Triathlon and the Economy

Has anyone noticed that the world economy isn’t doing so well lately? I think I read something about that in the news somewhere. Being a young, developing professional triathlete, I don’t really have any money of my own, but I’ve heard from people who do have money that they lost a lot of it recently. Most of the world’s major economies are in recession, and we hear everyday of a new company cutting x thousand jobs, x% of staff, etc. Is there anything that isn’t being significantly affected by this economic downturn? Triathlon can make a pretty good argument to this end, at least in the United States. Check out this article from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

For those of you who don’t like to click links, I’ll summarize. Basically, while many other sports organizations are cutting back in expenditures, triathlon continues to grow. There are several reasons that could possibly explain this, the biggest of which is that triathlon in the United States often isn’t a hobby but rather a lifestyle. Most people can’t put a price on the fitness and happiness that participating in triathlon provides, and so they continue to race and train despite the sagging economy. To be honest, though, my summarizing skills are not very good, and you are better off just reading the article.

The Dow Jones…not doing so good.

I can personally attest to the resilience of triathlon in these bad economic times. The ITU just announced it’s new World Championship Series, complete with title sponsor Dextro Energy and a $2,000,000 total prize purse ($150,000 at each of the eight races and a $700,000 overall series purse). As I posted a few weeks ago, the Hy-Vee Triathlon raised it’s already ridiculously huge prize purse to $1,000,000 (it was $700,000 previously). Sponsorship for 2009 is also going well. So far I will be working with two new companies next year – Kiwami, a French company that makes race suits, and Rudy Project, maker of sweet helmets and sunglasses. That’s two more sponsors than I had at this time last year when the Dow Jones was 57% higher!