IRONMAN Should Be Commended for Nice, Frankfurt Actions

Let’s lead off with a very obvious statement: there is no race producer worth their salt that wants to cancel a race. Us race directors will attempt to move heaven and earth itself to try and not cancel a race, and especially not within 30 days of our event date. By that point, we’ve spent your race registration dollars on just about everything that you’ll experience on race day. From swag to supplies to suppliers, there’s very little wiggle room left for items to cancel when it comes down to those final few days.

But sometimes, you have no other option. Your job as a race producer isn’t just to put on the race; it’s to put on the race safely. And when athlete, volunteer, employee, spectator, or general public safety are in question, you have the obligation and duty to modify your event so as to ensure those in your care’s safety.

That’s exactly the decision that IRONMAN and its team was unfortunately faced this week with events in France and Germany. The so-called Omega Block has seen multiple fatalities, caused the A2 motorway surface to buckle in Germany, and forced extreme action as temperatures soared to above 40 degrees Celsius for many consecutive days. In the wake of that weather pattern and its impact on emergency service resources, IRONMAN was forced into cancelling IRONMAN France altogether and then modifying its race in Frankfurt to include a 125 kilometer long cycling loop and a half-distance run.

Let me be unequivocally clear: this was absolutely the right call in the circumstances.

This isn’t a single day of oppressive conditions. It has been an unrelenting heat wave spanning well more than a week. Emergency resources have been pushed hard as people attempt to find ways to stay cool. France, for instance, has seen at least 40 deaths attributed to the heat wave from drowning. This is a region wholly unaccustomed to these temperatures. Air conditioning, for instance, is only available in 20% of residences. And critical medical infrastructure was even knocked offline as scanners overheated and had to be taken offline.

For what it’s worth, while in Rome earlier this week, we met a woman from Kuwait at one of the activities we scheduled. In her own words: this weather is much worse than it is at home. At home, she said, we at least are prepared for these kinds of conditions. Here, they just aren’t.

It’s why it’s unfair to IRONMAN and to local authorities who helped make these decisions to compare them to other races in other locations. Just because it gets hotter in Southeast Asia or that Kona is a difficult race doesn’t matter. What matters is the field of play that you’re going to be operating in and the environment surrounding you. All races, even be a global giant, are local. And you need to be aware of the communities needs when operating in these types of conditions.

Lest we forget, when things go wrong we tend to also rake race producers over the coals when they instead opt to put on races in the face of this kind of weather. For example, there was significant outcry at IRONMAN following the deaths of two athletes by drowning in challenging seas in Ireland in 2023. We have also seen athletes die from exertional heat stress, in conditions far less extreme than those expected in Europe this forthcoming weekend.

Let’s say that for a moment, IRONMAN decided instead to push forward with their full race in Frankfurt this weekend. And let’s say that unfortunately, an athlete died from a heat-related illness. How quickly would we, collectively, have jumped to blame organizers for continuing in the face of the conditions? IRONMAN would be called out for greed, for being soulless, for not caring about its competitors, its volunteers, its spectators, its community.

IRONMAN instead to put athlete safety in front of all else. And that’s the way that it should be.

Contrast this decisive, pro-active approach with the “wait and see” approach that Life Time had taken this week with Crusher in the Tushar. The Cottonwood Fire in Utah quickly engulfed much of the surrounding region of Beaver and Piute Counties, burning over 71,000 acres since it ignited on Monday. The human lit fire torched much of the Eagle Point ski area, home of the race, by midweek.

Unfortunately, Life Time chose a more tepid approach. On Thursday, Life Time wrote in an event update on Instagram that, “With Crusher in the Tushar still a few weeks away, we know athletes are looking for answers. The situation is active and evolving, and we are working closely with local officials before making any event-related decisions.” It’d take another 24 hours, and much athlete and community outcry, before Life Time was spurred into its cancellation decision.

The reality of being a race director is that you are going to be forced to make extremely difficult decisions, with the best information you can in front of you in that moment, in order to protect the very athletes who will then lambast you on social media in the event that you make the perceived wrong call. But, in my opinion, you can never go wrong when erring on the side of keeping athletes safe from themselves.

Tags: