Newsletter ep. 96: RIP Musselman (?) & a case of harassment

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 July 17, 2019.

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We’re still off the podcast this week and will be back next week. I’m still off Twitter too, in case you’re @ing me. I went back on briefly to respond to people, wasn’t a fan of what I saw, and am now indefinitely signed out of my account. Just Insta me instead or email or Facebook message or text.

I also handed over the reigns to Sara briefly below for some more news on the Outpoken Summit (which both of us will be at, duh). The photo is from this past year’s conference and next year’s will be better. Or so I’m told.

A weird choice

Anyone who’s been a long-time reader of the newsletter knows I’m generally a believer in letting people come back from their mistakes, in second chances and rehabilitation, in giving people the opportunity to get to the point where they can apologize and grow and learn. Potentially.

Life guru Tony Robbins is not at that point. He’s still at the deny and accuse everyone of lying point.

Which is why Siri Lindley’s continued adamant and vocal support of him is bizarre.

Look, I get standing by your friends. And, I get giving them the benefit of the doubt. At first I thought maybe she hadn’t read the incredibly well-reported and in-depth article on the guy’s harassment and abuse. (Or maybe she didn’t understand how fact-checking works and that big publications have legal teams and lawyers on these things. Sure, they might make mistakes, but they don’t generally make things up. Generally.) Or maybe she hadn’t read the follow-up article on more accusations. Or maybe she hadn’t seen the video. Or the old video before of him being an asshole. I thought maybe she didn’t really get it.

Now I just don’t know.

Obviously, Siri is one of the top triathlon coaches out there and a smart woman. And if she had wanted to quietly stand by a friend, help him get the help he seems to need, I might have understood that. But this constant active choice to visibly and unquestionably declare allegiance to someone who has done some pretty shitty things is, well, just weird. And it undermines her.

Announcements, announcements, announcements

Ironman was all about the announcing announcements again this week. (Though I’m not sure the question ‘Heard any rumors lately?‘ went the direction they were hoping it would go.)

It turned out the Big Announcement was: IM Canada is moving back to Penticton. Which I thought we already definitely knew.

At first, to me, it seemed like the big announcement was the *other* announcement they made this week: Ironman bought Musselman. For people on the East Coast, Musselman was a much beloved local grassroots race, one of the last. Now it’s Musselman 70.3, about to be brought into the M-dot fold.

Obviously, Ironman just keeps doing this. And whether you feel good or bad about the company buying up its local smaller competitors depends probably on how you feel about Ironman, and you probably already had that opinion before this purchase. It is what it is at this point.

But it does bring up again the ongoing anti-trust questions. Anti-trust is hard to prove legally, because it is ultimately usually about the effect on consumer and competition. And if Ironman says to Vineman or Big Kahuna or whoever, ‘either we’re going to put an event in your area or you can sell to us,’ well, more events is good for the consumer. However, if those moves ultimately lead to a monopoly with complete market control, then that’s bad for the consumer. I’m just not sure what can or will be done about it.

A lack of justice?

Maybe you remember the story of Lectie, who was hit hard while biking by someone drag racing. She’s had many many surgeries since and still needs crutches. And it seems like a clear case where there should be penalties. If you’re doing something illegal (ie. drag racing) with willful negligence and it results in grave physical harm that could have potentially lead to death, then that seems pretty clearly criminal.

Turns out, it’s been a lot harder to actually see that happen.

I’m, obviously, not a big fan of prison time or our criminal justice system. But if the message you’re telling people is it’s OK to try to kill someone as long as they’re riding a bike, then that’s the message people will hear. It’s not like Lectie’s the only one I or you know who’s been killed, nearly killed, paralyzed, hospitalized, and who’s life somehow seems to be worth less.

I don’t know what to do about this. I keep wondering if all the pleas we make, the videos for our safety, hit the ears that need to hear them. Maybe. Hopefully.

Bananas and blind shots

In lighter news — ie. why we put up with all this anyway — there were a bunch of races this weekend, but the most fun one looked like the new inaugural IM Vitoria in Spain. Heather Jackson took the win, while carrying her signature banana, which I still don’t get. And hometown hero Eneko Llanos won the men’s race to deafening cheers.

In case you were wondering what the whole deal was between Lucy Charles and Heather Jackson about Heather tossing a bottle into the garbage, here’s this edition of ‘insider tweet of the week:’

Back at IM South Africa, Lucy made a clean toss to get a cup across the run into a garbage can while going past fast. It was caught on video. This weekend in Spain, Heather threw a water bottle from her bike and nailed the dumpster. It was also caught on video. Who hit the three-pointer better?

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Outspoken Summit Update

Just a reminder for our If We Were Riding readers that early bird pricing for this year’s Outspoken: Women in Triathlon Summit ends with July.  Our theme for 2019 is “Leading from the Inside Out” and we are stoked about our speakers including:

1. Olympian and 4th-place-Kona-finisher Sarah True
2. Entrepreneur Sally Edwards (by popular demand!)
3. Professor, elite cyclist and trans rights activist Dr. Rachel McKinnon
4. US Air Force commander Yvonne Spencer

+ many others

All of this is to say that we would LOVE for you to join us in Tempe, Nov. 15-17 at our new venue at ASU (with full access to training facilities).

And don’t miss early bird pricing.

– Sara

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• • We’ve talked about the Wanda Sports/Ironman IPO quite a bit, but they released pricing information this week. They’re hoping to raise $500 million and shares will go on sale July 26 if you want to own a small part of the company you give all your money to. (Live Feisty/Capital Watch)

 

• • The other races that happened this weekend: The Philadelphia Women’s Triathlon continues to sell out and break ground in terms of ways to attract beginners. The new Astana 70.3 also looks *super* interesting and I learned so much about Kazakstan from the pros’ Instas. (Instagram)

 

• • The most interesting race, though, is probably the Red Bull 400. (Instagram)

 

• • What happens to the superstar women’s World Cup winners now? They go back to playing their NWSL games. Maybe you should watch those too. (Star Tribune)

 

• • For those of us who have been following the research on hormones and performance, you’ll be interested to learn the USWNT was all about tracking their’s. (The Telegraph)

 

• • Another thing we’ve talked about before, but just keeps getting more complicated: human rights organizers call on the Tour to ban Bahrain-Merida. (Cycling Weekly)

 

• • Oh, the Tour. Here’s which of the riders you should be following on Strava. And, fyi, Lance is doing a bunch of coverage for Outside and for his own podcast. I’m just setting that down there, in the spirit of people can potentially get second chances; don’t listen or click if you don’t want to. (CyclingTips/Outside)

 

• • However, I still think Lance’s business plan for his VC fund is super weird — ie. he’ll promote the companies he backs on his podcast. But it’s raising $75 million in funding. (TechCrunch)

 

• • The NCAA really doesn’t like a California bill that would allow college athletes to sign their own sponsor deals. (USA Today)

 

• • Whether or not kids should specialize or do many sports has been a hot topic. I’m in the do many things camp. And this story on the epidemic of youth injuries in basketball just further convinces me I’m right. (ESPN)

 

• • Katie Arnold took the ‘do many things’ training plan to an extreme in the lead-up to her Leadville 100 win. (New York Times)

 

• • Malindi Elmore was briefly a pro triathlete, after she was an Olympic miler. Now she could be an Olympic marathoner. (CBC)

 

• • Shout-out to the first two people to lock down Olympics 2020 qualification for Team USA. And one of them was the guest on Ironwomen last week. (Team USA/Live Feisty)

 

• • At 71, this guy’s probably faster than you. (New York Times)

 

• And just believe me: There’s a reason this Twitter thread on sled dogs went viral. (Twitter)

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Comments & thoughts

– Part of the reason I was thinking about anti-trust laws is because it was pointed out to me my suggestion that Challenge and Ironman work out their scheduling could violate some of those U.S. laws. Though, also, other sports leagues have other exceptions and it’s all very complicated.

– We all love Sue Bird.

– And on Insta, more of you agreed with me that IM Wisconsin is the best N. American Ironman than agreed with Sara that it was IM Mont Tremblant.