M
Mark Hickey
Guest
"Tom Rodgers" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Apparently, someone must be going to events and buying products from the sponsors, or there
>wouldn't be so many worldwide races. Over 150,000 in Syndney were there for the Olympic event--more
>spectators than any other Olympic event, including the cycling road race/time trial. There really
>is no other way for short-course pros to make a living at this point.
That has NOTHING to do with the popularity of triathlon, but everything to do with:
1) It was downtown (easily accessible)
2) It was free
3) There was room for 150,000 people without crowding
4) There were Australians participating.
To give you an example of how much into the sport the crowd was, I was standing at a point a couple
km's from the finish. The 10K "foot race" (the only competition of the day, sadly) was coming down
to a neck and neck sprint for the finish. The extensive PA system that had been set up around the
course was blaring out the blow by blow as the runners entered the last few hundred meters.
Then and Aussie 2km behind the leaders happened to run by.
The crowd roared "AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE, OY, OY, OY" a dozen times or so, making the finish
inaudible even standing next to the speaker. I only found out who won when I received a pager update
(I had set that up in advance, luckily).
Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame
>Apparently, someone must be going to events and buying products from the sponsors, or there
>wouldn't be so many worldwide races. Over 150,000 in Syndney were there for the Olympic event--more
>spectators than any other Olympic event, including the cycling road race/time trial. There really
>is no other way for short-course pros to make a living at this point.
That has NOTHING to do with the popularity of triathlon, but everything to do with:
1) It was downtown (easily accessible)
2) It was free
3) There was room for 150,000 people without crowding
4) There were Australians participating.
To give you an example of how much into the sport the crowd was, I was standing at a point a couple
km's from the finish. The 10K "foot race" (the only competition of the day, sadly) was coming down
to a neck and neck sprint for the finish. The extensive PA system that had been set up around the
course was blaring out the blow by blow as the runners entered the last few hundred meters.
Then and Aussie 2km behind the leaders happened to run by.
The crowd roared "AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE, OY, OY, OY" a dozen times or so, making the finish
inaudible even standing next to the speaker. I only found out who won when I received a pager update
(I had set that up in advance, luckily).
Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame