For one the ITU is european and USAT is american so .... Plus the people who run these Businesses are a bunch of complainers scared of losing money.

GAMAGORI, Japan (Sept. 11, 2005) - In an unprecedented show of solidarity, International Triathlon Union member nations unanimously passed a resolution to no longer sanction Ironman races, on Friday at the annual ITU Congress in Gamagori, Japan. ITU's Executive Board asked the triathlon global community to consider the recent actions by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) to create a separate federation to self-govern, self-insure and self-regulate the Ironman series of races.

In the wake of USA Triathlon's decision to remove its sanction of all Ironman races, ITU stated that the WTC's move threatens the integrity of sports' national federations and replaces the focus of building sport participation and exposure with a revenue-generating model to turn profits.

“We must protect our collective interests,� said ITU President Les McDonald. “We must protect the intrinsic value that ITU and our collective members have in order to take triathlon and the multi-sport lifestyle to the next level of athlete development and exposure. If we do not do this, any organization with deep pockets can simply step in and create world championship series that have no global meaning.�

With the unanimous adoption of this resolution, the ability for WTC to place races in many ITU-member countries will be significantly hampered. Without the support of the national federation, host countries may not be able to secure government funding and insurance for individual events. Of particular concern to the ITU members was whether the World Anti-Doping Agency's rules and the United States Anti-Doping Agency's jurisdiction would apply to WTC's sanctioned races and participating athletes.

More than 120 countries have now joined USA Triathlon in its position against the Ironman program. The International Olympic Committee and national governments have developed a set of rules and regulations to give national federations the exclusive rights to host national championships in their counties and for international federations to host world championships.

The WTC has ignored that policy by creating a world championship series for its Ironman distance race and a new series of half-Ironman distance races. This has created an unfair playing field by allowing a profit-driven company to attack the domain that has been previously reserved for a single non-profit volunteer-based governing body.

I would complete a merger right from the start, Buy out the ITU. Take the best from both org's, align the rules and the championships. Plus I would enact a better program for enhancing the coverage of PRO's. I'd let the WTC fend for themselves at the start. The cost of Long Distance championships I am sure have huge cost and lots of logistics involved.

It would be kind of hard to appoint myself CEO / President and then Announce layoffs , LOL

for the good of the sport , consolidation is needed. as in the market place compare it to 3 different football organizations trying to compete with each other. all having separate championships. It would not work out.

That is hard to do, Very few people start at a company to end up on top. That is from people having a view of you in a specific job and that's it. If you came on as a software engineer at company XYZ it would be hard for people to think you can do anything else. There have been exceptions. Gordon Bethune is one. Plus complacency is a problem execs know sometimes what needs to be done but the execution of the changes could cost them their own job. Many sit on the gravy train :)

Hey - thanks, hadn't seen that - That is good for the sport.

Great--now, do I get my insurance payment refunded for IMWI because I'm a USAT member? :D