Triathlon - ‘A Minority Sport’
The latest subscription of ‘220 Triathlon’ landed on Saturday morning with great excitement as inside it had a full review of this years IM World Championships from Hawaii. The review of the race battles and various athlete profiles was great, along with the stunning Kona imagery.
However, what really caught my attention in the magazine was the editors choice ‘letter of the month’. To cut a long story short this guy wrote an interesting piece on how the achievements of the GB triathlon medal winners this year have been somewhat overlooked by the British media.
This is something that I’m also very disappointed with and something that needs to change. I’m sure most of the media out there still class triathlon as a ‘minority sport’. Triathlon is one of the fastest growing sports within the UK at present and with more and more regular members of the public taking up the sport I would say it’s growth maybe goes beyond the predictions of the British Triathlon Federation itself. This taken into consideration though, how many of the British media would rather write about triathlon instead of the ‘majority sports’, such as football, rugby and cricket? Get my point?
A recent response on the BBC’s site made comment on how the success of an individual in ‘minority sports’ should not be given the same status in awards ceremonies than people in ‘majority sports’. This comment came from a subscriber to the site and not one of the writers and went onto say that this was because it is much harder to excel in a sport which many people compete in, than it is for something like Ironman. Tell me you’re not shouting out loud at your PC screen at this point!
Yes, lots of people play and compete in the ‘majority sports’, like football, but most will play to a mediocre standard because these type of sports are easier to participate in, unlike the efforts involved in triathlon. Don’t get me wrong, I love football (as well as other sports) and played for the Army at a high standard so I’m not showing disrespect for any other sport here.
Perhaps this subscriber does not understand the commitment that triathlete’s make in order to excel in the sport. To compete at the top in triathlon takes a hell of a lot more than turning up for a mornings training on the football pitch and raking in ten’s of thousands of pounds per week for it. People maybe don’t realise that for most pro triathlete’s it’s more of a lifestyle choice, rather than just a job.
Another fault of the British media is that our sport of triathlon does not get as much live TV exposure as it should. I ended up watching this Octobers Ironman World Championships in Hawaii via a streamed feed from an American channel on the net. Now why couldn’t the UK broadcast this event live rather than airing a pre-recorded version four weeks later? Only recently have more of the ITU world cup events been broadcast live, however in my opinion this is still not enough.
I believe that all sports should be represented whether they are classed as ‘minority sports’ or not, and where true greats such as Chrissie Wellington emerge, they should be rewarded accordingly for their achievements. I wonder if the achievements of Chrissie will again be over-looked when the shortlists are finalised for this years BBC’s sports personality of the year?!?! What does this girl have to do to be recognised and nominated?
Well done to all GB triathletes for your achievements throughout the year, your efforts ‘do not’ go un-noticed by the fans, followers and competitors of triathlon. It’s just a shame the media don’t hold so much regard!
No further questions your honour!!
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