American triathlete ben kanute has revealed that he will be postponing his spot in the 2023 IRONMAN Men’s World Championship in Nice for the 2024 revamp in Kona as the event coincides with his brother’s wedding.
Speaking in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Kanute discussed the IMWC split, which means the 2023 women’s event stays in Kona, while the men’s event was recently confirmed to take place in Nice, France. They will rotate for the next four years.
The late decision to confirm the date and venue for the men at least allowed Kanute, who qualified for the World Championship with third place at November’s IRONMAN Arizona in what was his full-distance debut, to delay his first appearance for 12 months.
The ‘long way to Kona
In the video, embedded below, he explains: “The way races are launched makes it difficult to plan more than six to twelve months in advance. Nice was not expected to be in September, and that’s a big problem for me because Nice just so happens to be on the exact same day as my brother’s wedding…so that’s a big problem for me.
“I can’t decide when my brother gets married! But there was a discussion with my family about whether there were any big races on the dates, because you usually look at a few dates when you’re planning a wedding, and the 70.3 world champions are in Finland in August and Kona is traditionally in October. .”
For this reason, Kanute explained that September had emerged as an ideal date to be able to attend his brother’s wedding and comply with his racing calendar… until last week’s announcement.
“I am in a unique position now that I had already qualified for an IRONMAN World Championship spot, so we were given the option to either take our 2023 slot or postpone it to 2024 to go to Kona,” Kanute said.
“Any other year that it wasn’t my brother’s wedding, I would probably be hitting the start line in Nice and trying my hands at the first World Championship that was officially out of Kona with this split race.
“But with the possibility of deferring this year, I’m grateful that my World Champion spot won’t go to waste.”
Kanute put in an impressive performance at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in St. George last year, pushing Kristian Blummenfelt to the finish and finishing a well deserved second.
“Now I think I have probably officially started the longest road to Kona. It may be the longest anyone has had to wait to use their qualifying spot, from where I qualified in November 2022 at IRONMAN Arizona to October 2024!”
‘It takes away the camaraderie’
Kanute also spoke at length about the decision to split the men’s and women’s races across different host venues, revealing that he was concerned that it could take away from the camaraderie between athletes that he feels is unique in the sport.
“I don’t like how they are dividing the men and women by having two completely different places for the World Championships,” she explained. “But I understand that the Big Island cannot accommodate two straight days of racing.
“It’s a lot of people, it’s a small community and we took over that island and it’s not always fair to the locals.
“I really loved that the women had their own day, I don’t think we should ever have it on the same day again, but having it in two separate places takes away some of that extra fun, excitement, camaraderie that we’ve had. built on every other triathlon.
“A lot of the guys and girls, the day they’re not competing, they’re watching the race of the opposite sex and I think that’s a really cool and unique thing in the sport.
“It’s sad to see them going to one of the biggest races of the year when the whole world is going to be watching.”
seeing both sides
![Ben Kanute IRONMAN Arizona 2022 [Photo credit Patrick McDermott Getty Images for IRONMAN]](https://www.tri247.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Ben-Kanute-IRONMAN-Arizona-2022-Photo-credit-Patrick-McDermott-Getty-Images-for-IRONMAN.jpg)
There has been concern that moving the IRONMAN World Championship away from Kona could take away from the “magic” of the event, but Kanute isn’t sure that’s the case, explaining that the location doesn’t factor into whether he wants to compete in a world championship or not.
“I really see both sides. I think there are a lot of good things and a lot of bad things,” she explained. “I think that anyone who claims to know exactly what is going to be very good for the sport or very bad for it… only time will tell how this decision will turn out for IRONMAN and for the sport.
“When I plan my season and I see something like this, I want to run big races and be the best and win those races, whether it’s in Hawaii, France, Australia or wherever.”
But he also admitted that Kona was special, and floated the idea that the World Championship and Kona could become separate, equally sought-after races.
“If I had my way, maybe we could have something a bit similar where you have Kona and then you have the World Champions,” he said. “You get two different runs, both great.
“I think Kona has its own appeal, and then you still get the rotating World Championships and the prestige of racing on the Big Island.”
However, he doesn’t think the turnaround should faze athletes, pointing to how the Brownlee brothers run as an example.
“I think changing the course is going to change the players a bit, but I am a firm believer that the course doesn’t dictate the race, the people who run the course dictate the race,” he explained.
“I think a prime example of that is the Brownlee brothers – when I raced them in the ITU, whether it was a flat or hilly race, no matter what it was, they took it out of the gun.”
