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2014 Money Lists

This is a slightly updated excerpt from my free 2014 TriRating Report which has a lot more information and data on the 2014 season. You can still download it for free!

In other sports – such as golf – the main way of ranking athletes is by the amount of prize money they make. This year, I have extended my list: The 2013 list was limited only to WTC races, this year I also include Challenge and other notable longer races. Therefore, I have an overall money list and a few lists with money only from certain events.

Overall Money List

First, here is an overview of the races I have included in my money list:

Type Description Total Prize Money # of Athletes
Ironman Full-distance WTC races (not including Kona) $ 2.032.500 316
Kona Ironman World Championship (Kona) $ 650.000 20
70.3 Champs 70.3 World Championship (Mt. Tremblant) $ 250.000 20
Challenge Full-distance Challenge races (including Roth) $ 482.450 107
Bahrain Challenge Bahrain $ 440.000 20
Other MetaMan, Dubai, Embrun $ 430.000 38
Sum All included races $ 4.284.950 415

The next table shows the Top 20 athletes – both from the men and women – that have earned the most prize money in the 2014 calendar year from all the races listed above:

SebiKona

# Name Gender Total
1 Kienle, Sebastian M $145.000
2 Carfrae, Mirinda F $140.000
3 Ryf, Daniela F $125.000
4 Joyce, Rachel F $101.000
5 Raelert, Michael M $100.000
5 Frederiksen, Helle F $100.000
7 Swallow, Jodie F $78.000
8 Frodeno, Jan M $67.500
9 Hoffman, Ben M $65.000
10 Crawford, Gina F $64.500
11 Steffen, Caroline F $56.500
12 Hauschildt, Melissa F $55.000
13 Brown, Cameron M $52.500
14 Dreitz, Andreas M $50.000
15 Frommhold, Nils M $49.500
16 Gomez, Javier M $45.000
16 Butterfield, Tyler M $45.000
18 Kessler, Meredith F $43.000
19 Gross, Sara F $40.000
20 Potts, Andy M $37.500

For comparison, the ITU had a prize purse of $ 2.2 million in 2014. Their top earners are Javier Gomez (about $180.000) and Gwen Jorgensen (about $192.000).

Ironman Money List

Here are the Top 15 money earners from Ironman races (not including Kona):

# Name Gender Ironman Total Overall Rank
1 Gross, Sara F $40.000 $40.000 19
2 Alonso McKernan, Clemente M $31.000 $31.000 25
3 Kessler, Meredith F $30.000 $43.000 18
3 Corbin, Linsey F $30.000 $30.000 27
5 Williamson, Kelly F $27.500 $27.500 32
6 Abraham, Corinne F $26.750 $26.750 34
7 Kienle, Sebastian M $25.000 $145.000 1
7 Steffen, Caroline F $25.000 $56.500 11
7 Bockel, Dirk M $25.000 $26.500 35
7 Tollakson, TJ M $25.000 $25.000 40
11 Brown, Cameron M $22.500 $52.500 13
11 Wee, Bree F $22.500 $22.500 46
11 Ferreira, Amber F $22.500 $22.500 46
11 Braendli, Simone F $22.500 $22.500 46
15 Weiss, Michael M $21.500 $21.500 49

WTC Money List

Here are the Top 15 money earners from WTC races (including Kona and the 70.3 Champs):

# Name Gender Ironman Total Overall Rank
1 Kienle, Sebastian M $145.000 $145.000 1
2 Ryf, Daniela F $125.000 $125.000 3
3 Carfrae, Mirinda F $120.000 $140.000 2
4 Frodeno, Jan M $67.500 $67.500 8
5 Hoffman, Ben M $65.000 $65.000 9
6 Swallow, Jodie F $50.000 $78.000 7
7 Gomez, Javier M $45.000 $45.000 16
8 Steffen, Caroline F $44.000 $56.500 11
9 Joyce, Rachel F $40.000 $101.000 4
10 Kessler, Meredith F $40.000 $43.000 18
11 Gross, Sara F $40.000 $40.000 19
12 Frommhold, Nils M $38.500 $49.500 15
13 Potts, Andy M $37.500 $37.500 20
14 Ellis, Mary Beth F $33.000 $33.000 21
15 Aernouts, Bart M $31.500 $31.500 24

Money List from Challenge and other Races

After also adding Embrue, here are the Top 18 money earners from non-WTC races :

# Name Gender Non-WTC Total Challenge Bahrain Other Total
1 Raelert, Michael M $100.000   $100.000   $100.000
1 Frederiksen, Helle F $100.000   $100.000   $100.000
3 Joyce, Rachel F $61.000 $11.000 $50.000   $101.000
4 Dreitz, Andreas M $50.000   $50.000   $50.000
5 Hauschildt, Melissa F $47.000   $7.000 $40.000 $55.000
6 Butterfield, Tyler M $40.000     $40.000 $45.000
7 Crawford, Gina F $37.000 $7.000   $30.000 $64.500
8 Zamora, Marcel M $32.500     $32.500 $37.500
9 Brown, Cameron M $30.000     $30.000 $52.500
10 Swallow, Jodie F $28.000   $25.000 $3.000 $78.000
10 Croneborg, Fredrik M $28.000 $18.000   $10.000 $32.000
12 McNeice, Dylan M $26.000 $26.000     $28.500
13 Reed, Timothy M $25.000   $25.000   $31.000
14 Mullan, Eimear M $23.400   $23.400   $31.400
15 Carfrae, Mirinda F $20.000 $20.000     $140.000
15 Bracht, Timo M $20.000 $20.000     $25.000
17 Skipworth, Todd F $19.500     $19.500 $19.500
18 Van Vlerken, Yvonne F $19.000 $4.000   $15.000 $26.000

2014 TriRating Report is Available

TitlePage ThumbI have just released my 2014 TriRating Report, an “end-of-year” report looking back at the 2014 Ironman-distance races and my analysis of the results.

The Report has more than 50 pages, including:

  • Top 10 Ratings (overall and individually for swim, bike and run)
  • Top 10 Performances (by “clock time” and by my normalized times)
  • 2014 Money List
  • a first look forward to Kona 2015

and a ton of race results and all rated athletes!

A lot of people have asked how they can pay me back in some way for the information I’ve been putting out. In order to enable that, I’m releasing this report through Gumroad. The report continues to be free (you can just enter “0” as the amount), but if you like the report and want to show me your appreciation for my work, you can donate an amount of your choice. Regardless of whether you donate or not, feel free to share with others and enjoy!

2014 Ironman Season Trivia

Here are some Trivia questions on the 2014 season:

  1. Who had the fastest IM-distance debuts?
    a.Male
    b.Female
  2. Who had the fastest Ironman-distance times of 2014?
    a.Men
    b.Women
  3. In 2014 we’ve seen 5 sub-8h finishes (for the men) and 23 sub-9h finishes (for the women). Which race had the most of these?
  4. Who posted the fastest marathon times in an Ironman in 2014?
    a. Men
    b. Women
  5. Which races in 2014 had the closest and widest margin between the male and female winners (Pros only)?
    a. Closest Race (race, margin, male and female winners)
    b. Race with the widest margin (race, margin, male and female winners)
  6. Which country had the most Pro IM wins in 2014?
  7. Which IM-distance races in 2014 had the closest margin between the winner and runner-up (Pros only)?
    a. Closest Men’s Race (race, margin, name of 1st and 2nd finisher)
    b. Closest Women’s Race (race, margin, name of 1st and 2nd finisher)
  8. Who had the slowest swim when winning an IM in 2014?
    a. Male
    b. Female
  9. Who overcame the biggest deficit after the bike to win an IM in 2014?
    a. Male
    b. Female
  10. Who were the top US finishers in the last three years in Kona (2012/13/14)?
    a. Male
    b. Female
  11. Which athletes won two Ironman races in 2014?
  12. Which of the Kona Pros had the most Professional IM-distance career finishes before Kona?
    a. Male
    b. Female

All answers can be found in the Rating Report!

Popular 2014 Posts

Here’s a quick look at the TriRating.com traffic in 2014 (based on my Google Analytics data):

Traffic

Similar to the last years, I was able to increase my traffic significantly, with typical spike in October for Kona. Here are the most popular TriRating posts from 2014:

  1. Kona Live Predictions
    „Live Predictions“ is a fun project I repeated for Kona 2014: Updating my predictions as the race unfolds by using athlete’s projected capabilities in conjunction with their current splits. Again, I received ongoing technical support from Russell Cox, and some welcome financial support by VeloDynamics.
  2. Course Ratings
    This ongoing page shows how courses compare to each other – which are fast and slow, and how to convert times from one course to another.
  3. Kona Odds
    Based on athlete’s prior results, I calculate statistical odds for Kona. I let this slide for a bit in 2014, but the interest shows that I should be more diligent in 2015.
  4. Top 10 Ratings
    My top ranked Ironman-distance athletes, based on the statistical analysis of their race results. Again, another page I should probably update more frequently than I did in 2014.
  5. Changing the gap between the Pro Women and Age Group Men in Kona
    This post created my biggest traffic-spike outside of Kona. I analyzed the impact of different gaps in the Kona start times and produced a lot of chatter on Twitter.
  6. 2013 Money List
    A look at the money earnings of even the top athletes is always sobering and leads to a discussion of the state of Pro racing. A 2014 version is already in the works for my upcoming 2014 Rating Report.
  7. „Always Up-to-date“ Kona Startlist
    Most Kona start lists are just a one-time post. My version is updated as athletes accept/decline their spots and when athletes announce that they won’t be able to start.
  8. August Qualifier
    There was a lot of movement in the men’s August slots that I covered in this post.
  9. Silent Updates to the 2015 KPR
    There was a large number of posts as WTC announced changes in the KPR – I uncovered a few more changes that were not announced in a press release.
  10. Women’s Field as Deep as Men’s?
    Another post focused on „women’s issues“ that generated a lot of interest on Twitter. This time I looked for data supporting the claim that the women’s field is less deep than the men’s – but couldn’t find it.
Looking at the number, I was able to relive some of my favorite memories of the 2014 Ironman season, maybe you’d like to re-discover them with these posts as well?

My „bread-and-butter posts“ of race predictions and results analysis get quite some traffic as well, but they have a shorter „life span“ and therefore don’t get as many views as the standard pages or analysis posts in the Top 10 list above. (Not surprisingly, the most popular race post was on Kona, followed by predictions for Roth, Los Cabos and Florida.)

Women’s Field as Deep as Men’s?

One of the ongoing issues in Ironman racing is the disparity between Pro men and Pro women slots in Kona (50 for men, 35 for women). The main argument for the different number of slots is that there are a lot more men than women racing. Roughly, there is a relation of 2 men to 1 women that has been pretty much unchanged in recent years.

However, women’s races are often more exciting than the men’s race. In one of my older posts on this issue I’ve presented data indicating that the racing at the front of the women’s race is probably even closer than on the men’s side. Arguments for that include the number of lead changes on the run, or the time difference among athletes on the podium.

However, the decision by WTC not to increase the number of women’s Kona slots seems to be based on the perception that men’s field is „deeper“ than the women’s field. This post has a look at this claim and tries to provide data.

Suggestions for Measuring Depth Of Field

There have been a few „proofs“ that the men’s field is deeper than women’s. However, they don’t hold up to closer scrutiny.

Kona 2014

I’ve heard Kona 2014 mentioned as anecdotal evidence that the women’s field was lacking strength. The observation was that by the time the field reached Kawaihae, 30 men were still in the race. At the same point in the women’s race, there were only ten contenders left.

Of course, using an arbitrary point in a single race is neither convincing nor statistically significant. There are tons of counterexamples, take for example Kona 2014 (the same race) about 30k into the run. At that time, the men’s race was practically decided with Sebastian Kienle 10 minutes ahead of the rest of the field, while there were at least three women with a chance to win the race (Daniela Ryf, Rachel Joyce and Mirinda Carfrae).

KPR Points at #50

Another argument that is used very often is the number of KPR points at #50. Here’s the data from 2014 (not using Automatic Qualifiers):

  • Schildknecht 3.915 vs. Bazlen 3.595

There is only a 320 points difference, probably smaller than some proponents of this argument make it sound. Also, the difference is a consequence of #50 being interesting for the men and not interesting for the women. We can easily refute the argument that this shows a lack of depth for the women by looking at #35:

  • Jurkiewicz 4.280 vs. Wee 5.040

While Bree has a lot more points than Jeremy, I don’t think that this shows that the men’s field is less deep than the women’s field – it just shows that #35 is interesting for the women and not for the men.

Time Differences

As an example of many similar lines of argument, Andrew Starykowicz has posted a detailed look at the time differences between the TopX in men’s and women’s fields. His data shows that the men’s races are much „tighter“ than the women’s races:

StarkyData

However, this ignores the fact that the women’s fields are smaller and that a smaller field leads to larger gaps between the finishers. To simplify a bit, if the women’s field is half as large as the men’s field, this leads to time differences twice as large (e.g. if the male have a difference at #10 of 9,5%, the expected female difference would be in the order of 19% instead of the observed 11%). So rather than show that the women’s fields are less competitive, the larger difference is more a sign of the smaller fields.

Races with Small Women’s Fields

Each season, there is at least won Pro race that has a very small women’s Pro field. In 2013 IM France had only five starters, in 2014 IM Wales had only two. Of course it’s always bad if prize money goes unclaimed (France paid 8 deep, Wales 6 deep), but I think that this is again a consequence of the lower number of women racing: There are too many races for the smaller women’s field. I have suggested in my post on the Registration Procedures that WTC should keep Pros informed about the number of athletes that have already suggested for a race so that these very low numbers can be avoided.

My Suggestion

It’s actually surprisingly hard to come up with a measurement for the depth of the field, considering the different field sizes and different finishing times. A way that I suggest are Relative Finish Distribution Charts („REFIDCHs“). A Relative Finish Distribution Chart shows the percentage of finishers for different percentages of the winner’s time. Here’s the chart for the men’s Kona finishers from 2011 to 2014 (the years that the KPR has been used to determine the fields):

KonaMen

On the horizontal axis we see the relative finishing time (for example 105% means that the time equivalent to 105% of the winners time in a given year). On the vertical axis the chart shows the part of the field that has finished faster than the time on the x-asis. (For example, roughly 35% of the athletes finished within 105% of the winner’s time.)

REFIDCHs can be used to visualize the depth of the field. A „deep“ field will finish pretty close to the winner, resulting in a very steep graph. A „less deep“ field will have a flatter curve, showing that more athletes have finished further away from the winner. So if the women in Kona were less competitive, they would have a flatter curve, one that would be to the right of the men’s graph.

So let’s add the women’s distribution:

KonaMF

The two graphs have a very similar shape – if there is a difference, the women’s graph is to the left of the men’s graph, indicating a slightly deeper women’s field.

Let’s control for the influence of the different field sizes. One could argue that the smaller women’s field cuts away the slower end of the field. (Anecdotally, this isn’t the case: Some women that missed Kona this year included athletes such as Amy Marsh, Angela Naeth, Rebekah Keat, Laura Bennett or Eimear Mullan that could have placed well in Kona.) This is pretty hard to factor into the data, so I’ve done the next best thing by removing the men’s qualifiers in #35 to #50 from the results. (For 2014, this would have affected such well-placed finishers as 2nd Ben Hoffman, 6th Nils Frommhold or 10th Romain Guillaume.) Adding in a third graph for the „reduced Men’s field“ produces the following chart:

KonaAll

While reducing the men’s field has led to a steeper graph (indicating that more athletes would have been cut from the „slower“ end of the field), the graphs are still very close together, crossing each other at various points. Using this chart, there is no indication that the women’s field is any less competitive or deep than the men’s field or even the reduced men’s field.

Conclusion

I couldn’t find any data that supports the claim that the depth of the women’s field is any worse than the men’s field. (If you have other suggestions, please let me know!) While the lower number of athletes leads to bigger gaps in the Ironman races across the globe, at least the women that made it to Kona are as competitive as their male counterparts. In my eyes, the women’s race in Kona would be even more exciting than it already is if there were 50 Pro slots for the women.

Ironman Western Australia 2014 – Analyzing Results

Course Rating

Conditions were favorable for fast times. The adjustment of 26:51 (mainly because of a very fast bike) was the fastest ever in Busselton, leading to a new course rating of 14:36.

Male Race Results

Once Denis Chevrot took the lead on the finishing part of the bike, he didn’t let go of the lead. His superb splits (fastest swim, fifth fastest bike, and fastest run) gave him a comfortable margin in the end, but he had to work hard for his win all day long. Lots of Australian contenders had to drop out (among them Fettell, Kemp, Gambles and Dellow), so the race ended with a European Top 5: Patrik Nilsson (recent winner of IM Malaysia) finished second, followed by Per Bittner in third. Roman Guillaume more or less took care of Kona qualifying with his fourth place, followed by veteran Mike Schifferle.

Any race recap of Western Australia would be incomplete without mentioning Jason Shortis: Jason finished his 83rd IM-distance race and ended his long career.

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to expected
1 Denis Chevrot FRA 00:46:23 04:26:42 02:49:11 08:05:58 -25:45
2 Patrik Nilsson SWE 00:47:04 04:27:50 02:53:37 08:12:11 -26:24
3 Per Bittner GER 00:48:36 04:26:20 02:56:29 08:14:37 -15:35
4 Romain Guillaume FRA 00:47:07 04:30:16 02:59:24 08:21:15 -04:56
5 Mike Schifferle SUI 00:59:32 04:23:12 03:05:16 08:34:18 -11:48
6 Simon Cochrane NZL 00:50:21 04:37:59 03:03:59 08:36:26 -15:14
7 Gergö Molnar HUN 00:48:51 04:35:31 03:13:29 08:42:11 -13:11
8 Jan Van Berkel SUI 00:48:43 04:25:59 03:30:21 08:48:37 10:04
9 Guy Crawford NZL 00:46:59 04:27:45 03:33:00 08:51:50 -00:26
10 Markus Thomschke GER 00:50:28 04:24:05 03:39:06 08:57:47 17:30
11 Darren Jenkins AUS 01:06:41 04:41:41 03:06:02 08:58:36 -10:41
12 Shanon Stallard NZL 00:55:34 04:52:01 03:08:04 08:59:28 -12:38
13 Jason Shortis AUS 00:59:55 05:04:14 03:02:10 09:11:25 41:36
14 Joshua Rix AUS 00:50:23 04:33:52 04:01:59 09:30:32 51:28
Joe Gambles AUS 00:47:05 04:27:33 DNF
David Dellow AUS 00:47:21 04:27:33 DNF
Nick Baldwin SEY 00:49:52 04:34:28 DNF
Matty White AUS 00:50:24 04:34:03 DNF
Simon Billeau FRA 00:55:23 04:34:38 DNF
Christian Kemp AUS 00:46:56 04:47:38 DNF
Johan Borg AUS 00:55:07 04:39:41 DNF
Jarmo Hast FIN 00:48:47 05:04:50 DNF
Clayton Fettell AUS 00:46:29 DNF

Female Race Results

Liz Blatchford took control of the race from the start, leading the field after the swim and in the early parts of the bike. However, she then received two 4-minute drafting penalties, so her third place finish leaves a lot of „what if“ questions. Yvonne Van Vlerken is in a similar situation, she had two crashes on the bike and had the medicals look her over. At some point she was fighting for third place but ran a little bit out of gas. Still, her fifth place gives her some more points for Kona 2015.

The bike leg was dominated by Mareen Hufe who entered T2 with a 7-minute lead. She ran a solid marathon, but it wasn’t quite enough to hold on to the lead as Britta Martin (German-born but now starting for New Zealand) posted a 3:00:00 marathon, winning by almost four minutes. Mareen managed to hold off the speedy runners Liz Blatchford and super-mom Beth Gerdes, who ran a 2:58 marathon just six months after giving birth to daughter Wynne.

The fast conditions resulted in three new course records: Britta posted a new overall record (improving Gina Crawford’s 8:59:24), Mareen improved her own bike record (4:47:53) from last year, and Beth posted a new run record (improving on Liz Lyles 3:00:37 from last year).

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to expected
1 Britta Martin NZL 00:56:39 04:55:37 03:00:00 08:56:34 -15:26
2 Mareen Hufe GER 00:58:02 04:44:16 03:14:13 09:00:21 -17:29
3 Liz Blatchford GBR 00:52:13 04:58:27 03:07:27 09:02:11 06:27
4 Beth Gerdes USA 01:02:10 05:00:25 02:58:17 09:04:38 -33:33
5 Yvonne Van Vlerken NED 00:58:14 04:51:04 03:12:05 09:05:39 11:28
6 Bree Wee USA 00:53:34 04:57:22 03:14:19 09:08:55 -11:53
7 Asa Lundstroem SWE 00:57:54 04:55:04 03:14:28 09:11:13 -04:46
8 Sarah Piampiano USA 01:02:06 04:51:14 03:14:52 09:12:38 -11:48
9 Dimity-Lee Duke AUS 01:02:15 04:52:12 03:13:52 09:12:51 -34:25
10 Katy Duffield AUS 00:56:35 05:06:38 03:21:05 09:28:13 -25:06
11 Kym Coogan AUS 00:56:36 05:02:35 03:30:05 09:33:50 n/a
12 Tracy Douglas AUS 01:03:10 04:59:23 03:29:30 09:35:56 -22:09
13 Svetlana Blazevic SCG 00:52:14 05:15:15 03:34:25 09:46:07 -08:03
14 Jeanne Collonge FRA 00:57:51 05:00:31 03:45:50 09:48:55 18:53
15 Kristy Hallett AUS 01:02:09 05:02:23 03:41:09 09:51:06 -28:12
16 Nina Pekerman ISR 00:58:10 05:21:37 03:25:59 09:51:24 -02:23
17 Michelle Duffield AUS 01:02:08 05:03:35 03:42:56 09:53:27 08:50
18 Erin Furness NZL 01:02:08 05:13:21 03:34:44 09:54:40 -02:03
Diana Riesler GER 00:56:37 04:52:29 DNF
Elizabeth Lyles USA 00:56:39 04:58:57 DNF
Melanie Burke NZL 01:05:35 04:50:45 DNF
Lisa Marangon AUS 00:54:45 05:10:44 DNF
Keiko Tanaka JPN 00:56:31 05:33:52 DNF
Dede Griesbauer USA 00:52:21 DNF
Kate Bevilaqua AUS 00:55:14 DNF
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