By now many of you have heard of a new organization, announced Monday, October 18, called Triathlon America. The press announcement can be read on Triathlon America's website.
There's always a backstory.
A group of us met at the Harvard Club in New York City last December. In attendance were the corporate heads of Ironman, Life Time Fitness (and the owners of each of the Life Time Fitness events), Competitor Group, The Nation's Tri, Active.com, IMG, Tri-California, Champion System, and others. According to my recollection, about 24 of us in all were there.
USA Triathlon's then-executive director, Skip Gilbert, also attended.
The meeting appeared to be "without portfolio." If there was an agenda, no one told me. We started out properly, that is to say, we ate and drank and berated each other and told jokes.
The next day we segued into a loose-form discussion of what we might do as a group to further our sport. Did we need an industry association? What might we do that advocacy groups in the individual sports are not already doing? Who should join such an industry group? Who can an industry group serve?
Let me answer some important questions in a few short paragraphs. If you're a triathlon "consumer," you have your organization already. It's USA Triathlon (or Triathlon Canada, or your NF in your country). Your national federation is, or should be, or could be, your go-to national organization.
But if you're in the industry—a manufacturer, a coach, a professional athlete, a race director, an event services provider, a member of the media—this is the niche Triathlon America will fill.
Some among you might say, "I'm a race director, wasn't USA Triathlon formed as an industry group for people who do what I do?" Yes. This, back when TriFed USA was something other than an organization with an annual budget of $12 million. USAT has grown to serve many disparate needs, including acting as the national governing body of an Olympic sport.
These days few corporations have a voice in USAT's governance. Manufacturers rarely if ever sit on its board, likewise no retailers, no longer many RDs, no long distance professional athletes. And lest you forget, industry doesn't own USAT. Its members do, and they are end-users. If you still think USA is your industry organization, God bless you, but I think that ship has sailed.
To be sure, USA Triathlon is vitally important for the smooth running of a section of triathlon's industry, specifically for race directors and coaches. But, the architecture and governance of a national federation is not optimized to function as an advocate for industry.
Just as athletes flourish in enclaves, so do ideas. Triathlon America's first order of business is to bring the industry together, to sit in one place, in one room. Just prior to the first day of March, 2011, we'll host the first of what we intend will be an annual conference. This will take place in La Jolla, at the Estancia Resort.
I predict astonishing things will happen when the World's premier tri bike and accessory manufacturers, footwear and apparel makers, retailers, race directors, event services providers, athletes and coaches all converge in one spot at one time.
The curriculum for this conference has not yet been finalized. But I believe we'll place on the agenda a set of topics that will—just by their titles—demonstrate that we'll break new ground at this conference.
While networking and the curriculum will provide the meat for attendees, the highlight of the conference will be its banquet. We'll celebrate, and honor equally, both long and short course racing—long overdue, in my book—as well as industry achievement. Honoring superior initiative and execution by a retailer, a manufacturer, a photographer, a journalist, are the hallmarks of a mature industry.
The focus of Triathlon America is to find ways by which industry can prosper. While everything we do will be laser-focused on industry, we won't limit membership to industry.
I think, for example, about Mike Dannelly. You probably don't know that name. Look at the photo of Mirinda Carfrae winning the Hawaiian Ironman. See that American Interbanc banner across her? That's Mike's company.
Mike is not in "the industry." But on what basis would we exclude someone who's personally kept the careers of so many athletes financially viable? Not to mention the races he's sponsored!
Now, to be sure, I haven't spoken to Mike about Triathlon America, and I don't know if he'd seek membership or not. But there are a lot of silent boosters like Mike out there and, if membership in Triathlon America is what you want, you're in.
I'd like to broach one more subject: this organization's reach. Almost immediately, when it became apparent this group would form, we started getting the question I've already gotten several times today: Why America? The triathlon industry is global. In fact, one of our founding members, IMG, has more current triathlon interests outside North America than inside.
Good question. If you want my honest opinion, in our myopia we blundered. But it's not a blunder I expect us to continue to make. I predict this organization will start internationalizing almost immediately.
Beyond that, if I write too much more I'll just be spitballing. There is a lot about what we're going to do that we don't yet know—that we haven't yet conceived. But I do know this: Last November triathlon's capos all sat together in one room and peace broke out. I think that's a testament to our having lived together, as an industry, for an average of about 24 years per Triathlon America founding member.
Nothing is assured. Confederacies fall apart. This one might. Still, laying down our swords to pool our resources has proved remarkably easy thus far. That's why now seems the right time for this industry group, and it's why I've thrown my lot in with it.
