Friday, December 30, 2011

My top-10 triathletes of 2011

These lists are always fun to make, so instead of complaining about other people's lists, I decided to write my own.

Top-10 Women

1 - Helen Jenkins
2 - Andrea Hewitt
3 - Chrissie Wellington
4 - Leanda Cave
5 - Mirinda Carfrae
6 - Sarah Groff
7 - Melissa Rollinson
8 - Sarah Haskins
9 - Paula Findlay
10 - Rachel Joyce


Top-10 Men

1 - Alistair Brownlee
2 - Craig Alexander
3 - Jonathan Brownlee
4 - Javier Gomez
5 - Andreas Raelert
6 - Sven Riederer
7 - Alexander Bryukhankov
8 - Marino Vanhoenacker
9 - Timo Bracht
10 - Pete Jacobs

2 comments:

rappstar said...

I think Freddie Van Lierde deserves a spot. I'd put him on over Marino. Both won an Ironman. But both had equally bad performances in Kona. But FVL over Marino at Abu Dhabi seals it in my opinion. I think the "world record" hype was a bit much considering that there is no real accountability for course accuracy. Was Marino's performance in Austria better than FVL's in France? Maybe. But FVL also unseated a 5(?) time defending champ in beating Marcel Zamora, so that should count for something. And Abu Dhabi is a massively big race to win. My $0.02. Otherwise, I think it's a great list.

Unknown said...

Paulo, I follow your blog pretty regularly and like a lot of things you have to say. Just to give some context I am a relatively new triathlete in the infantile stages of pursuing my goals of getting to the world class level. I am unable to pursue it completely due to two years left in my military service, but I am preparing myself to jump in head first as soon as I exit. I am not new to competition however I have no personal experience competing on the HIGHEST level of a sport. So maybe this is an ill-informed opinion but here it goes. I have just read yet another article from a US-based triathlon website talking to Cait Snow and praising her for being the "top American" at Kona. I'm just going to say it, I think we have become so stinkin lazy and self righteous in this country that it has invaded even our purest pursuits like sport! Who gives a rats ass how well you placed against other Americans? What a self-fullfilling prophesy. I mean for God's sake Lava Magazine a a whole spread on getting America back to the top of the podium in Kona. With the mind set that being the first American is some sort of accolade we are just hamstringing ourselves. Is it just me or are we the only country on the international triathlon scene that does this. I read "Firstoffthebike.com" as well which is Australian-based and I never hear this. Okay, rant over. I would be interested to hear your thoughts as well as Rappstar's. I read his blog a lot as well.