Kilian Jornet and Zach Miller here. If you are receiving this it is because you are one of the top athletes in our sport. We wanted to start with this select few so that our efforts can be a bit more focused and not so overwhelming. Having said that, what is this all about?
Well, we are writing to you to see if you might be interested in committing to racing each other at a race other than UTMB this year (2024). While we realize that many of you may have strong ties to UTMB (personal goals, incentives from sponsors, career goals, etc.) we ask that you hear us out on what we have to say here. First off, we want to acknowledge that UTMB is a great race, even though there has been a lot of drama recently, we still feel that the race and the organization have done a lot of good for the sport of ultra running.
Thanks to UTMB, we now have a world championship-esque event that draws many of the best runners in the sport as well as sponsors, media, and fans from all over the world. It has truly become the big event of the year and has really helped to put our sport on the map. Having an event like this has created a lot of opportunity for people like ourselves, as it drives a lot of money and attention to the sport. This, we feel, is a good thing.
However, while it may be good for the sport to grow and develop in these ways, it is also important that the growth occurs in a positive, healthy manner. Unfortunately, the current direction that UTMB, UTMB Group, and Ironman have taken has given us cause for concern. There are a multitude of things that we could point to that are concerning to us, but the gist of it is that we feel that they are not managing themselves and their event(s) in a way that has the best interest of the sport and its people in mind.
We understand that the racing space is a business and we are alright with the organization making money. However, we feel that there is a way to do this without treating people poorly and running over everyone who gets in your way. To put it simply, we want them to run their business well. We want them to be considerate. We want them to not only ask "what can we do to benefit ourselves?", but also "what can we do to improve the sport of trail running as a whole?". Unfortunately, we feel that they have not been doing a very good job with this. And while it would be nice to be able to sit down and chat with them so that we can course correct and get things back on track, we fear that they won't really make any changes unless they feel pressured to do so. Fortunately, as elite athletes we have a voice.
Perhaps the best way to communicate our discontent and apply some pressure is to band together and all go to a different race. An absence of the top fifteen ranked male and female runners from the UTMB start line would speak volumes. It would communicate to them that we are not happy and pressure them to make some changes.
So, we would like to hear your thoughts. We have already pin-pointed a potential race that we could attend instead of UTMB, but before we get into all that, please let us know what you think. Do you have the same or similar concerns? Are you interested in competing in an alternative race? Please let us know so that we can continue the dialogue and discuss what the next steps might be. And please realize, this is not meant to be a malicious, hateful thing towards UTMB. The idea here is to find a way to apply some pressure to the UTMB/Ironman organization so that we can effect positive change. It would be great if one day we could go to UTMB and feel good about it, knowing that what they are doing is making the sport better, not worse.
Anyhow, please let us know your thoughts. You can answer at
The point of the boycott is that if a mom and pop event gets big enough or looks tasty enough, UTMB will either gobble it up or find a way to end that event and start their own in its absence.
Ultra trail running is mostly a small regional community. The people actually care about their friends and the businesses that support them. UTMB is a corporation looking to own and homogenize the community for profit. This sport isn't like baseball or football. The uniqueness of each event and it's local communities is the the draw. No corporation can or should try to own them. Playing backroom politics with permits and subverting the ability of long standing events to continue without a UTMB partnership is not what the community wants or will stand for.
Hey,
Kilian Jornet and Zach Miller here. If you are receiving this it is because you are one of the top athletes in our sport. We wanted to start with this select few so that our efforts can be a bit more focused and not so overwhelming. Having said that, what is this all about?
Well, we are writing to you to see if you might be interested in committing to racing each other at a race other than UTMB this year (2024). While we realize that many of you may have strong ties to UTMB (personal goals, incentives from sponsors, career goals, etc.) we ask that you hear us out on what we have to say here. First off, we want to acknowledge that UTMB is a great race, even though there has been a lot of drama recently, we still feel that the race and the organization have done a lot of good for the sport of ultra running.
Thanks to UTMB, we now have a world championship-esque event that draws many of the best runners in the sport as well as sponsors, media, and fans from all over the world. It has truly become the big event of the year and has really helped to put our sport on the map. Having an event like this has created a lot of opportunity for people like ourselves, as it drives a lot of money and attention to the sport. This, we feel, is a good thing.
However, while it may be good for the sport to grow and develop in these ways, it is also important that the growth occurs in a positive, healthy manner. Unfortunately, the current direction that UTMB, UTMB Group, and Ironman have taken has given us cause for concern. There are a multitude of things that we could point to that are concerning to us, but the gist of it is that we feel that they are not managing themselves and their event(s) in a way that has the best interest of the sport and its people in mind.
We understand that the racing space is a business and we are alright with the organization making money. However, we feel that there is a way to do this without treating people poorly and running over everyone who gets in your way. To put it simply, we want them to run their business well. We want them to be considerate. We want them to not only ask "what can we do to benefit ourselves?", but also "what can we do to improve the sport of trail running as a whole?".
Unfortunately, we feel that they have not been doing a very good job with this. And while it would be nice to be able to sit down and chat with them so that we can course correct and get things back on track, we fear that they won't really make any changes unless they feel pressured to do so. Fortunately, as elite athletes we have a voice.
Perhaps the best way to communicate our discontent and apply some pressure is to band together and all go to a different race. An absence of the top fifteen ranked male and female runners from the UTMB start line would speak volumes. It would communicate to them that we are not happy and pressure them to make some changes.
So, we would like to hear your thoughts. We have already pin-pointed a potential race that we could attend instead of UTMB, but before we get into all that, please let us know what you think. Do you have the same or similar concerns? Are you interested in competing in an alternative race? Please let us know so that we can continue the dialogue and discuss what the next steps might be. And please realize, this is not meant to be a malicious, hateful thing towards UTMB. The idea here is to find a way to apply some pressure to the UTMB/Ironman organization so that we can effect positive change. It would be great if one day we could go to UTMB and feel good about it, knowing that what they are doing is making the sport better, not worse.
Anyhow, please let us know your thoughts. You can answer at
[email protected]Perhaps we can also organize a zoom call so that anyone who is interested can discuss these things verbally.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read!
Many thanks,
Kilian Jornet and Zach Miller.
我觉得这些比赛以盈利为目的，肯定是能省钱的地方就省。但是新的也不一定好。这种比赛的组织还是很麻烦的。
会员制，加入协会，但可以免费参与协会举办的比赛。看看目前所有这些比赛，报名费一年一年往上涨，你就知道这里面的利益有多大。业余和职业比赛都以商业化为目标，真的是体育的悲哀。一孔之见。
https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=12465571
The point of the boycott is that if a mom and pop event gets big enough or looks tasty enough, UTMB will either gobble it up or find a way to end that event and start their own in its absence.
Ultra trail running is mostly a small regional community. The people actually care about their friends and the businesses that support them. UTMB is a corporation looking to own and homogenize the community for profit. This sport isn't like baseball or football. The uniqueness of each event and it's local communities is the the draw. No corporation can or should try to own them. Playing backroom politics with permits and subverting the ability of long standing events to continue without a UTMB partnership is not what the community wants or will stand for.
所以我想不通为啥还有那么多志愿者，免费提供服务，然后让ironman赚钱。为啥不是他们雇佣人去维持比赛？
就好比迪士尼说为了给孩子们提供更好的服务，大家都来做志愿者，但是我们还是会收几百块钱的门票，还让我们的CEO年底有multimillion dollars的年终奖
如果比赛组织者说盈利部分全部用于慈善，那就是另外一回事了，但是Ironman显然不是
还有很多很多food，器材运输。
一场大铁志愿者将近3000-4000, 如果所有志愿者都要付钱请，至少大铁就没有一个比赛会赚钱了。
阿拉斯加大铁一年就不办了，就是因为参加的人才850个，不能cover所有的cost。
志愿者一直是欧美运动里面的一个积极的现象，我不觉得应该都变成付费。大铁志愿者有很多benefit。比如难报的比赛可以有优先权，我去参加tahoe时候，他们还把历年没有用掉的包啊帽子啥的免费送给我们。以前亚利桑那大铁志愿者，都是为了第二年大铁的，因为做了志愿者，可以第二天当场报名。
很多小三比赛，做志愿者可以抵以后比赛的credit，比如爱美丽的小三比赛，如果我去做志愿者，爱美丽比赛就可以免费。
这一点和ironman不一样。我也知道ironman没有志愿者根本办不下去，但是这种盈利模式让人感觉不舒服，参加者是有个人目标去实现，花钱买罪受无可厚非
有了钱，很多事情才能实现。组织比赛的人，也是人，也要养家糊口，为啥都要人家做雷锋呢。
既然有人愿意花钱，有人愿意花时间，为什么要去抵制呢？
ironman做很多慈善工作，每年都捐助很多project。为很多社区带来福利。他们的影响，这四十年来，对运动界是无可比拟的，至少在铁三界。没有ironman，铁三现在根本不会发展到如今这样。
我们大部分捐的钱都被划去那里了。与其这样，不如光明正大，该谁拿就谁拿，清清楚楚
开始新的一轮,如此往复。