Criticism

Beware: Rant ahead!!!

Bouncing around online today I came across these two comments on social media.

Does this mean if they don't pass all the ones pretending to be pros can finally have their license taken off them?? hahahaha

How to become a pro triathlete. 1) come top 20 in your age group once 2) tell everyone your an 'elite' age grouper 3) get as many Instagram followers as possible and GoPro every session 4) get a custom printed kit with all the company's you're an "ambassador" for.

Nothing particularly remarkable about these comments, they are just the latest examples of comments like this that I have come across online. I usually just ignore comments like this, but it doesn't mean that I don't find these sorts of comments a little annoying and at the extreme, a bit offensive. I must admit that I tend to be a bit sensitive to comments like this, but as a second tier pro licence holder it is hard to not take them personally. Given my feelings I thought I would take a minute to talk about the issue.

These sorts of comments seem to stem from an attitude that unless you are a top pro you don't deserve to race in the pro category. If you aren't making money then you don't deserve to be there. That perhaps pro licences are to easy to come by and that they hand them out to any Tom, Dick and Harry. We are 'pretending' as that first comments says. While I don't necessarily agree with the sentiment I can understand why some people might think that. After all if you are not competing for the win, why are you there? If you aren't making money why would you do it and are you really good enough? I can understand it, but I think that is taking a narrow and simplistic view of why people might decide to race in the pro category.

While I can understand why people might have this view, what I don't understand is the level of vehemence these comments often contain. It is a like people are personally offended by my decision to race in the professional category.

The level of offence is what baffles me. I mean I made the decision to take my pro licence for my own reasons. I have discussed those reasons previously, but they aren't really important in this context. The important thing is that they are my reasons. As far as I am aware I didn't hurt anyone taking my licence. They didn't take a licence off somebody else to give it to me. Race organisers don't kick a puppy each time I enter a race (I don't think). What reason do people have to be offended by a decision that I made and has nothing to do with them?

I suspect part of the reason is the Internet. It is well documented that for some reason people feel that when they are online it is okay to be a jerk. Certainly being negative on the Internet is hardly a new thing, but it doesn't stop lots of people enjoying it as a hobby. That is a big reason why I ignore most comments like this. If I got annoyed every time somebody said something on the Internet that I didn't agree with then I would be a very angry person.

I wonder if some of the anger is over the use of the term 'Pro'. I will be the first to admit that most pro triathletes are not Pro by definition. Most of us don't make much money, let alone enough to live on, particularly in Australia. Most pros I know who don't work, still work a bit, or coach or are chewing through savings, or do something like that. Most of them work in a way that allows them to train the way they need to, but very few pros I know in Australia truly don't work at all. I suspect that for this reason pro triathletes daring to call themselves Pro is offensive to some people, or at least really annoying. 'How dare they call themselves pro, they aren't really'. 'Just because they have a few sponsors, who do they think they are?' But here is revelation for you. I refer to myself as being pro because that is what the category that I race in is called. If I raced in the elite category, or the open category or the orange category then that is what I would call myself instead (well, perhaps not orange). Actually I tend to refer to myself as a pro licence holder, because that is what I have.  I will readily admit that there is a difference between a Professional Athlete and a pro licence holder. They can be the same thing, but they usually aren't. But getting offended by people not spelling out that difference seems to be getting hung up on semantics.

In fact today I read that only 10% of tennis players make enough money to cover their costs. Therefore, only 10% of professional tennis players fit the definition that some people have for Pro and that is in a sport which has a lot more money than triathlon. If 90% of pro tennis players are not truly Pro, then what hope do we have.

That brings me to another point and one that I alluded to earlier. The attitude that if you are not good enough to win then you don't deserve to be there. The feeling that pro licences are perhaps to easy to come by. Perhaps that pro licence holder and Pro Athlete should be the same thing. Well here is another newsflash. If the pro category was limited to only those that made enough to live on then it would be a very small category and in most races would be non-existent. The question still remains of how good is good enough and that is a tough one. Saying you shouldn't race as a pro because you got beaten by an age grouper doesn't really work in Australia. We have some of the best Age Groupers in the world here and they often beat lots of the pros. The more valid question may be why those age groupers are not in the pro category, but I will get to that later. I admit that if you are right off the pace then perhaps the pro category is not where you should be. But then again, every licence holder in Australia is approved by Triathlon Australia. TA deemed that athlete good enough. People might think they hand licences over to easily, but having been through the process I can confidently say they don't. My response to these people is that if it is so easy, you do it.

I have heard some people suggest that the licences should be reviewed by the federating body each year and not renewed if there hasn't been adequate justification from the previous season. There might be something in that, but that is a decision that I leave up to Triathlon Australia.

As I mentioned above some people seem to have a narrow and limited view of why a person would become a pro. For me I was regularly at the top of my age group and often the top of all the age groups. I wasn't at pro pace, but I also wasn't really at Age Group pace either. I fell in between. I had a choice, I could keep racing as an age grouper and keep on winning, or I could see if I could get my pro licence. There wasn't really any other choice available. I had some reasons for seeing if I could get my pro licence and so that was the decision I made. I know plenty of Age Group athletes in similar situations who made the oppostite decision. They were certainly good enough to be a pro licence holder but they made the decision not to. Now, just because we decided different paths, does that make my path wrong? Does it make my decision somehow worthy of online condemnation? If it does I don't see why.

In the previous paragraph I mentioned not having a choice between having a pro licence and racing as an age grouper and for most big international races that is true. I have heard it suggested that Ironman and Challenge should introduce an Open category just like many races in Australia have. This is a category which is open to all age groups, you race as a single wave. You don't need a licence to do it, but usually you need to have some good results behind you. The benefit of the open category is that you get to race all the fastest guys. In fact in practice racing open is exactly that same as racing pro except that you don't need a licence and you don't get online criticism. This is an idea that has some merit in my eyes. The real benefit of an open category would be that it would give fast age-groupers somewhere to go. This would also mean that the pro category would be reserved for the pointest of the pointy end. If there was an open category, would I still have a pro licence? I am not sure, but there is a good chance that I wouldn't.

But here is the conundrum in my mind. As I said above racing open and racing in the pro category amount to much the same thing in practice. The only real difference is that I would refer to myself as an open triathlete rather than a pro one, that would be the only practical difference. The only other difference is that I can guarantee that nobody would be offended by the term 'open triathlete' and there would be no criticism online about it. Does that make sense to you, because it sure doesn't to me.