventually get to a two-day World Championship in the same location after the split ends in 2026. Give me Kona every fifth year, and let’s start rotating this thing.

Stop Doubting Sam Laidlow

Laidlow is an old-school athlete. If there’s anybody who follows the mantra of “They don’t call it pace day, it’s race day” in the pro field, it’s Laidlow. And following his second place in last year’s IRONMAN World Championships, he’d wound up flying too close to the sun in almost all of his results in 2023. (Editor’s Note: I’m intimately familiar with this experience.)

In the post-race press conference, Laidlow talked about how he’d always planned to make the race hard from the swim, and then was surprised by how many athletes fell away while climbing; he went with a power he thought he could hold on a good day and watched everyone else fall back. But the question is always whether Laidlow will, at best, fade on the run or not. And sometimes it’s a explosion.

Perhaps the most important thing that happened to Laidlow in the last month is that he contracted COVID in Singapore. (Aside: I'm inclined to agree with Kelly O'Mara's thoughts that perhaps everyone who got sick in Singapore came down with COVID.) Laidlow had to stop, recover, and then came into Nice much fresher than many other athlete’s who had more textbook builds into the event. But as we’ve seen numerous times over the years, coming into IMWC fresh is more important than a “perfect” series of workouts in. The most recent example, and one talked about multiple times on the broadcast Sunday, was Tim O’Donnell’s broken foot prior to his second place finish in Kona. It seems like less might very well indeed be more.

And for Laidlow, he’s earned that coveted World Championship. And it’s time that we keep him squarely in the favorites for every single race he attends. He might turn into Icarus on occasion, but there’s no doubt: the result and show will be spectacular.

Kona 2024 Watch: Matthew Marquardt

I’m already putting him in my 2024 dark horse category. In his fourth professional race ever, Marquardt took 11th place and the fastest swim, with the biggest time loss coming on a bike course that was never going to be a strength for him. As evidenced by his performances in Texas, Coeur d’Alene, and now in Nice, Marquadt can perform in hot, humid conditions. He’s going to be up front, and with a flatter bike course should find himself much closer to the lead coming into T2. Keep him on your radar.

On Penalties

The two key race-day penalties happened to Bradley Weiss and Braden Currie. Weiss picked up a drafting penalty during the major climb of the day. Currie, meanwhile, took a littering penalty on the bike which happened at an aid station.

With regard to Weiss, his penalty came when Magnus Ditlev came around him, Rudy von Berg, and a third athlete at the time. According to Weiss, Ditlev made the pass and was starting to pull a gap away from the group, headed by von Berg. Weiss saw the gap opening, which was large enough to avoid a penalty for slotting in, and powered around to take the position behind Ditlev. Ditlev then slowed on a hairpin, which resulted in Weiss entering the draft zone, and Weiss didn’t make a pass, thinking that there was “no unfair advantage” which was a term used frequently during the professional athlete briefing earlier in the week. However, the referee called the textbook penalty.

For what it’s worth, von Berg also said that he thought there was no advantage gained by what Weiss had done, and that it didn’t necessarily to be called given where they were on course. He did add he was not sure for him to say, as he knows the emotions and people involved, and referees can remove emotion from the equation and just call penalties as they see them.

For Currie, his littering penalty came at an aid station when he discarded a bottle beyond the “last chance trash” sign by a few meters. He was later disqualified for not arriving at the penalty tent to serve his five minute penalty. Currie filed a protest, and his disqualification and original five minute penalty were overturned. According to his Instagram, Currie’s littering came because there was a person standing at the last chance line. Rather than hitting that person with the bottle, Currie decided to drop it shortly after the mark, and it was that action that led to the penalty. In his post, Currie said he knows that “the IRONMAN and technical officials panel who made this decision were 200% committed to making the right decision” and that he was “really grateful for this.”

That said, Currie’s penalty call effectively ended his race while in fifth place. Currie admitted that he “emotionally gave up as I knew that losing 5 minutes meant I was out of position to win.”

A Champion Goes Out on His Sword

It was not to be for Jan Frodeno, as he sought to end his storybook career with his fourth IRONMAN World Championship. And he looked right in contention from the go, swimming in the front group, emerging out of the water first (but passed prior to the timing mat by Matthew Marquardt, who earned top swim honors). But the first hiccup came when he tore his tri suit in transition, leaving a massive rip under his right arm. And then Frodeno uncharacteristically dropped his rear hydration during the early stages of his bike course. Then the race rode away from him. Then he was passed by Patrick Lange during the bike.

It was clear that it was not going to be Frodeno’s day. But ever the champion, Frodeno decided to go out in style with a 26.2 mile victory lap. It saw Frodeno cheer on Lange, and congratulate Laidlow, while on the run. A group formed to run with Frodeno for the final few kilometers. And the crowds in Nice gave Frodeno all the adoration worthy of one of the greatest to ever do it step off the course one more time.

Admission time — I did send a text to a friend: “think Jan pulls a Tom Brady and unretires a few months from now?” I don’t think so, but…

On Broadcasting

IRONMAN got a lot right about the live broadcast. The graphics package was vastly improved, especially when identifying athletes in the swim. The helicopter visuals on the bike helped truly convey the magnitude of the scenery in the area, as well as letting us get a critical different view as athlete’s wound their way around the hills and countryside. And, for the most part, the team of Michael Lovato, Dede Greisbauer, Matt Lieto, and Greg Welch gave strong insight as to what was happening on screen, explaining what or why something was happening, and building excitement during the run of just what Patrick Lange was doing on course. Tim O’Donnell was also excellent once added as a third man in the “regular” booth.

But that’s not to say it was perfect. The biggest issue came down to number of cameras — we didn’t have enough footage outside of the top six or so on the bike, and once on the four loop run course, outside of Lieto’s man-on-the-course view, it was a lot of Laidlow, Ditlev, and von Berg until Lange lifted third off of RVB. Some of that is the demand of the course and space to put more cameras on motorcycles (or other motorized vehicle). It comes as part of the balancing act of having a safe and fair race for professionals, while also getting enough cameras on course to be able to highlight other action happening.

For any other race I would have awarded coverage an A-. But this isn’t any other race. It’s the World Championships. We have to figure out ways to see more of what’s happening on course at once outside of it being relayed to us by spotters and broadcasters. So let’s give this grade a B. Hopefully the repetitions that the team has had in Kona will let the women’s broadcast shine.

All Images: Donald Miralle for IRONMAN