Lance Armstrong is shinning a massive spotlight on the sport of triathlon, and that could possibly include the 2012 Ironman World Championships set for October in Kona, Hawaii this year.
"We want to investigate opportunities to be able to potentially put parts of the race live, something that has never been done in the U.S.," Messick said in an interview yesterday in San Diego, California, where he is attending the Triathlon America Business of Triathlon conference. "Lance brings a spotlight to our sport that’s brighter perhaps than anything that has ever happened."
According to Bloomberg News, the World Triathlon Corporation is in discussions with Comcast to televise this year's Ironman World Championships live...something that has never been done before.
“The race in Panama came about at the 11th hour and we made a decision that it probably wasn’t the right thing to do to put a ton of audio and video resources behind it,” Messick said. “We had very little time to talk about it and get ourselves organized and do the kind of job that we felt we needed to.”
40-year-old Lance Armstrong has stated that his goal for 2012 is to qualify for Kona and race the Ironman World Championships in 2012.
“Our opportunity as a sport is to use the fact that we have an athlete like Lance and use it to bring more people into triathlon,” Messick said. “There’s going to be a lot of opportunity for people who successfully embrace that.”
Armstrong will race his first IM distance race this June 24 in Nice, France, were he will try to earn a spot for Kona.
Photo Credit: Dave Erickson of SwimBikeRunVideos
