We Noticed: CAF on Hot Stove, Challenge Roth and IRONMAN Frankfurt Coordinate Dates and more
Photo: Challenged Athletes Foundation Instagram
We’re big fans of the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) here at Slowtwitch and, earlier this week, Bob Babbitt, one of the founders of the incredible charity organization that has raised over US$ 191 million to support adaptive athletes, was on Major League Baseball’s Hot Stove show with Beauden and Brian Baumkirchner.
When Beauden was three years old, the Baumkirchner’s were on holiday in San Diego, where Beauden got a small cut on his knee. The seemingly harmless cut turned into sepsis, a life-threatening immune response, and Beauden would lose both legs and almost lost both arms. Now, five years later, Beauden plays baseball and runs around thanks to the prosthetic legs that CAF has funded.
You can watch the clip from the show here. On the show Babbitt presented the Baumkirchner’s with a $2,000 grant.
The CAF was founded in 1994 to help para triathlete Jim McLaren get a van that allowed him to drive with just his hands, and has since grown to help thousands of people with physical disabilities from around the world to “provide opportunities and support to those who aspire to lead active, healthy lifestyles.”
Last year I reported on another inspiring CAF athlete, Elijah Schultz, who was featured in an ad that ran during the Super Bowl. You can read about him through the link below:
Challenge Roth and IRONMAN Work Together on Dates
Athletes make the climb up the Solarberg hill at Challenge Roth. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
According to a press release from the folks at Challenge Roth, the 2027 date has been set – July 4.
Those of us who have been around for a while will remember the days when the rivalry between IRONMAN and Challenge Roth was, well, let’s just say … not amicable. The race in Roth and the IRONMAN European Championship in Frankfurt would compete for the top athletes and for media attention. Things got really crazy when both races were on the same day – two of the biggest races of the season that both featured live television coverage (not just streaming – the German networks traditionally cover both races) in the same country happening at the same time. The fighting for attention didn’t really help either event.
Realizing that, the Roth organizers (TEAMCHALLENGE) and IRONMAN officials have started to work together to coordinate the race schedule.
“Clear coordination of the dates of the major German triathlon races is crucial,” Challenge Roth race director Felix Walchshöfer is quoted in the release. “My special thanks go to Felix Eing from Ironman for the always constructive exchange. For many years, the coordination between Ironman and us has been excellent. A big thank you also goes to the local authorities involved for their continuous support. Only together can we offer triathlon fans in Germany and worldwide the best possible experience.”
The 2027 date for the IRONMAN European Championship Frankfurt hasn’t been announced as of yet, but this year’s race is slated for June 29th, so we expect it will once again be held at the end of June.
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IRONMAN 70.3 Pucon Preview
The first IRONMAN event of the season is upon us. This weekend’s event in Chile won’t feature a repeat win by Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk since he’s not on this year’s start list, but Mexico’s Cecilia Perez is back to try to defend her title. Last year’s runner up on the women’s side of things, Macarena Salazar, is also racing on Sunday.
Brittany Higgins is the only American pro woman in the field, while there are three American men competing on the pro side of things – Justin Metzler, Kevin Bishop and Andrew Shellenberger. Highlighting the men’s field is Argentina’s Luciano Taccone, who won IRONMAN Brazil last year and has finished second at the event twice (2022 and 2024, along with a third-place finish in 2017) and Chile’s very own Diego Moya, who competed at the Olympics in Paris, finished fourth in his first 70.3 race in Pucon last year, and rounded out his 2025 season with a win at IRONMAN 70.3 Valdivia.
There are two qualifying slots for the worlds in Nice for both the pro men and women up for grabs, along with US$25,000 in prize money.
20-Meter Draft Zone
It’s hard to imagine that you haven’t heard about the big drive from a number of pro athletes to have IRONMAN adopt a 20-meter draft rule at its events. The goal, it would appear, is to have IRONMAN events use the same drafting rules for pros as Challenge Family and the Professional Triathletes Organisation at its T100 Series. Eric Wynn covered this topic earlier today (see below), as has seemingly every other triathlon media or entertainment outlet over the last little bit.
Pro Tri News has been pushing the hardest on this front, including in this week’s podcast that included a discussion around the issue with Taylor Knibb, Sam Long and Magnus Ditlev, along with numerous social media posts, including this one below with a pro athlete survey:
Lionel Sanders got in on the action as well, posting a video on his YouTube page.
A lot of the current push is coming because of testing that IRONMAN did last year to examine the effects of various draft-zone distances – 12, 16 and 20 meters. We reported on the second round of testing:
And also interviewed IRONMAN’s head official, Jimmy Riccitello, on our podcast.
Sanders made it clear what he hoped to achieve with his video. According to the popular Canadian pro, IRONMAN officials would soon be meeting to discuss the results of the testing, and he is pushing for the company to adopt a 20-meter draft rule.
It will be interesting to see how much data and information we see from IRONMAN’s tests, and also how the company deals with the issue. As Wynn pointed out at the end of his story today, there will no-doubt be lots more discussion on this topic in the future.
Tags:
Bob BabbittChallenge RothChallenged Athletes FoundationIRONMANIRONMAN 70.3 PuconNotable Replies
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Participants
I guess these two races, less than 100 miles apart and more or less ‘always’ scheduled in the late June early July slot, will compete for attention, as said.
With regard to coordination (and appreciate you’re relying on the Roth spiel) your implication is that this coordination is ‘new’. I doubt it. Felix W says “For many years, the coordination between Ironman and us has been excellent.”
Since 2010 there have been two years when the races were the same weekend: 8th July 2012 and 9th July 2017. One might assume that after the fallout in 2017 both parties resolved to make sure the dates didn’t clash. Typically the dates are 7 or 14 days apart, with 2024 the aberration where IRONMAN delayed Frankfurt to after the Olympics.