The Maelstrom of Triathlon Politics: Scandal and Accountability
This podcast episode delves into a significant corruption scandal within the realm of World Triathlon, as revealed by a whistleblower from Triathlon Canada. We examine the serious allegations of intimidation, vote rigging, and corrupt practices that have surfaced following recent elections, sparking widespread concern regarding the governance of the sport. Furthermore, we explore the implications of air quality on endurance performance, a topic of increasing relevance as athletes face environmental challenges during their training and competitions. We also present a practical swim drill designed to enhance efficiency in the water, emphasizing the importance of technique in triathlon training. Ultimately, our discussion aims to equip listeners with valuable insights into both the ethical quandaries within the sport and the practical measures athletes can adopt to optimize their performance.
Links to topics discussed:
AirTrack app
The TriDoc Podcast
Matt's Instagram
Jeff's Instagram
Email Jeff: tri_doc@icloud.com
Email Matt: Matt@thetemponews.com
Signup for the Tempo News
Signup for The TriDoc Podcast Supplement form
Transcript
Welcome to Tempo Talks, a show that brings you analysis of the biggest stories in triathlon training, tips to make you a better athlete, and breakdowns of the latest science and performance.
Speaker A:I'm Matthew Sharp, an olympian in triathlon, 70.3 champion and co founder of the Tempo News.
Speaker B:And I'm Jeff Sankoff, the Tridoc medical contributor for Triathlete magazine, age group winner and coach at Life Sport Coaching.
Speaker B:Our goal, inform and entertain two perspectives.
Speaker B:One sport, all things triathlon.
Speaker B:Now, let's get into it.
Speaker B:You look Tyler.
Speaker B:I want you to eat, want you to rest well, and a month from now, this Hollywood big shot's gonna give you what you want.
Speaker B:Too late, they start shooting in a week.
Speaker B:I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
Speaker B:Yes, you're at the right podcast, but that's not your usual hosts.
Speaker B:That, that, that was of course Don Corleone, but I'm Jeff Sankoff, the Tridoc, and I'm joined of course by Matt Sharp.
Speaker B:And it'll become evident why the Godfather, the Mafiosa, the Casa.
Speaker B:No, what is it?
Speaker B:The Casa Nostra.
Speaker B:The Casa Nostra, yeah.
Speaker B:Why they're making.
Speaker B:Why it's making an appearance.
Speaker A:We need more intros like that for sure.
Speaker A:We need to up our intro game, I think.
Speaker A:And this is a good way to.
Speaker B:Start it, I think so.
Speaker B:Matt, how are you?
Speaker B:How you doing?
Speaker A:Doing well, I would say definitely full fall here.
Speaker A:Jeff, have you been out and about on the trails, on the roads?
Speaker B:Yes, I was up in Breckenridge last week.
Speaker B:It was beautiful.
Speaker B:I had a really nice, it was supposed to be my recovery week after the race and yes, ended up almost dying on a very high altitude, lot of elevation.
Speaker B:But it was beautiful amongst the aspens.
Speaker A:You forget today, it's beautiful.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, man.
Speaker B:And then today I went out and had a nice interval run and I.
Speaker B:Listen, I, I, I will never celebrate the end of summer because I just love summer so much.
Speaker B:But it was a beautiful day to do an interval run this weekend.
Speaker B:I've got a very long ride.
Speaker B:I'll be in your neck of the woods.
Speaker B:My son has a cross country meet at Niwat High School.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And after that I'm gonna do a ride probably up left hand to ward and get some altitude and elevation climbing done.
Speaker A:We need Marbella incoming.
Speaker A:This is it.
Speaker A:This is prime time.
Speaker A:How, how is your body, by the way, coming off the race?
Speaker B:Feeling good now.
Speaker B:Feeling, yeah.
Speaker B:Back to regular training and feeling actually quite good.
Speaker B:So I'm pretty, pretty energized Pretty excited for the last, what, six weeks of training for the year and then one more race?
Speaker B:Yeah, pretty good.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:How about you?
Speaker B:I saw Kirsten's back to running full on.
Speaker B:She looks amazing.
Speaker B:I'm so jealous.
Speaker B:My recovery was much longer than that.
Speaker A:She has really bounced back pretty well.
Speaker A:The last bit, like always coming back from these surgeries, procedures, there's always a roller coaster.
Speaker A:But instead of the downs being as down at the beginning now you know the ups are higher and the downs are slightly less down.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:So she's getting ready.
Speaker A:I'm super excited, super happy for her.
Speaker A:She's going to Wollongong for her first race of the year at the World Triathlon Grand Final.
Speaker A:Why not start your race season at the biggest race of the year for those guys?
Speaker A:But she's a seasoned pro so for her it, the pressure won't be on.
Speaker A:I think she's just excited to get back on the start line and I'm excited to see her kick off her season in October.
Speaker B:Now is that the same as the.
Speaker B:I know there's the world, what is it?
Speaker B:The World Triathlon Final.
Speaker B:I don't even know what they're doing.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:The World Triathlon Grand Final for the championship series and it's also the World Triathlon Finals for.
Speaker A:It's like the age group World Championships.
Speaker B:Ah, okay.
Speaker B:Yeah, I've got some friends that are going to be at that event.
Speaker B:Where's Kirsten going to be staying?
Speaker B:Does she do a homestay?
Speaker B:How does that work?
Speaker A:They'll be at I think one of the hotels in town and I'm sad I'm not going because I actually lived and trained in Wollongong for a couple of summers down in Australia and it was just a great time like I was training.
Speaker A:I was brought in from Canada.
Speaker A:A bunch of us Canadians were brought in to start working with this really high level coach and a really high level group.
Speaker A:We had Olympic, eventual Olympic medalists, world champions in this group and it was a very formative time in my triathlon career.
Speaker A:It was like 10 years plus ago and it's going to be cool to see them go through all the roads and whatnot.
Speaker A:And the Wollongong actually just hosted not too long ago the UCI Cycling World Championship.
Speaker A:So big endurance hotspot in the gong.
Speaker B:So speaking of the UCI World Championships, I don't know, did you catch any of the race this past weekend?
Speaker B:It was ridiculous.
Speaker A:Great day.
Speaker B:Great day for Canada, for the women, that's for sure.
Speaker B:And did you see the men's race?
Speaker A:I didn't see much.
Speaker A:I didn't see much of the.
Speaker A:The highlights or anything.
Speaker B:Taday tade.
Speaker B:Just 100 kilometer solo effort.
Speaker B:Just insane.
Speaker B:But that course was just ridiculous and all at high altitude.
Speaker B:It was like Tom Pidcock was saying how it was like stupid.
Speaker B:Just like.
Speaker A:Was it.
Speaker A:It seemed like it was a successful endeavor though, because it was in Rwanda.
Speaker A:Correct?
Speaker B:I was, yes.
Speaker B:Kigali, Rwanda.
Speaker B:I was very impressed with the crowd support along the course.
Speaker B:It was really pretty impressive.
Speaker B:The race clearly just shelled people.
Speaker B:It was brutal, but exciting.
Speaker B:On the women's side, we had a young Canadian woman who's won once previously.
Speaker B:Her second victory ever happens to be the World Championship.
Speaker A:So crazy.
Speaker B:Amazing for her.
Speaker B:I don't even know her name.
Speaker B:That's how like she's from Quebec.
Speaker A:Jeff.
Speaker B:She's from the World Championships next year are in Montreal.
Speaker A:Oh, I did not know that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Adam is like, we're already booked.
Speaker B:We're going.
Speaker A:Good.
Speaker B:Because he is.
Speaker B:He totally wants to go.
Speaker B:So we are.
Speaker B:We're gonna go and we'll check it.
Speaker B:So perfect.
Speaker B:Just have to make sure it doesn't conflict with nice because of course I'll be in NICE for the World championships for the 70.3.
Speaker B:So gotta make sure that's not a problem.
Speaker B:But anyways.
Speaker B:All right, Matt, what do we got on the program today and how does it tie to Don Corleone?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:As the intro foreshadowed, we have some Mafioso like behavior, which was the direct quote from this whistleblower, talking about the latest in the world Triathlon election corruption scandal.
Speaker A:It's quite a mouthful.
Speaker A:And it's this corruption scandal that's been brewing for quite a while and just the other day got blown up when Trathlee published an article with featuring the head of Triathlon Canada, the president of Triathlon Canada, alleging Mafioso like behavior with World Triathlon.
Speaker A:So we'll get into that.
Speaker A:I believe you have a segment on air quality and endurance performance.
Speaker B:Yeah, I had a chance to be a panelist for a webinar for the.
Speaker B:It's GSS Global Sustainable Sport.
Speaker B:It's an organization out of London and they've been doing these webinars over the course of this year on variety of different issues related to.
Speaker B:And this one was on air quality.
Speaker B:And I got to be on this panel with a few experts and learned a lot of really interesting things about what is being done to address the issues of air quality.
Speaker B:So we'll just talk briefly about the concerns and what's going on.
Speaker B:And just to let people know, give people some ideas.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker A:And I've got a little swim drill at the end that I think people should try.
Speaker A:Cause it's one of the.
Speaker B:Yeah, we haven't really.
Speaker B:We said at the beginning and we were pretty good early on in early episodes talking about training tips and we, we want to get back to that.
Speaker B:So I do want to emphasize if you're a listener and you want to know something from Matt or from me, but mostly from Matt about how to improve your training, improve your racing, please do let us know.
Speaker B:Send us an email.
Speaker B:You can drop a line to either of us on our Instagram.
Speaker B:Or of course you can just make a comment in the Facebook group for talk tempo talks.
Speaker B:Just look for it.
Speaker B:If you're not a member, answer the easy questions.
Speaker B:We'll gain you admittance.
Speaker B:We'd love to hear your questions and have a chance to answer them on the program.
Speaker B:But let's begin today's show with the news of the scandalous behavior of the executive in world Triathlon.
Speaker B:What's been going on there?
Speaker B:Because I got to tell you, I saw the news and it didn't really mean much to me, but I know it meant something to you.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And it's funny because I think of now what registers with athletes like yourself, Jeff, most age groupers.
Speaker A:And this doesn't exactly move the needle, but I think it is important because it is the governing body of our sport.
Speaker A:And if there is poor leadership, if there's corruption, then we need to get rid of this because we don't want this reflected in our sport at the end of the day.
Speaker B:But I'll be very honest, Matt, it's Olympics, right?
Speaker B:We just assume it's going to be there.
Speaker B:It's just too.
Speaker A:IOC does not help in this situation setting that precedent.
Speaker A:But we should always strive to be the best, to be above the rest.
Speaker A:So very important to talk about this.
Speaker A:And I think maybe I'll rewind to essentially October last year.
Speaker A:So basically a year ago was when they held these new elections, this election to.
Speaker A:To do a bunch of positions with World Triathlon, but most importantly the new president.
Speaker A:Because they'd had the same president, Marisol Casado from Spain, I think for about 15 years.
Speaker A:So there was just this long time leadership.
Speaker A:She's finally stepping aside and making way for I guess a new generation, a new head to lead the organization through changing times.
Speaker A:New times.
Speaker A:And ultimately you had this guy, Antonio Aramani, another Spanish guy who was elected president, which was fine, whatever, great.
Speaker A:But shortly after the election.
Speaker A:It became public that these other people who were running for president, they put up a stink or whatever, raised concerns about election rigging and corruption.
Speaker A:They complained to the ioc, made it public.
Speaker A:And so that kind of put a bit of a shadow on this new president for his new reign.
Speaker A:It put a shadow on it, but then nothing really happened for quite a bit.
Speaker B:Yeah, it got quiet there, right.
Speaker B:I heard a little bit of the kerfuffle.
Speaker B:It faded into the background.
Speaker B:And then all of a sudden, boom.
Speaker B:This big thing just.
Speaker B:I guess it was today.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And even to back up a little further, like back in March this year, there was finally a kind of like a sanction because somebody, Michelle Cooper from Australia specifically, who was a.
Speaker A:One of the people running for president who was wronged in this situation, she filed a complaint against one of these guys who was part of this group.
Speaker A:I'm doing like the quotations, but it's like the group the Mafia or whatever to bring it back.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:He.
Speaker A:This guy, Garcia, Libor Garcia, a member of the group, he was actually found by World Triathlon to have breached their anti bribery and anti corruption policy.
Speaker A:And they put down a one year suspension for this guy.
Speaker A:But then he appealed.
Speaker A:So he appealed it, went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Speaker A:I guess a big.
Speaker A:That's like the top body for this kind of stuff.
Speaker A:And ultimately the World Triathlon ruling was upheld, but it was actually downgraded to a warning.
Speaker A:So instead of a suspension, now he was just getting a warning.
Speaker A:But they also said that he breached this anti bribery and anti corruption policy.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:He's clearly done something wrong here.
Speaker A:That's what's coming out.
Speaker A:And I looked into this, like the decision by the cas, the cast, and in the.
Speaker A:In it, there's like a bunch of text messages between him and Michelle Cooper.
Speaker A:Basically, she's trying to like figure out what's going on.
Speaker A:And he's using phrases like the die is cast and just.
Speaker A:It's just not great optics.
Speaker A:It doesn't look great.
Speaker A:So that, that kind of.
Speaker B:When are people gonna learn.
Speaker B:When are people gonna learn that, like text messages don't go away?
Speaker A:No, they're there forever.
Speaker A:And he should have called and said, don't go against the family kind of thing.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker B:I know what you did.
Speaker A:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker A:Mafia vibes for sure.
Speaker A:But then, yes, of course.
Speaker A:The other day, I guess yesterday, since we're recording, triathlete published an article on how this Canadian triathlon president, Peter McCrory, he's basically come out as a whistleblower basically saying explosive allegations of corruption, intimidation, vote rigging.
Speaker A:He says that he was pressured by this guy in the group, Libra Garcia, to join this block of voters.
Speaker A:If he told that if he did not join this bloc, there could be implications for Canada and Canada's members, support for Canada's members in these vice president or whatever positions within World Triathlon.
Speaker A:And he ultimately said he changed his vote due to the pressure.
Speaker B:Okay, so who's part of this cabal?
Speaker B:Who.
Speaker B:Who stood to benefit?
Speaker A:So in reviewing it, you have Antonio Armani, who's the president.
Speaker A:You have this guy, Libor Garcia, who's like the guy who's doing the dirty work.
Speaker A:Like in all of this, the baggage.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's exactly.
Speaker B:He's Luca Brazzi in all of this.
Speaker B:Yeah, he's the fall guy.
Speaker B:And this is.
Speaker A:These are both Spaniards, Antonio Armani, he's Spanish.
Speaker A:But Labor Garcia is from Uruguay.
Speaker A:He's like the member, the whatever, World Triathlon member from Uruguay.
Speaker A:And there's another guy too.
Speaker B:Spain has a track record in triathlon.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Uruguay, not so much.
Speaker A:No, but he's part of the family.
Speaker B:This is just technocrats who are just like trying to striving for some kind of power.
Speaker B:Like, I'm trying to understand what they're in it for.
Speaker A:That's the thing.
Speaker A:It's a power thing.
Speaker A:Like, ultimately they've wanted to have this guy in charge and maybe this guy was like, hey, Libor, if you join me, you know, you're going to be rewarded handsomely.
Speaker A:There's a few other people in this group.
Speaker A:It's like the group is always being referred to in these documents.
Speaker A:And so that's.
Speaker A:It's a power grab in elections and stuff.
Speaker A:Like people, they say who they want to vote for.
Speaker A:There's like slates in election too, so that maybe that's not so controversial.
Speaker A:But obviously when there's implications of not voting for someone, there's potential downsides for not voting for someone.
Speaker A:That's where things get mafia.
Speaker B:It sounds.
Speaker B:You know what it does sound like.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker B:I don't know if you saw the movie Conclave.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:Oh, it's really good.
Speaker B:Very interesting about the papal election and you don't get inside of those.
Speaker B:And this movie gave a really good sort of inside look.
Speaker B:I'm digressing a bit.
Speaker B:But this situation now, can it.
Speaker B:Can anything come of it?
Speaker B:Is there pressure on.
Speaker B:Is it Aramani?
Speaker B:Aramani.
Speaker B:Is there pressure on him to resign?
Speaker B:Is there, like, what's going on?
Speaker B:Because first of all, one of the things I don't understand is why did the Canadian come out now?
Speaker B:Did something happen more?
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:There was.
Speaker A:There's just this guy, obviously a journalist who's doing this article.
Speaker A:He's probably asking around, sniffing around for all these members, and then maybe he's, hey, what I experienced, what I saw, like, this isn't right.
Speaker A:This isn't correct.
Speaker A:I want to make it public.
Speaker B:I want to try, no matter what it means.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because he already said he was coerced basically into voting for this president.
Speaker A:And this block of people, you know.
Speaker B:Who'S been suspiciously quiet through all of this.
Speaker A:Who?
Speaker B:The Americans.
Speaker B:They're usually quick to speak out when they've been wronged in some way.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Interesting.
Speaker A:I haven't even heard anything about USA Triathlon.
Speaker A:They haven't come out with any kind of statement or anything.
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker B:I mean, it's not.
Speaker B:It's not like their house is in such great order because they've had their own issues.
Speaker B:Right, with their elections and everything else.
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker A:It's definitely a messy situation.
Speaker A:I feel like this article, maybe it'll galvanize the.
Speaker A:The opposition to come out and try and do something, but ultimately it doesn't really seem like there's a way to redo these elections.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:Maybe there is.
Speaker A:I don't know of it.
Speaker A:McCrory, that's what he wants.
Speaker A:He wants to see suspensions for these members.
Speaker A:He wants to see removal of Armani as the president.
Speaker A:Obviously do another election, but is there.
Speaker B:A mechanism for that to happen?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I'm not a governance expert.
Speaker A:I feel like there should be, though, really.
Speaker A:Like you think there would be.
Speaker B:The problem is it depends on how the articles of.
Speaker B:Like you said, the articles of the government, how the charter is drawn up and also is world Triathlon.
Speaker B:Do they have to answer to anyone?
Speaker B:Is being part of the Olympics mean that they have to have some kind of transparency or some kind of ethics or whatever?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:Not like the IOC has.
Speaker A:I was going to say the other sports.
Speaker A:There's probably bigger problems for the IOC than maybe a bit of vote shifting or whatnot.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, I come back to.
Speaker B:I come back to why did they want to do this?
Speaker B:Because it.
Speaker B:Cause it makes me worry that there's probably money moving around and with this tie in with the T100 that happened around the same time T100 is getting bankrolled by the Saudis and who knows who else.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker B:It makes me, as always, we could have put in a clip from all the President's men.
Speaker B:Deep Throat, Right.
Speaker B:I follow the money.
Speaker B:Follow the money, Right.
Speaker A:Hunt's come in from the cold.
Speaker A:Supposedly he's got a lawyer with $25,000.
Speaker B:In a brown paper bag.
Speaker A:Follow the money where?
Speaker A:Well, I can't tell you that.
Speaker A:But you could tell me that.
Speaker A:No, I have to do this my way.
Speaker A:You tell me what you know and I'll confirm.
Speaker B:I'll keep you in the right direction if I can, but that's all.
Speaker A:Just follow the money.
Speaker B:Because that's really what motivates most of these things.
Speaker B:And so it makes me wonder what's really going on here.
Speaker A:I really don't know why you would.
Speaker A:You would think if you were the person who had the best ideas, who had the best vision.
Speaker A:I think this guy has had quite a bit of standing within World Triathlon.
Speaker A:So it's not like he was coming out of nowhere.
Speaker A:Like, why would you even need to go through with this vote rigging and bribery?
Speaker A:Like, you should be able to stand on your own two feet is what I'm saying.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, that's worrisome.
Speaker A:If you're World Triathlon.
Speaker A:And now this is all coming out, it just right in, right before the Grand Final.
Speaker A:So the timing of this, too, with the article is pretty damning for them.
Speaker A:You wonder if maybe this will catalyze some kind of election.
Speaker A:Maybe.
Speaker A:I would hope so.
Speaker B:I. Yeah, you know what?
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:Maybe I'm too cynical.
Speaker B:But based on how all these things happen, all these guys need to do is wait it out.
Speaker B:And if they can wait it out, they will, and people will move on to the next crisis.
Speaker B:That's generally how these things work.
Speaker B:The question is, will this journalist or whoever's poking around, are they going to find a thread that they start pulling on that leads to money?
Speaker B:Because that to me would be the.
Speaker B:That to me would be the thing, and that would be interesting.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's got to be something under the surface here not quite apparent right now.
Speaker A:It's troublesome for me.
Speaker A:Like, I grew up doing these World Triathlon races.
Speaker A:Obviously, with the Olympics being such a huge role in my life and being so connected to World Triathlon that way.
Speaker A:Like, this is just troubling for me.
Speaker A:Like, I want to know and I want to believe that the leadership of World Triathlon, the leadership of the governing body for sport in the world, for triathlon in the world, is effective.
Speaker A:And to me, this guy doesn't seem effective if he couldn't.
Speaker B:Well, not just the fact that people to vote for him, not just effective, but you want to believe that they have the athletes as their number one priority and the sport forwarding the sport as their number one priority.
Speaker B:And inevitably, when you hear stories like this, all you can think of is, no, they just have themselves as the number one priority and the sport and the athletes are just secondary and a means to further their own, whatever it is, their ambitions.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's pretty discouraging.
Speaker A:Do you think it would be worth it for a guy like Aramanee to come out with his own statement after this and rebut these things like.
Speaker A:Or is it just worth it for him to just stay quiet and let it just blow over?
Speaker B:There's two.
Speaker B:There's two.
Speaker B:Those are the two ways of approaching this.
Speaker A:If you were his PR guy, what would you get him to do?
Speaker B:If I was this PR guy, I would say wait and see how the story lands.
Speaker B:Because let's face it, triathlon is small potatoes in world sport, right?
Speaker B:Chances are this is going to go nowhere and nothing much will come of it.
Speaker B:Now, I don't know the big federations, right?
Speaker B:So France, Australia, the United States, if they pick up on it and they start agitating, then that's a different story.
Speaker B:Then he may have no choice but to come out and say something.
Speaker B:But the lack of any.
Speaker B:Why aren't we hearing anything from these big countries who have a history?
Speaker B:And Great Britain too.
Speaker A:Great Britain, USA Triathlon, those are the powerhouses, probably with that as well.
Speaker B:I've heard nothing.
Speaker B:I've heard crickets so far now it's only been a day.
Speaker B:A story of this scale, you would expect you would start to hear things and I haven't heard anything from the athletes and the athletes are probably less likely to say stuff, but still, you would think somebody would say something if they were concerned.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I just feel like there's something else going on here and we don't know the whole story and that makes me concerned.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And World Triathlon's in a bit of a tough spot too.
Speaker A:Like in the documents I was reading, they've had a budget deficit.
Speaker A:Last year they lost.
Speaker A:It was like only $150,000.
Speaker A:But they actually used a bunch of money from their reserves to make it not as bad.
Speaker A:Like, I think it was up towards 650, like thousand.
Speaker A:And they use reserves to cover it.
Speaker A:They're not in a position of strength.
Speaker A:And having this leader who maybe doesn't really have the backing of a lot of of its.
Speaker A:I Guess people, that's troublesome.
Speaker A:You need someone, especially in a tough times, to have a strong leader, to have somebody who's ready to bring the troops, rally the troops.
Speaker A:And it doesn't seem like this guy is the guy.
Speaker A:Now to make that.
Speaker B:None of this, Matt, really surprises me.
Speaker B:I don't know why international sport federations are always facing these kinds.
Speaker B:UCI, right.
Speaker B:Look at what UCI is constantly dealing with these kinds of things.
Speaker B:FIFA, Right.
Speaker B:For soccer.
Speaker B:I don't know that I hear a whole lot about hockey.
Speaker B:I don't hear a lot about the Ice Hockey federation dealing with stuff like this, but most of them do.
Speaker B:The IOC we've mentioned several times.
Speaker B:It just seems anytime you bring these technocrats together, they're very rarely athlete driven.
Speaker B:They're always driven by people who, you know, athlete wannabes and just want to be near them.
Speaker B:I don't know, I just.
Speaker B:It doesn't surprise me.
Speaker B:I stay away from it because as long as the sport continues to thrive and as long as I'm not affected personally, I tend to have less.
Speaker B:But I hear what you're saying.
Speaker B:And especially if this kind of scandalous story leads to something bigger and threatens triathlon place within the international sporting bodies, then it becomes more of an issue.
Speaker B:But anyways, right now it's just a bunch of dumbassery with like, for sure people who are too big for their own bridges.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I guess I'm just worried about poor leadership ultimately for these kind of like younger athletes coming up.
Speaker A:These are people who are.
Speaker A:Have Olympic dreams themselves.
Speaker A:Like, I could just, I just put myself in their shoes and I would want effective leadership leading the organization that I'm putting all this time and energy into.
Speaker A:And you want to believe that they're doing a good job on your behalf.
Speaker A:It just.
Speaker A:For me, I think of those young athletes coming up and it frustrates me to see like their leaders are clearly not on the ball in a lot of ways.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, I hear you.
Speaker B:We can move from the stench of this story to the foul air.
Speaker B:That was the subject of conversation at the webinar that I spoke at just yesterday.
Speaker B:We are recording this on Wednesday.
Speaker B:I spoke at this international webinar for the Global Sustainability in Sport, which is an organization that is based in London.
Speaker B:And I had an opportunity to participate in a webinar that had a woman from Utah who runs an organization there that runs these ultra runs called Running for Clean Air.
Speaker B:I believe they were called or Run up to the Clean Air.
Speaker B:I can't remember exactly what they're called.
Speaker B:She's actually going to be a guest on my podcast in a little while.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker B:They run these really nice events where they start low and they run out of the smog and up to the peak of some mountains so that they could get the fresh air.
Speaker B:And then unfortunately, they have to turn around and run down.
Speaker B:But the idea is to show participants that clean air is possible and that we should do what we can to clean the air.
Speaker B:Another member of the web, another member of the panel was a woman who is a co founder of a company called airware.
Speaker B:They produce an app called Air Track, which is an app you can actually tie to your Strava and will show you the amount of air pollution you were exposed to when you train outdoors.
Speaker A:And is that based on your location to like roads?
Speaker B:It is incredibly local.
Speaker B:So it will tell you right down to the meter and give you based on AI kind of modeling.
Speaker B:It tells you how much particulate matter you were exposed to, how much ozone, how much nitrogen dioxide, the main pollutants that can cause health issues.
Speaker B:And it will tell you how much you were exposed to.
Speaker B:And it can.
Speaker B:It can suggest alternative routes that would have been safer.
Speaker B:So the next time you go out and run or bike at the same time, sometimes if you just move a block over, you move further, far enough away from the traffic that you can make a big difference in how much air pollution you're exposed to.
Speaker B:So the app is called Air Track.
Speaker B:It's free, it's free to join and to get it tied to your Strava.
Speaker B:If you want to use it for modeling and for future, then you have to pay a small fee for a subscription.
Speaker B:I get nothing for it, so I'm not involved.
Speaker B:But I think it's a really great app.
Speaker B:Another participant was a professional marathon runner who is in Berlin and he is a coach.
Speaker B:And he also joined us to give an athlete's perspective.
Speaker B:And many of the people who were attending were members of federations.
Speaker B:We had World Triathlon was represented, Ironman was represented.
Speaker B:We had representatives from major soccer federations.
Speaker B:UCI was there.
Speaker B:There was a ton of pretty heavy hitters there.
Speaker B:It was pretty cool to speak to that guy.
Speaker A:And you, of course, the heavyweight.
Speaker B:I don't know what the heck I was doing there, but basically I just brought my expertise of having written about this subject and spoken about it too.
Speaker B:And I wanted to just remind our listeners that it's something we need to take into consideration.
Speaker B:We all do exercise because we want to be better, of course, but also because we want to stay healthy.
Speaker B:And the reality is that if we live in an urban environment, the silent kind of poison is the air pollution that we are not really recognizing.
Speaker B:And while in North America and places like Australia and much of Europe, there is strict regulation to keep a lid on a lot of the particulate matter, we know that during wildflower season, for example, that can really be a problem for us.
Speaker B:We know that with the current hostility towards environmental regulations here in the United States, that a lot of those rules are being gutted and we may see spikes in air pollution.
Speaker B:So I wanted people to be aware.
Speaker B:And the main issue is that we know that as air quality decreases, the impacts on health are really important.
Speaker B:It shortens lifespans and it causes all kinds of issues for people who have pre existing breathing problems like asthma.
Speaker B:The main issue for us as athletes is that when we're out there exercising, our tidal volume and our breathing is higher.
Speaker B:So we tend to actually expose ourselves to much more air pollution and can actually get into more trouble.
Speaker B:We need to remember that it's still healthy to be out there doing exercise.
Speaker B:But as much as we can, if we can avoid the times of day that have the highest air pollution.
Speaker B:And I recognize I'm time poor myself, I'm a little bit limited as to when I can train.
Speaker B:But if you are forced to make a decision between going outside at the most polluted time or moving your training indoors, you may want to consider keeping indoors to keep away from those kinds of things.
Speaker A:I was going to say, if you like train near an area with rush hour traffic, would you suggest instead of running outside, hit the treadmill?
Speaker A:Like it's that bad?
Speaker B:It's that bad?
Speaker B:Yeah, unfortunately, yeah.
Speaker B:The, the effects on long term health are really profound and they have been documented over and over again.
Speaker B:Now there's no question, the further you remove yourself, the better it is.
Speaker B:So if you have the opportunity to keep yourself to a path that is several blocks away from high volume traffic, you are going to already be safer.
Speaker B:But ozone, for example, especially in Denver, Denver is in a geographic valley.
Speaker B:So there's like what is ozone?
Speaker A:Can you explain that to me quickly?
Speaker A:Because I always see these things.
Speaker B:I don't know what it is.
Speaker B:Oxygen is two atoms of oxygen fused together.
Speaker B:So it's O2.
Speaker B:Ozone is three atoms of oxygen fused together.
Speaker B:So It's O3.
Speaker B:When it's up in our.
Speaker A:I think it would be better for you.
Speaker A:More oxygen.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:When it's up in our atmosphere, it's great because it does a great job of absorbing ultraviolet radiation and preventing a Lot of ultraviolet radiation getting in through the atmosphere and penetrating solar rays.
Speaker B:But when it's low down, it's a highly reactive oxygen species.
Speaker B:And as you breathe it in, it gets into your lungs, it gets into your endothelium and it actually interacts with your cell membranes.
Speaker B:And it's a very highly oxidative molecule because it's not terribly stable.
Speaker B:Oxygen prefers to be O2, so that third oxygen will break off and try to bind to something else.
Speaker B:And so it's a very highly oxidative stress.
Speaker B:Denver is in a valley and it's got this kind of.
Speaker B:It's called an inversion effect.
Speaker B:And so you have hot air that rises off of the city.
Speaker B:All of the smog, all of the particulate matter is also rising.
Speaker B:But then you have cool air that's coming down from the mountains and the cool air sits, makes a almost like a dome over that hot air so that the hot air gets trapped below the cold air.
Speaker B:So if you ever have a chance, if you live in the Denver area, I mean you, you probably know this if you go even up on Lookout Mountain, you can look down across the city and you'll see this layer of kind of brown, dirty looking air that's the inversion.
Speaker B:Because Denver is in the plain.
Speaker B:You would think that a lot of this stuff would just either float away or blow away.
Speaker B:And it would if not for the cold air coming down from the mountains.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, yeah, Boulder is not so in is not the same because it's higher up and it doesn't have the same inversion.
Speaker A:But you still have real estate is a little pricier maybe.
Speaker B:Yeah, but you guys are much more impacted by wildfires.
Speaker B:So particulate matters from wildfires is a big deal.
Speaker B:So the long and the short of it is, you know, be aware.
Speaker B:Follow your AQI.
Speaker B:AirTrack is a great app to consider adding to your armamentarium.
Speaker B:I will put the link for that in the show notes.
Speaker B:And just like I said, I mean there's not a whole lot we can do but we can at least be aware of it.
Speaker B:Try and exercise outside at lower exposure rates.
Speaker B:If the AQI is very high because of whatever's going on around you locally, you may want to stay inside is.
Speaker A:And this webinar like is ultimately the goal was the goal to share this information so these sport officials from like Ironman and World Trial and whatnot can share that with their athletes.
Speaker B:The goal was to make people aware.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:But also to try and make this more of something that people consider.
Speaker B:So for example, I told the story of How?
Speaker B:A few years ago, we raced in Boulder when there were wildfires.
Speaker B:And during the race there was a wind shift.
Speaker B:And so we did the swim and the bike and it was fine.
Speaker B:But then the wind shifted and during the run, it was like an apocalypse.
Speaker B:So we were running in the worst air quality, the conditions were horrendous.
Speaker B:And that would have been a tough thing to try and cancel the race at that point.
Speaker B:It's really hard to get everybody off the course.
Speaker B:And I mean, that would have been.
Speaker A:To stop people because they're in their race.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But it would have been something to consider because it really was putting athletes at risk.
Speaker B:And I compared that to the situation at Mont Tremblant, where the day before the race, blue skies, just a gorgeous day, unfortunately, wildfires really surrounding the area.
Speaker B:And overnight we had again, a shift in the wind.
Speaker B:And when we got up in the morning, it was this horrendous apocalypse, like you said.
Speaker B:Oh, it was apocalypse.
Speaker B:You knew because there were like millions of moths dying on the ground because the moths were like, yeah, it was really creepy.
Speaker B:And Ironman made the very difficult but correct decision moments before the race was supposed to start to cancel the race.
Speaker B:And as I said during the webinar, I said, as athletes, we have trained, we have paid money, we know what we've done to be there.
Speaker B:We are going to race.
Speaker B:And I, knowing full well that this was a terrible idea, was going to race.
Speaker B:I needed an adult in the room to tell me not to.
Speaker B:And Ironman did the job.
Speaker B:And when they canceled the race, I was like, thank goodness, because I wouldn't have been able to make that decision.
Speaker B:So kudos to them for making that decision.
Speaker B:And they followed up with doing great things by refunding or offering everybody a free race.
Speaker B:And they really did the right thing on that race.
Speaker B:And what we wanted to say in this webinar was to tell these event organizers, look, some events you can't really play around with.
Speaker B:Like, we know the Berlin Marathon is always a fixed date in September.
Speaker B:We know Tokyo is when it is, Boston is when it is.
Speaker B:But if you're out there scheduling an event, if you're designing or creating a new event, give some thought to climate.
Speaker B:Give some thought to air quality.
Speaker B:Like putting an event in the southeast of the United States in July is not a good idea.
Speaker B:The heat index these days is off the charts.
Speaker B:Climate change has made that untenable.
Speaker B:Maybe if you're planning something in Colorado, don't do it during fire season because the likelihood of poor air quality is really high.
Speaker B:It's very dramatic.
Speaker B:It impacts athletic performance, it impacts athlete health.
Speaker B:Those were the kinds of things we were trying to say.
Speaker B:And the feedback from these organizations was very positive.
Speaker A:I feel like they have in the last few years adapted.
Speaker A:Like it feels like in August.
Speaker A:There's really not that many races just throughout North America.
Speaker A:And I think that's because they've been burned by a lot of these wildfires in the last few years.
Speaker A:Penticton got slammed with those wildfires and it's gone.
Speaker B:Yeah, they do seem to be pushing events a little bit.
Speaker B:Like the new Jacksonville race.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Is early.
Speaker B:The new Dallas race is early.
Speaker B:They're trying to.
Speaker B:They're clearly making this adjustment.
Speaker B:The problem for many of us is early races.
Speaker B:Really hard to train for at Christmas.
Speaker A:You're doing like long runs or whatever.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Speaker B:But this is the reality as much as, again, I'm going back to the current situation here, but we have leadership that does not believe in climate change, despite what we're all seeing.
Speaker B:And we all are left to have to adapt.
Speaker B:And I think that these organizations are aware and are doing their best.
Speaker B:So I think that's.
Speaker A:That's all they can do is react to this kind of stuff and just do their best.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker B:Matt, tell us about this new swim drill.
Speaker B:I'm excited to hear it.
Speaker B:I've got six weeks to work on my swim, so let.
Speaker B:Bring it.
Speaker B:Let me hear.
Speaker A:Yeah, this is a fun drill.
Speaker A:I wouldn't say it's new, but I've been doing it.
Speaker A:It's been in my rotation now for probably about six months or so.
Speaker A:It's really simple.
Speaker A:It's simply just freestyle with butterfly kick.
Speaker A:I actually posted in the newsletter the other day, but what I like about it is it helps you time your catch with your kick.
Speaker A:So that's what I like.
Speaker A:And it also just helps with your overall freestyle rhythm.
Speaker A:I get.
Speaker A:You haven't done this before, have you?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:I need to ask you.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:I'm an adult onset swimmer, so as a result of that, I never learned the butterfly stroke.
Speaker B:So, like butterfly kick, I do it when I scuba dive, but I don't really know how to do it at the surface.
Speaker B:So for somebody who isn't a proficient butterfly, I like.
Speaker B:I literally do not know how to do, but I can.
Speaker A:You don't do what?
Speaker A:Michael Fox.
Speaker B:I can tell you what it looks like, but I don't know what.
Speaker B:So how would somebody who's really a not A great swimmer.
Speaker B:How would they make this work?
Speaker A:Yeah, so I guess if you envision what like an Olympic level butterfly stroke looks like with a massive kick with a huge amplitude up and down.
Speaker A:With this drill, you do not need a massive amplitude.
Speaker A:Even just a small, like, whip at the end is sufficient.
Speaker A:It's really all about just getting starting the kick or doing the kick when you're really starting your catch, because it just helps keep your hips up and it kind of mimics how you should kick.
Speaker A:Like time your kick with your stroke.
Speaker A:If you can visualize that.
Speaker B:Could you do this with fins?
Speaker A:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker A:Do it with fins, especially to start out with.
Speaker A:Do it with a pull buoy on even to keep your hips up and to just to get the rhythm.
Speaker A:Anything to make these.
Speaker A:Any drills that if you're not familiar with, I think having fins, having pull boy, doing whatever you can to focus just on the movement is.
Speaker A:Is super important.
Speaker A:But it's just such a.
Speaker A:It's a small kick.
Speaker A:It's a small kick.
Speaker B:You want your butt coming up as your arm.
Speaker A:No, your butt's not even coming up out of the water.
Speaker A:You're just simply doing a really small butterfly.
Speaker A:Butterfly kick.
Speaker A:I've got a video that I'll send you that kind of does an example.
Speaker A:But even then the amplitude of the butterfly kick is way too big.
Speaker A:You do not need to be doing that much.
Speaker A:It's all about small kick and timing it with the catch.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker B:Is your turnover of your arms slower because you're doing this kick, or maybe.
Speaker A:Marginally slower, like you're doing like a.
Speaker A:Like an aerobic.
Speaker A:At an aerobic pace.
Speaker A:So not too fast or anything.
Speaker B:And is this better with a snorkel?
Speaker A:I feel like you can definitely do it with a snorkel.
Speaker A:Again.
Speaker A:It isolates the drill, makes it more focused on what you're doing.
Speaker A:I usually just do it sans snorkel.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:But you also get across the 25 meters in 10 seconds.
Speaker A:But yeah, whatever it takes.
Speaker A:Like paddles.
Speaker A:Not paddles, Sorry, but like fins.
Speaker A:Po boy, snorkel.
Speaker A:It's a nice drill and do use those things because it just helps isolate what you're doing and you can just focus on that.
Speaker B:Okay, so butterfly kick while doing a freestyle stroke.
Speaker B:Style stroke.
Speaker B:And how do you do it?
Speaker B:25.
Speaker B:So what are you doing?
Speaker A:I'll do a 25.
Speaker A:I won't do 50.
Speaker A:I'll never do a 50 of drill because I find that, like, by the time you get to the, whatever, 30 meters or something, like, the quality is Just down.
Speaker A:Like, it's all about quality over quantity with this kind of stuff, in my opinion.
Speaker B:That's awesome.
Speaker B:All right, Matt, thanks for doing that.
Speaker B:Thanks for bringing that here.
Speaker A:And again, yeah, I'll send you the.
Speaker A:I'll send you the link to it and you can get an idea of what it looks like.
Speaker A:I can't really describe it that well.
Speaker A:I think you have to visually see someone else do it.
Speaker B:All right, that's training tip that.
Speaker B:As I said, we've been hoping to bring to you for a while now.
Speaker B:So if you have questions about other training tips you'd like to hear either about swimming, biking, or running or nutrition, just let us know.
Speaker B:And we'd be glad to reinstitute that as part of the podcast, especially as we head into the off season with less races to talk about.
Speaker B:So we'd be happy to bring that back to.
Speaker B:All right, Matt, anything else to discuss with the crew before we get going here?
Speaker A:No, nothing crazy.
Speaker A:We're getting fired up for Kona.
Speaker A:I do want to give a little shout out to one of the listeners who wrote a very nice review on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker A:I don't know if people want their names out there.
Speaker A:I'll say Jeff G. Shout out to Jeff G. Yeah.
Speaker A:For a very nice review.
Speaker A:We appreciate those.
Speaker A:Any kind of review ratings, all that good stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah, very much.
Speaker B:Because when you do that, believe it or not, it makes a huge difference about how the podcast shows up and then gets it in front of other people.
Speaker B:Because there are quite a few triathlon podcasts, and I think, humbly, that we stack up pretty well against a lot of.
Speaker A:I'd say so.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, we'd have no bad reviews.
Speaker A:So if you want to go on there and write a bad review, we'll.
Speaker B:Take that one, too.
Speaker A:Yeah, we'll take that.
Speaker B:We'd prefer if you wrote to us and told us, but yeah.
Speaker B:All right, it's been fun.
Speaker B:We are going to start right away working on the Kona preview show, which we will do next week, and that will come out the day before.
Speaker B:Maybe we'll publish it a little early so people have access.
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:Let people marinate with it.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And I have exciting news I shared with Matt before we started recording.
Speaker B:Matthew Marquardt, my boy, my guy, this podcast, favorite pro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He is coming back to the Tridoc podcast.
Speaker B:He has booked to do an interview with me the day after Kona, and Matt is going to join me for part of that so that we can do a special interview to bring to you on Tempo Talk.
Speaker B:So I'm pretty excited.
Speaker B:Our first guest will be Matthew Marquard, and it doesn't get any better than that.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker A:That's it.
Speaker A:We've peaked with him for sure.
Speaker B:All right, Matt, great chatting with you.
Speaker B:I look forward to picking it up again next week.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Get ready, K.
Speaker B:Sam.
