Something I've been thinking about though, is that triathlon, at least locally, seems to be in decline. I noticed this at the Brockville race this year where there seemed to be significantly fewer bikes in the T-zone than I had seen in previous years. So I looked at participation numbers for the individual triathlon events (i.e. no relays, no duathlons or swimcycles) in the "prime season" Somersault events over the past 7 years, and you can definitely see a trend:
Overall participation is certainly in decline across the board. Are people leaving triathlon? Or is the sport not attracting newcomers like it used to? Here is a look at all of the above races specifically showing participants in the Try-a-Tri event:
And here's a look at the series' only long-course event, the Canadian 113.
You'll notice there's an asterisk for the years up to 2014, and that's because they used to also run a full-iron distance race (the Canadian 226). Despite having a second long-course race running concurrent the half-iron, the numbers were still much higher a few years ago than they are now.
So.. not only are fewer people "tri-ing" for the first time, but the more hard-core events are also in decline. My guess be the rise of the Spartan/Tough-Mudder/etc. races is drawing a lot of people who might have gotten into multisport. I certainly hear from plenty of folks who do these races, and encounter way more of them in my day-to-day life than I do triathletes. There does seem to be a perception that they're a greater challenge, as in "You think a triathlon is tough? You should try a Spartan race!" I think the big thing is that a) you don't need any special equipment (bike, for example) and b) there's no swimming, which I think is a big deterrant for many people. First of all, it's not easy to learn to swim as an adult and takes a big commitment. Secondly, open-water racing is intimidating to even some proficient pool-swimmers - the weeds/fish/etc. seem to freak some people out, and the body contact can be pretty nerve-wracking too.
The obstacle-course type races don't seem to require any special training or equipment - you just go and do it. And I think that's pretty attractive to people who have busy lives. And they're just plain popular, and that popularity becomes a self-reinforcing thing especially in the age of social media.
I guess we'll see what the future holds for multisport - it certainly won't go away, but is in a state of decline, at least locally. The long distance events, especially the WTC races but also smaller races like Barrelman, seem to be holding their popularity. Though I do have some concerns about the number of people who do these as a "one-and-done"/bucket-list sort of thing, and don't stick around in the sport. I guess that's part of the reason to local races are in decline, because there are a lot of local triathletes that just don't do them.
If another Simon Whitfield comes along and focuses the national spotlight on triathlon, maybe interest will pick up again. I think Canada can put up a pretty solid mixed-relay team in Tokyo 2020 with the likes of Tyler Mislawchuk and Joanna Brown.
On a somewhat related note, nobody seems to blog anymore. Not the pros, nor the local amateurs I've enjoyed following. I think other social media like Instagram is taking up that space, not really sure though. Anyways I've taken down the links section of the blog since more than half of those blogs are in a dormant state. Part of the decline in triathlon?
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