Inter sport respect

You might have heard that Caine Eckstein is doing Hawaii IM in October this year. Eckstein is a surf Ironman star, winning the famous Coolongatta Gold race 5 times…and he's only 25 years old now!! Like all the surf Ironman guys, he is tank, has a huge engine and is incredibly skilled in the surf. His name has come up a few times in relation to switching to triathlons, along with various stats and numbers for how fast he actually goes, even though surf competitions are notoriously affected by variable conditions making it hard to get an accurate bearing on his ability.

The reason his participation is earning some attention in triathlon circles is because triathletes have a healthy respect for their beach multi-sport cousins. There's enough similarities that we (triathletes) can appreciate how good these guys (and gals) are, even though we rarely line up against them in a race…open water swims being one occasion. So now he is making a jump into our territory we want to know how good he actually is…it doesn't matter that he may have never ridden a bike beyond the surf club before!!

Inter sport respect (or lack of) - and rivalry - is a funny thing. How do multi-sport athletes view single sport athletes, and vice-versa? Not only that, how do long distance athletes view sprinters? Then there is the intense interest when someone transitions from single-sport to multi-sport, or back the other way, and speculation about how they will go now the playing field is the same as the commenting peers. Just remember the hoo-ha when Lance came back to triathlons, and whether he would re-capture his junior form…which he did, until affairs went awry. Equally, many folks made great predictions in speculating about possibly Chrissie Wellington switching to cycling.

There's a tendency for triathletes to look down on single sport athletes a little, after all, surely it would be easy to excel if you're only doing one sport? Also, single sports seem to be the thing you do when you're not a multi-sport athlete, not as a chosen sport in the first instance. Being competent at 3 sports does not necessarily mean being good at three sports, until you consider it as one sport, triathlon, which is the only time that triathletes can claim any kind of ascendancy.

Since triathletes are familiar with three sports it does mean they have some degree of understanding about what it takes to perform in the separate events, which would explain why triathletes generally take high interest in swimming, cycling and running in the broader, and especially international, arenas. Triathletes have good respect for athletes in these sports through their kinship, having a grasp for how fast they really are, much like the respect for Caine Eckstein.

But when you ask a triathlete about some other sports the level of respect varies, as if to say those sports are not "hard" sports based on some kind of effort based comparison…which ignores the intricate role of skill combined with effort. Badminton…ha, soft touches. Judo…ho ho, just a play wrestle. And so on. Each of those sports could use the same retort triathletes often employ…if it were so easy, everyone would do it!! So it's fair to say that every sport is deserving of respect, and that the people at the top of the respective games really are hard athletes.

Intra-sport rivalry is fascinating. Just go to an athletics track and see the divide between the sprinters and middle-long distance runners…they are mutually exclusive groups, even though they are all (just) runners!! Sprinters seemingly demand respect, while longer distance athletes just do their thing. High maintenance versus low fuss.

The view in triathlons is intriguing. Long course triathletes seem to be of the belief that short-course tris are what you do before stepping up to the "real' triathlons, whereas short-course guys can't understand why those crusty demons, IM athletes, would want to go that long, that slowly!! It took an established IM star like Macca to enlighten us about the realities of ITU racing, and really state that short-course and IM athletes are niche athletes.

I think that's where the discussion should head, respecting and understanding the niche that athletes calve out in their chosed speciality. Some people are good at one format and not at others, just like some tennis players are better on grass than clay, and some horses run better on heavy tracks than dry ones. They are all good, but just not necessarily in the way that the critics can appreciate. Nonetheless, speculating about one sport compared to another makes for great bar room debate…and don't forget, led to Ironman triathlon being conceived!!