No, this isn't about getting tubed in Hawaii. It's about an 18-year-old high school senior boy who just won the Triathlon World Championship in the under-20 race. And one four years older who won the under-23 race.

This is what they in sports governance call the "pipeline." These are Olympic stars in the making, those who'll come up and fill in for our current stars when they retire (or move up and out of the favored ITU format). The architect of America's pipeline is South African Libby Burrell. She is America's high performance coordinator, and has been long enough to stamp her imprimatur on America's pipeline program.

"I don't care about ITU-style racing," you might say. "Talk to me about Ironman."

This is about Ironman. It's just that these guys and gals need to conclude an Olympic-style short coursing career first. And, as short coursers, these folks are good, no one should doubt that. Focusing on whether or not an 18-year-old chooses draft-legal races is to miss watching some wonderful talent. Let's take Steven Duplinsky for example.

Here's a kid who ran 9:19 for 3200 meters last year as a high school junior. Slightly better is his 8:38 indoors for 3000 meters, and these two efforts translate to a 9:22 and 9:18 two-mile run respectively.

As he enters his senior year, a natural progression suggests two-mile times approaching nine-minutes flat. This would place him among the region's best high school runners, and within spitting distance of the nation's best runners (high school runners in America breaking nine minutes for two miles is a rarity; fewer than 10, often fewer than 5, achieve this each year). Dyestat rates Duplinsky the 12th best distance runner in the 11-state Southeast region as he enters his senior year.

Should Duplinsky make such an improvement, he'll certainly be offered a four-year scholarship at a top-level Division I track & field program (breaking 9:10 gives him a scholarship to a mid-level Division I or a top-level Division II school). He should certainly not eschew this opportunity, as he'll emerge from such a program with both an education and well-honed running skills. (Regardless of his ability to warrant an invite from a top-flite Division I program—e.g., Stanford, Arkansas, Colorado—it would probably be in Duplinsky's best interest to choose a school with a less aggressive and demanding running program, especially if he wants to continue triathlon at any level during college.)

Jarrod Shoemaker has been on just such a career track. He sprinted away from the field in the U23 race in Gamagori, and did so off a superb run. Jarrod just finished up at Dartmouth College, with personal track bests of 14:08 and 30:48. The former time is better, equating to something under a 29:30, certainly the equal or better of anyone racing ITU-style triathlon at any level.

It's also true that both these fellows lack the sort of swim needed to prevail in multisport at the highest ITU level. To what degree will Jarrod Shoemaker's run be degraded as he works to become a first-pack swimmer? Time will tell.

America's young women flow to us from a different wellspring. Sara McClarty is the finest swimmer ever to emerge as an elite triathlete. Her 4:11 time for 400 meters long course places her among the top-25 Americans ever to compete at that distance, the only triathlete to be so-ranked in any swim discipline. Furthermore, this is an event that translates well to triathlon.

Sara is not yet at the level of Jarrod Shoemaker. Her swim is so good that she'll still be a front-pack competitor regardless of its degredation as she becomes a better runner. And, she bikes very well. It's in the run that she suffers.

Yet, she appears quite like Barb Lindquist did in her early triathlon years. Sara still looks like a swimmer. So did Barb in the beginning. So did Becky Gibbs (before she became Becky Lavelle). Each of these American pros eventually became much leaner, shedding perhaps 10 pounds from each of their frames, and they became much better runners.

Were Sara McClarty to undergo a similar transformation, one might expect a similar improvement in her triathlon performances. One can only speculate about Sara's ideal body composition, realizing that lighter is not always better. At some point lighter means weaker and more injury prone. That established, it is not unreasonable to hope for a 20- to 30-second per mile improvement in her run speed following one Fall and Winter run-specific campaign.

Then there's Jennifer Spieldenner, who led the U20 race in Gamagori out of the water, only to fade on the run. However, one should not perceive this to mean a lack of run talent. A freshman at the University of Toledo, she's got 11:18 speed over 3200 meters as a high schooler, and that's not bad... but not quite where it needs to be. Jennifer's 3200 meter high school PR is the sort of time a boy with 9:45 speed might run, if one endeavors to establish a rough equivalence. Jennifer needs to bring her run time down about 20 seconds per mile to achieve the sort of overcoming speed her teammate Duplinsky exhibits.

As is the case with Sara McClarty, Jennifer Spieldenner has the time and the luxury to work on her run, because she's already got the swim speed Duplinksy is yet to generate.

As one ponders America's pipeline prospects, a truism is evident: Superior run speed dominates at all levels, but especially at the U23 and U20 levels. A good runner overcomes the speed of a good swimmer in these races. To put it another way, while it's rare to get away with so-so swim speed at the highest levels, you can fudge a bit if you're younger.

The question one must ask, though, is whether running is a talent that emerges last among eventual world class triathletes. In the case of America's women, who dominated ITU triathlon over most of the last four years, entering the sport with an overpowering swim was the common denominator. Perhaps in three years it's Sara McClarty who'll be getting the press, not Jarrod Shoemaker.

Yet the men's worlds just held demonstrate, as they almost always do, that breakaway swim speed is not a requirement. Breakaway run speed is. Which tends to work in Jarrod's favor.

I don't know whether Libby Burrell is lucky, or good, or both. But she ought to have a grin from ear to ear upon her return from Japan. She's got two pipeline men with whithering run speed, and two young women who swim like fish. Yes, the most recent Olympics and Gamagori worlds were won by women who had terrific running ability, but America has had great success with its tradition of top swimming triathletes among the women's teams it has fielded.