Newsletter ep. 114: be outspoken

Hello to all our new subscribers, who I think are coming to us post-Outspoken Summit. Sorry if this week’s newsletter is a little bit of old news for those of you who were there. But I promise there’s some new stuff too.

Plus, I’m very very tired, like lay down on the floor and someone can pour wine in my mouth tired. So hopefully this all makes sense.

__________________________________

A dispatch from the Summit

I may be an unreliable narrator, so I was hoping to tell you what other people are saying about the summit. (See us above post-mini-run workout.) It looks like Taryn has a play-by-play up on her blog and Triathlete may have coverage soon. For now, though, you’ll have to rely on me.

Last year’s summit was about empowering women, about our history and how far we’ve come and where we go from here. This year’s summit was more about the unique and complicated questions of what it means to be a woman for all the different kinds of women who exist out there. (Hint: It doesn’t mean the same thing for all of us.)

Dr. Rachel McKinnon gave a presentation on human rights and trans rights and sports rights that was my favorite thing from the weekend, simply because of its clear delineation of logic and argument. You can see much of a very similar presentation of her’s on Youtube here, though it’ll lack some of her jokes. Still, I highly recommend.

(She also shared a fact I had never heard before: That the Kalenjin tribe of Kenya produces so many great distance runners because of a genetic mutation that gives them tiny ankles and lower limbs. It’s physics. You can read some of this argument here.)

I think it was a presentation that also left a lot of people talking and asking each other questions. And I think that’s OK too. I don’t know what happens from here and I don’t know how the summit will look in the future. Women are not all one thing and it’s hard to make one event for all of them. But I do think the one thing everyone enjoyed was simply being with your own people for 48 hours. It’s rare in triathlon.

Lift each other up

On the note of helping each other out, lifting each other up, two things:

USAT is compiling an elite/pro calendar again. This used to exist, but has been largely defunct for awhile. So if you know of any races with $5,000 or more in prize money, help us out. Send the following information to elite@usatriathlon.org: race, date, location, prize purse, website, contact email.

TBIW is also re-launching (maybe that’s not the right word? re-promoting?) its women’s mentorship program for the triathlon industry. Applications will be open for the next month. To either be a mentor or mentee.

A bonus thought: It’s also worth following people you don’t know as much about or who aren’t like you, amplifying and promoting people who don’t normally get attention, following them and RTing them and commenting on FB stories that do good work. Just an idea.

And an announcement

Another announcement since Ironman got back on the announcing their announcements bandwagon this week. As most people guessed, their very unsubtle hint turned out to be a new 70.3 in Memphis in October.

Here’s what I’m confused about, though: Weren’t there supposed to be three North American fulls that would rotate every three years and offer 70.3s during the other two years in the cycle. And the only one (I think?) that’s been announced is St. George. I thought this new announcement would at least be the next rotating one, and I thought that about IM Tulsa too, but neither were. So, where are the other two?

_____________________________________

• Speaking of Ironman: Wanda Sports’ already shitty share price apparently hit a massive low of $2.78 on Monday. (Arguably, that makes it a good time to buy…) It seems to have a little to do with an earnings call that wasn’t great and a little to do with a suit alleging Wanda Sports made misleading or false statement to potential investors. Good times. (Slowtwitch/BusinessWire)
   
• Ironman also unveiled a new website design that seems to largely not work? So they’re having a great week all around. (OK, OK, it works. But. If you Google something, like ‘Ironman Santa Rosa,’ and then click on the link that comes up, the link fails and sends you instead to the Ironman homepage. It does this for *all* Ironman.com URLs. That’s actually a massive problem if you can’t search or find anything on a site. There seems to be something very wrong on the backend of the redesign that’s causing Google to be unable to scrape data, causing insanely slow load times, and generally giving everyone a 404 error headache.) (Ironman/Twitter)
   
• RIP Sean English. Here’s his final call. (Slowtwitch)
   
• There’s also been a lot more talk about the only thing anyone wanted to talk about last week: Mary Cain. Lauren Fleshman wrote an op-ed on how the system is not built for women; the NYT and Sports Illustrated reported out other issues and allegations; and Women’s Running asked the important question: Will women save running? The answer is yes. (New York Times/Sports Illustrated/Women’s Running)
   
• I also ended up reading this old story on Salazar’s obsession with Dathan Ritzenhein’s running form. And how Salazar was going to fix American running. Fascinating now. (New Yorker)
   
• I also don’t generally recommend other podcasts because I don’t generally listen to other podcasts. But the Morning Shakeout interviewed Lindsay Crouse, who has spearheaded all the major NYT op-eds and stories on women’s running. Worth a listen. (Morning Shakeout)
   
• Outside does a good job explaining how the new equal play equal pay law in California works, which answers my questions. (Outside)
   
• Something I’ve talked to Alysia Montano about before, and I thought about some this weekend: minority female runners get paid less by sponsors than white female athletes. (The Root)
   
• The women’s NCAA-ish race was this weekend. ASU won again. It may soon be for real NCAA. (Triathlete)
   
• This is a really solid breakdown of the USWNT money fight and how much the women would be paid if they were the men’s team. (Washington Post)
   
• Until someone told me this weekend about their implant bursting in a bike accident, I had never thought about breast injuries. Apparently, they go heavily unreported. (The Guardian)
   
• The ITU posted a weird/interesting Q&A with an age group athlete who got an accidental doping violation. (Triathlon.org)
   
• And Floyd Landis is now a CBD mogul. (Bicycling)

_________________________________

Thoughts & comments

– It was noted to me I sounded angry on the podcast talking about professional age-groupers and maybe my anger was distorting my message. But I have to say: I *am* angry. Not on my own behalf—it doesn’t affect me (or it doesn’t other than that it affects the sport)—but on behalf of all those regular age-groupers who aren’t getting a chance at Kona or a podium. It’s starting to wear them out.

– A lot of people also said they don’t plan to buy much Nike. It is what it is.

– And a few more wanted to claim their pro-am relay and beer mile partners. Theresa wants Alyssa on her beer mile team and Pam wants Andrew Talansky or Cam Wurf as her biker.

– My favorite story, though, about making triathlon exciting this week came from John: He threw a Kona watching party once where you had to drink every time the word Ventum was said on TV—only he didn’t know Ventum had sponsored the bike course! Ooops.

________________________

‘If We Were Riding’ is a weekly triathlon-ish newsletter written by Kelly O’Mara and produced by Live Feisty Media. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every Wednesday morning. You can also read past issues. This episode is from Nov. 20, 2019.