Rest assured, I am not going to talk about the absurdity of what is known under the name of triathlon, and which is now part of the olympic program (hence the "athletic" in the title). In my post on a really modern pentathlon I was explaining that
"I have a great respect for something like the Ironman. I could even understand a combined event based solely upon locomotion. What irks me is the fact that there is no break between swimming, cycling and running: changing clothes and shoes is made part of the competition itself. This is what I deem absurd".
And, to be truthful, I do not get a combined event based solely upon locomotion. In fact this is the reason for which I find the eicosathlon (double-decathlon if you prefer), which is heavily skewed towards running events, also unacceptable.
What I will discuss is the inclusion of a minimal combined-event competition in the Diamond League or any other important meeting. K. Mayer presented his vision just before the Paris Diamond League meeting where the first such triathlon was staged. He revealed his plan to try to convince the organisers of the Diamond League about incorporating similar triathlons in future meetings and offering multi-event athletes the same level of prize money as specialists. He added
“We want to be treated as normal athletes who have fees and appearance money. And I want it to be a collective request from multi-athletes. This is not to gain money, but to build something that will stay in the future”.
Mayer went on to win the triathlon of the Paris competition, which consisted of shot put, long jump and 110 m hurdles. He registered two personal bests with 17.08 m in the shot put and 13.55 s in the hurdles, and had a solid 7.50 m in the long jump.
Mayer's idea is, of course, great. Bringing combined-event athletes to the limelight within the Diamond League is something the IAAF should have thought of before. And the best way to do this is with a compact, few events, competition.
Curiously the 2019 is not the historically first triathlon to be contested. In the 1904, St. Louis, Olympics, an athletic triathlon consisting of long jump, shot put, and a 100 yard dash was part of the Gymnastics(!) competition. (In fact the results from the athletic triathlon, together with those of the gymnastics triathlon event, were used for the all-around gymnastics classification).
Talking about triathlons got me thinking about possibilities. There are three short (or medium short) running events in the decathlon, three jumps and three throws (plus the 1500 m, which we can forget). Staging a triathlon picking one of each group leads to many (in fact 27) possibilities most of them quite interesting. Vertical jumps could be a minor hassle since they take time (in particular the pole vault) but one could adapt the rules allowing a fixed number of tries (for instance 6, as in the one-hour decathlon). Choosing the 400 m for the running event could also be of interest since this is a particularly demanding event. And of course one could imagine a triathlon consisting only of jumps or only of throws. (But of course, such choices would be a definite disadvantage to the decathletes who are excel as runners).
Although the triathlon is quite interesting, there is an alternative proposal, something that resembles really a combined event competition. In my post on combined events I discussed the proposal of Gaston Meyer of a tetrathlon and qualified it as "drab" (which it is, when you compare it to the decathlon). Then in my post on decathlon variants I re-examined this proposal and concluded that a variant comprising 200 m, long jump, shot put and 1000 m could be optimal. It can be organised both indoor and outdoor and reestablishes the parity between men and women in combined events. It could very well be organised in an afternoon. In fact even an one-hour variant could be contemplated without putting too much constraint on the meeting organisation. The combined-event stars could shine during the Diamond League circuit competing in a real combined-event competition. But then there is a danger that this could lead to the appearance of tetrathlon specialists who would cannibalise the high-prize circuit and discourage a specialisation in the decathlon. So the triathlon, as recommended by K. Mayer, is probably the best compromise.
"I have a great respect for something like the Ironman. I could even understand a combined event based solely upon locomotion. What irks me is the fact that there is no break between swimming, cycling and running: changing clothes and shoes is made part of the competition itself. This is what I deem absurd".
And, to be truthful, I do not get a combined event based solely upon locomotion. In fact this is the reason for which I find the eicosathlon (double-decathlon if you prefer), which is heavily skewed towards running events, also unacceptable.
What I will discuss is the inclusion of a minimal combined-event competition in the Diamond League or any other important meeting. K. Mayer presented his vision just before the Paris Diamond League meeting where the first such triathlon was staged. He revealed his plan to try to convince the organisers of the Diamond League about incorporating similar triathlons in future meetings and offering multi-event athletes the same level of prize money as specialists. He added
“We want to be treated as normal athletes who have fees and appearance money. And I want it to be a collective request from multi-athletes. This is not to gain money, but to build something that will stay in the future”.
Mayer went on to win the triathlon of the Paris competition, which consisted of shot put, long jump and 110 m hurdles. He registered two personal bests with 17.08 m in the shot put and 13.55 s in the hurdles, and had a solid 7.50 m in the long jump.
Mayer's idea is, of course, great. Bringing combined-event athletes to the limelight within the Diamond League is something the IAAF should have thought of before. And the best way to do this is with a compact, few events, competition.
Curiously the 2019 is not the historically first triathlon to be contested. In the 1904, St. Louis, Olympics, an athletic triathlon consisting of long jump, shot put, and a 100 yard dash was part of the Gymnastics(!) competition. (In fact the results from the athletic triathlon, together with those of the gymnastics triathlon event, were used for the all-around gymnastics classification).
Talking about triathlons got me thinking about possibilities. There are three short (or medium short) running events in the decathlon, three jumps and three throws (plus the 1500 m, which we can forget). Staging a triathlon picking one of each group leads to many (in fact 27) possibilities most of them quite interesting. Vertical jumps could be a minor hassle since they take time (in particular the pole vault) but one could adapt the rules allowing a fixed number of tries (for instance 6, as in the one-hour decathlon). Choosing the 400 m for the running event could also be of interest since this is a particularly demanding event. And of course one could imagine a triathlon consisting only of jumps or only of throws. (But of course, such choices would be a definite disadvantage to the decathletes who are excel as runners).
Although the triathlon is quite interesting, there is an alternative proposal, something that resembles really a combined event competition. In my post on combined events I discussed the proposal of Gaston Meyer of a tetrathlon and qualified it as "drab" (which it is, when you compare it to the decathlon). Then in my post on decathlon variants I re-examined this proposal and concluded that a variant comprising 200 m, long jump, shot put and 1000 m could be optimal. It can be organised both indoor and outdoor and reestablishes the parity between men and women in combined events. It could very well be organised in an afternoon. In fact even an one-hour variant could be contemplated without putting too much constraint on the meeting organisation. The combined-event stars could shine during the Diamond League circuit competing in a real combined-event competition. But then there is a danger that this could lead to the appearance of tetrathlon specialists who would cannibalise the high-prize circuit and discourage a specialisation in the decathlon. So the triathlon, as recommended by K. Mayer, is probably the best compromise.
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