Peter Boncelet finished fourth in the men’s 65-69 age group in the duathlon. Photo: Clash Endurance

I spent the weekend announcing at Clash Daytona, which also served as the USA Triathlon (USAT) Long Course National Championships. The event takes place at the iconic Daytona International Speedway (DIS). And, yes, I know “iconic” might be the overused way the speedway is always described, but it really is apt. The site of the famous Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in the NASCAR series, DIS features a 2.5 mile (4.023 km) oval and a grandstand with up to 125,000 seats. The track has a lake in the middle, making it an ideal venue for a multisport event.

Clash likes to pack the weekend full of races – beginning with Friday’s Jingle Jog with over 1,000 participants. There were two sprint events (including a duathlon and relays for both) on Saturday morning, a kids race on Saturday afternoon, the one hour “Test Track” that allowed athletes to ride around the track, and then a Redline Relay bike race that featured over 20 teams racing around the famous oval for three hours. All told there were almost 3,000 participants in all the weekend’s activities.

This was the sixth time Clash has put on an event at Daytona International Speedway – it began as Challenge Daytona before race owner Bill Christie decided to create the “Clash” series brand. In all the years of racing at DIS, this was the first time organizers were forced to cancel the swims. The water temperature was cool enough on Friday (about 60 degrees Fahrenheit), but dipped down to 56.8 on Saturday morning. USAT’s rules (following the World Triathlon standards) use an “adjusted” water temperature that’s determined by adding the water and air temperature, then dividing by two. When Saturday mornings air temperature of 42.1 Fahrenheit was added to the water temperature, the adjusted water temperature (49.45) was well below the minimum adjusted level of 54, which meant Saturday’s sprint triathlons were run as a bike/ run race. Athletes started the bike in a self-seeded time-trial format.

Celebrity Racers

Chris Nikic finishes. Photo Clash Daytona

No one was more disappointed that the swim was cancelled on Saturday than three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Brooke Bennett. Bennett’s previous triathlon career ended when she was 12. After she crashed on her bike at a kids race, her swim coach, worried another crash could force her to miss valuable training time, put it to her simply: do you want to go to the 1996 Olympics as a swimmer? It was probably a good call – Bennett won her first Olympic gold medal at the Games in Atlanta, winning the 800 m freestyle and beating legend Janet Evans in her last Olympic race in the process. Bennett would win the 800 again at the Sydney Games four years later, setting a world record. She also won the 400 m at those games.

Despite only having ridden her borrowed bike a couple of times, and not having a swim to start her race day, Bennett managed a 1:18 finish, good enough for eighth in the 40-44 age group.

Daytona International Speedway’s event manager Bryan Elliott also raced on Saturday in honor of his Army Captain brother Alan, who was killed while training last year by a drunk driver. Elliott did the race on one of Alan’s bikes.

On Sunday Chris Nikic (that’s me interviewing him at the finish line), the first Down Syndrome athlete to finish an IRONMAN, was there to race on behalf of his 1% Better foundation.

Liz and Summer Lopez (above, photo: Clash Endurance), the mom/daughter equivalent of IRONMAN and Boston Marathon legends Dick and Rick Hoyt, were also on hand on Sunday, racing to “promote the importance of not texting and driving after Summer was significantly injured at the age of 18 years old while behind the wheel.”

National Champs

Photo: Clash Endurance

While the air temperature was a bit warmer on Sunday morning, the adjusted water temperature of 52.75 was still well under the USAT minimum standard, which meant that Sunday’s triathlon was also run as a bike (56 mile/ 90 km)/ run (13.1 mile/ 21.1 km). Once again the race was started in a self-seeded time trial format. The Aquabike competitors went off with the triathletes – their race consisted of the 56-mile bike.

The duathlon wasn’t affected by the changes, with the athletes starting with a 3 mile (4.8-km) run, then joining the triathletes for the same bike and the final 13.1-mile run.

The cancellation of the swim didn’t affect the qualifying slots for next year’s World Triathlon Multisport Long Distance Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. There were 18 slots available in every age group for the worlds.

Tommy Doubleday won the overall men’s long-course triathlon and took the 20-24 national championship, finishing in 3:22:59. Doubleday was pushed to the limit to take the title – he ended up just 15 seconds ahead of Scott Ludford, who was also in the 20-24 age group. Cole Kynoch took third overall and the 30-34 national championship. Kynoch had the day’s fastest bike split of 1:59:38.

Renae Tadrowski rode into transition with a lead of two minutes over Andrea Richardson in the long-course triathlon championships, then continued to pull away from the field on the run, taking a convincing overall win and the 20-24 national title in 3:42:33. Richardson would win the women’s 35-39 title in 3:51:33. Ireland’s Helen Perry took third overall in 3:59:19.

You can find the full results here, and we’ve posted all the national champions below.

John Marquez won the PC Open category. Photo: Clash Endurance

Long Course Triathlon National Championship 

Overall Male: Tommy Doubleday, 3:22:58 

Overall Female: Renae Tadrowski, 3:42:33 

Clydesdale Overall: Kevin Nichols, 4:01:44 

Clydesdale 39 & Under: Kevin Nichols, 4:01:44 

Clydesdale 40-59: Mark Dailey, 5:19:00 

Clydesdale 60+: William Jankowski, 5:27:44 

M16 & Under: Jack Guthringer, 4:59:40 

F16 & Under: Fransesca Delpresto, 4:28:51 

M17-19: Joe Guthringer, 3:48:32 

F17-19: Kory Johnston, 4:38:19 

M20-24: Tommy Doubleday, 3:22:58 

F20-24: Renae Tadrowski, 3:42:33 

M25-29: Sam Hartle, 3:26:35 

F25-29: Hannah Nelson, 3:59:41 

M30-34: Cole Kynoch, 3:25:23 

F30-34: Helen Perry, 3:59:19 

M35-39: David Martin, 3:35:54 

F35-39: Andrea Richardson, 3:51:33 

M40-44: Chandler Carranza, 3:45:30 

F40-44: Michelle Christine, 4:09:47 

M45-49: Janda Ricci-Munn, 3:31:04 

F45-49: Emily Rollins, 4:03:19 

M50-54: Peter Christensen, 3:35:26 

F50-54: Rachel Crunk, 4:04:52 

M55-59: Doug Covington, 3:43:03 

F55-59: Jody Dushay, 4:21:09 

M60-64: P.J. Arling, 3:55:31 

F60-64: Terri Bower, 4:57:24 

M65-69: Ronald Gierut, 4:05:31 

F65-69: Nancy Peters, 5:48:39 

M70-74: Robert Smartt, 4:24:53 

F70-74: Suzanne Mink, 7:00:01 

F75-79: Barbara Mathewson, 6:04:05 

Long Course Aquabike National Championships 

Overall Male: Jared Gentile, 2:01:52 

Overall Female: Felicity Joyce, 2:12:16 

Clydesdale Overall: Ben Naylor, 2:23:06 

Athena Overall: Erin Byrge, 2:21:16 

Athena 39 & Under: Melanie Mosher, 2:48:07 

Clydesdale 40-59: Ben Naylor, 2:23:06 

Athena 40-54: Erin Byrge, 2:21:16 

Athena 55+: Leslie Battle, 2:58:43 

M17-19: Kieran Dolan, 2:11:47 

M20-24: Zachary Baker, 2:27:11 

F20-24: Samantha Joray, 2:41:24 

M30-34: Alex Brown, 2:10:42 

F30-34: Sarah Hess, 2:19:11 

F35-39: Caitlin Williams, 2:26:33 

M40-44: Jared Gentile, 2:01:52 

F40-44: Jared Gentile, 2:01:52 

M45-49: Eric Dyner, 2:10:39 

F45-49: Wendy Fejfar, 2:15:54 

M50-54: Neal Henderson, 2:08:15 

F50-54: Jennifer Rogers, 2:26:57 

M55-59: Blair Saunders, 2:05:14 

F55-59: Gayle Galletta, 2:23:51 

M60-64: Niel Semmel, 2:05:19 

F60-64: Lori Selby, 2:26:09 

M65-69: Phillip Gormley, 2:21:49 

F65-69: Kris Messner, 2:56:28 

M70-74: Duane Fritchie, 2:27:35 

M75-79: Peter Hackbert, 3:41:31 

F75-79: Andrea McCarter, 4:06:55 

Long Course Duathlon National Championship 

Overall Male: Conrad Goeringer, 3:51:50 

Overall: Female Kirsten Sass, 4:15:31 

M30-34: Mason Schlange, 4:40:12 

F30-34: Andrea Nunez-Smith, 4:32:48 

M35-39: Conrad Goeringer, 3:51:50 

F35-39: Martha Hincapie, 5:20:40 

M40-44: Mike Mason, 4:06:36 

F40-44: Karoline Muehlfellner, 4:43:14 

M45-49: Stephen Eles, 4:06:37 

F45-49: Kirsten Sass, 4:15:31 

M50-54: Robert Binkley, 4:20:51 

F50-54: Sue Pelican, 4:41:12 

M55-59: Alan Graff, 4:33:45 

F55-59: Barbara Wiggins, 5:13:05 

M60-64: Paul Greenberg, 4:25:41 

F60-64: Karen Prewitt, 6:24:18 

M65-69: Bob Brown, 5:37:33 

F65-69: Mary Humphrey, 6:26:06 

M70-74: Charlie Hanus, 6:28:50 

F70-74: Susan Felicissimo, 7:36:57 

M75-79: Ron Wightman, 6:10:36 

The post Clash Daytona Hosts USAT Long Course Nationals first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The bottom line is this: according to the tax return, USAT’s expenses exceeded their revenue by just over $2 million, approximately $250,000 more than the gap in 2022. The tax return, however, does not paint the entire picture, as it does not include certain donor restricted contributions and/or non-cash or unrealized assets. Review the financial statement that pairs with the Form 990, and it’s a slightly better picture — a combined (unrestricted and restricted) positive gain of almost $477,000. That’s a huge improvement over 2022, which showed a loss of nearly $3 million.

Let’s pull back a couple of layers on the revenue generation and expense side.

Revenue: Memberships, Sponsorship, Events and Grants

As expected, USA Triathlon memberships make up the largest percentage of revenue for the organization. 2023 membership revenue was $7.3 million. That figure is $173,000 less than reported membership income from 2022. 2023 was the launch of USAT’s Youth and Junior Premier Membership, which saw a one-time $25 fee valid from the date of purchase until the athlete’s 18th birthday. It was also the final year of the prior membership rate structure for adults, as USAT now offers tiered memberships. USAT states their membership base as “over 300,000 unique active members.”

Contributions to USA Triathlon totaled just under $3.4 million in 2023; this is a sizable increase of almost $1.4 million from 2022. The bulk of these contributions fall in the “donor restricted” bucket. These contributions are separate to those from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Contributions from USOPC were down in 2023 by roughly $70,000, totaling $1.4 million.

Sponsorship is also a critical component of USAT’s financial picture. Those sponsorships, which currently list 34 different partners in varying levels, brought in just under $3.3 million. That, again, was a smaller slice than it was in 2022; sponsorships that year raked in just over $4 million.

Then there’s events. USA Triathlon events in 2023 included Multisport Nationals, Age Group Nationals, Youth/Junior Nationals, and the Legacy Triathlon. There was also the sizable industry conference Endurance Exchange, held in January of that year in Austin, TX. Combined, events, camps, and clinics brought a total of $2.56 million. That’s up by about a quarter of a million over the previous year.

All told, these major programming sources of revenue were down compared to 2022. What made up the difference? Investment income. USAT made money on investments in 2023 — just over $1.2 million after expenses. That’s a nearly $3 million turnaround against the sizable loss suffered in 2022.

The grand total of revenue, depending on whether you’re looking at the 990 or the financial statement, comes out to $17.4 million (990) or $20.8 million (financial statement).

Program Service versus Support Service Expenses

There are two buckets that expenses for USA Triathlon are divided into. The first are program expenses. These are the types of expenses that are in service of USAT’s mission statement: “…to grow, inspire and support the triathlon community.” And then there are the so-called “support” services; they are the staffing and other operational expenses that come from, well, having an organization in the first place.

Top-level: USAT’s expenses topped $20 million in 2023. Of them, roughly 64.3% were related to program services (just over $13 million). The remaining $7.26 million is attributable to support services: General & Administrative, Business Development / Strategy, Marketing & Communications, and USAT Foundation General & Administrative. These expenses were slightly down versus what the organization spent in 2022.

Looking at program services, there are two areas that drive the bulk of spending. The most spending occurs in the “high performance” bucket, representing a total of $4.2 million. According to the Form 990, spending in this area represents support for “Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as well as approximately 450 elite athletes across the country, from youth and junior to Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, to continue to pursue their athletic goals.” The financial statement breaks this down further, including: $1.8 million for travel; $877,000 for salaries; $499,000 for professional fees; and $492,000 in a bucket of “other event/athlete.”

The other main bucket of spend is to “constituent services.” What are constituent services? According to USAT, “this division and program is unique to providing infrastructure, support and resources to our entire Multisport ecosystem…” and includes support for membership, race directors, coaches, clubs, and officials. The spend here was just over $4 million. $2.6 million of that was spent on insurance, with another $632,000 on salaries/wages.

There are two other areas of spend under program services. The first of these is events; after all, producing races is not a free endeavor. USAT spent almost $3.3 million in producing events in 2023. As you might recall from the section above, USAT brought in $2.56 million in revenue from those events — so, on paper, a net negative. That said, that’s where things like sponsorship, or in-kind donations, help make these events a net positive. And the last area of spend is in “sport development.” Sport development includes the youth, junior, high school, and collegiate club / NCAA efforts, as well as the DEIB program “Together We Thrive.” Spend here was just under $1.2 million — the two largest line items were salaries and wages ($383K), followed by entry fees of nearly $363,500.

From the support services perspective, the largest single expense are salaries and wages of key staff across the four functions mentioned earlier. Salaries for support function staff total $2.86 million. In total, USAT spends over $5 million on its staff, or roughly a 7.7% increase from 2022, although half of this increase can be attributed to inflationary pressures. The salaries of the top-eight highest paid officials represent over $1.5 million of that budget allotment. Those individuals and salaries (base, bonus/incentive compensation, and “other reportable” compensation) are:

1. Victoria Brumfield, Chief Executive Officer: $346,255
2. Tim Yount, Chief of Sport Development: $213,904
3. Camellia Noriega, Associate General Counsel: $191,406
4. Sheri Trahern, Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer: $170,824
5. Scott Schnitzspahn, High Performance General Manager: $165,134
6. Krista Prescott, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer: $161,208
7. Gabe Cagwin, Chief Advancement Officer: $151,830
8. Brian D’Amico, Director of Events: $115,202

Most other expenses, across the board, were held relatively flat to slightly down against this backdrop. The only other sizable increased expense in 2023 was travel, most of which was attributed to the high performance program. Support services accounted for only $260,000 of the total travel expense, which wound up at just north of $2.9 million — or an increase of nearly $500,000 over 2022.

What Does the Future Hold?

According to the financial statement, USAT has just under $13 million in financial assets that could be used to meet cash obligations within a year, with a total asset availability a shade under $16 million. It means that, barring a total collapse of either the membership or sponsorship revenue generation, USAT is in a decent position to operate. It is perhaps somewhat unsurprising to report that Brumfield has an employment agreement that runs “through 2028” and the home Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Still, the question of the value USAT provides its members is looming. How sustainable is it for insurance to make up 60% of the spend on constituent services? Or, put another way, for every membership dollar expended, roughly 35 cents of it is spent on insurance. For how long can that cycle continue to last? We’ll look forward to seeing the numbers for 2024, which will provide the data for the high-performance spend from the first “normal” Olympic year since the Games in Rio in 2016.

Images: World Triathlon

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