The initial objective of the results analysis was to try to distinguish between someone who went fast or slow: was it because of the course, or because the athlete had a bad day? Then someone suggested that using that data, I can make predictions. It snowballed from there. Now I do 3 posts per race. First is when the start list is beginning to fill up, then when the start list is confirmed I’ll add seedings and predictions for the race, and I’ll also do post-analysis with how fast or slow the course was, and how the major incidents impacted the results. I’ve ended up adding 70.3 races, and a money list, and extended out to the different race organizers as well. Now, the challenge is to present the information in a more digestible format, which means adding more than just tables that are interesting to data geeks.

Of course, I'm a bit of a nerd in delving down into this data, but I think can really improve the commentary and presentation of the sport. It can make it more interesting than just discussing the one or two people that are being shown on camera. For instance, in a regular marathon, about halfway through you’re pretty certain that X, Y and Z are good athletes and since they’re in the lead pack one of them will win. Whereas in triathlon, with the three different legs, people have different strengths and weaknesses, so someone can be 30 minutes behind and still be a chance to make the race interesting. That’s something that’s hard to capture when you just look at where they’re at on the course. If commentators had this information at their fingertips, they could be preparing the viewers for what might happen, or what they should be looking for half an hour down the road. Things like that. I’d love to work on creating a dashboard for commentators (I would need a lot more data to actually do this) to make their job easier and create a really interesting experience for the viewers.

I would like to see TriRating grow and be able to make it more interesting, but that is limited by the amount of hours that I’m about to put into it. It’s not making enough money for me to leave my job, which is when I’d be able to really expand it. I’d like to extend the analysis to age groupers, but that means I’d be analyzing 10 to 15 races rather than just 2, so you can see how it quickly balloons out in terms of the time needed. But for now, I’m really happy with the position that I'm in and that I’ve created something that people find valuable.

This year's Kona Rating Report is a data-driven look at the Ironman World Championships, 132 pages of in-depth analysis and information about the race, all professional participants and their chances on October 13th.

Share this Story

No Human is Limited

I'm Here To Win

The Humble Son

My Incredible Journey

The Most Interesting Man In The World

Season 3