Strong is Beautiful

The New York Times has written a story about a new advertising campaign for the Women's Tennis Association.

One of the reasons that I've been intrigued by pro women triathletes, which lead me to write Sub Nine: History's Fastest Ironwomen, is how wide a gap there sometime seems to be between athletes and race organizers.

Not all organizers are in the same box yet I still think pro athletes - both men and women - could be far better utilized in helping to promote individual races and the sport in general.

It will take the initiative of a group of athletes - and will require the leadership of some of the elite of the elite. And there will be some disagreement in term of style and approach at some point.

There needs to be a starting point and a simple common objective and organizers at all levels should be eager to buy into it.

This is how the WTA describes itself:

The WTA is the world's leading professional sport for women with over 2,200 players representing 96 nations competing for over $86 million in prize money at 53 events and four Grand Slams in 33 countries. More than 4.8 million people attended women's tennis events in 2008 with millions more watching events on television networks around the world.

Two thousand and two hundred players.

Of course, it had a more humble start. Billie Jean King and eight other 'renegades' had a vision for a better future for women's tennis when they decided to work together in 1970.

Among the work that the WTA does today is 'Player Development', which runs the gamut from a mentor program tapping the experience of veteran and retired players for rookies to media training to education for a player's support team.

The WTA also offers help when players transition out of tennis.

According to the WTA, the player development work has reduced the percentage of athletes who drop out of the sport at a young age to 1 per cent. The work also has extended the average career of an athlete.

The NYT story - Watch as she gracefully knocks the fuzz off the tennis ball - looks at the new 'Strong is Beautiful' ad campaign.

In the May 11 story, the WTA's chief says the objective is to convert peripheral fans into diehard ones by having the players talk about their backgrounds, aspirations and drive.

I'd like to think that the profiles in Sub Nine: History's Fastest Ironwomen help break down some barriers too. It will require a lot more than one book.

Kona pro rankings

Early season rankings can be found here: Kona 2011

The top 50 male and top 30 female pros at the end of each qualifying year will get starting spots.

Kindle Edition available

The Kindle edition of the book is now available.

Click on this link to take you to the Kindle store.

You can also purchase the paperback edition again now too.

Technical glitch

Hang on .. it will be live again shortly .. minor pagination issue ..

The paperback edition is now available.

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NEW BOOK - NEWS RELEASE

Chrissie Wellington’s dominating win in South Africa last weekend marked the sixth consecutive time in which she’s finished an Iron-distance race in less than nine hours.

In just a few short years, Wellington has ushered in a new era in the sport. She’s made Sub Nine performances seem commonplace—yet they are far from that.

A Sub Nine performance puts a woman among the elite of the elite. Membership in this exclusive group numbers just 22; half of those have been earned in the last three seasons. The first woman to stop the clock with an ‘eight’ in front of it was Thea Sybesma of the Netherlands in 1991.

“I wanted to know more about these women, both those racing now and those who came earlier,” says Timothy Moore, author of Sub Nine: History’s Fastest Ironwomen. “I also wanted there to be a historical record of what they have achieved.”

It started with a blog in January 2008 and led to a story ‘Assault on the World Record’ in the June 2008 issue of Triathlete magazine. Weeks later, seven women went Sub Nine, with three of them breaking the 14-year-old record of Paula Newby-Fraser. And the idea for a book was born.

“I wanted to know more,” says Moore, who has worked as an editor at The Australian Financial Review for the last five years and previously worked for 12 years as a reporter and then editor at Bloomberg News in Canada and Australia. The book represents more than a year of focused research and writing.

“What I found in interviewing the women was that their success came because of day in and day out hard work,” Moore says.

On a summer day in July 1991, then medical student Thea Sybesma was the first woman to go Sub Nine, finishing the Ironman race in Roth, Germany in 8:55:29.

Sybesma received little recognition for her effort. “It’s like climbing a mountain,” says Sybesma, who left the sport in 1993 to pursue a career as an orthopedic surgeon. “Others tend to put extreme accomplishment quickly in a different frame of reference.” She says even she didn’t realize until years later how fast she had been.

In the two decades since, Newby-Fraser and Wellington have captured most of the Sub Nine headlines, and with good reason. Other members of the group though include Irma Heeren, Sue Latshaw, Lori Bowden, Kate Allen, Yvonne van Vlerken, Erika Csomor and Bek Keat.

Few of these women have achieved recognition beyond the sport and some of them have already slipped silently from triathlon’s radar screen.

For most of the women, the first time they went Sub Nine was a confirmation of who they were as an athlete. It was more important to some than others, and as fast as they went on their respective days, it wasn’t always fast enough.

“It was special and it was typical me. I just broke the 14-year-old record, only to finish second. One of my eyes was smiling, one was crying: we triathletes love to win,” Erika Csomor says of her 8:47:05 in Roth in 2008.

In their individual profiles, most of the women talk about how they define success; for some it’s all about winning, for others it’s about reaching their potential.

Heather Fuhr, Karen Smyers, Erin Baker—each an Ironman World Champion with careers filled with victories—are not profiled in this book as they never broke the elusive nine hour mark. Nor has six-time World Champion Natascha Badmann.

“You are neither a better person for having a Sub Nine result nor a lesser one for not having done so,” Moore says. Winning isn't always about being the fastest.

Still, sport is about records, setting them, breaking them and pursuing them. Where speed is an element, everyone wants to go faster.

What Sybesma did was equivalent to Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute barrier for the mile, Moore says, though she doesn't think so. "She opened the door. She made women believe they could go faster. And they have. Wellington is affirming that in almost every race," the author says.

Critics allege courses are short or that one athlete or another was pulled through the swim, drafted on the bike or paced on the run. They say that the only race that really counts is held on the Big Island in October.

“There’s value in being skeptical,” Moore says. “But winning an Iron-distance race, no matter its organizer or its location, is no easy task. Finishing in less than nine hours is a remarkable accomplishment.”

Wellington has seven Sub Nine performances on six different courses. She's clearly history's fastest Ironwoman and she's far from done.

BOOK DETAILS - ISBN

SUB NINE: HISTORY’S FASTEST IRONWOMEN

By Timothy Moore with a foreword by Kevin Mackinnon

Published: April 2011

ISBN 978-0-9865154-6-0

132 pages, paperback

AVAILABLE SOON

Twenty-two ..

Twenty-two women have recorded Sub Nine finishes at Iron-distance events in the last 20 years.

This book profiles each of these superb athletes. Interviews were conducted with 17 of the women including Thea Sybesma, the first woman to achieve a Sub Nine finish, and Mirinda Carfrae, the newest member of this elite group.

Carfrae dominates

55:53

5:04:59

2:53:32

8:58:36

*New run course record