food for thought; racing in Japan.

lots of discussion regarding racing in Yokohama Japan on May 15th. 


Below is a an interesting perspective written by US Triathlete Steve Sexton (www.twitter.com/trisexton) I thought I'd share. (posted with Steves permission).




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(written as an email response to another ITU Athlete)


below are arguments I am making for why yoko should go forward as planned. Bottom line is that health experts in Japan, USA, UK and elsewhere have independently assessed the situation using independent assets in the region and have all determined Yokohama is safe as of now. So the only reason to cancel the race would be if you expect that Japan is at higher risk than other areas for some kind of catastrophe on race weekend or that the damage/losses from a catastrophe would be greater in Japan than elsewhere. I think the experts agree that they do not think another major quake is more likely in Japan than anywhere else, so there is no greater risk. wish i were there to speak up at the meeting on Sunday.

ss

1. When the State Dept says defer all "non-essential" travel, I take that to mean "vacations." I think business travel is "essential" travel. What we do is a business. Racing is a business. If it were vacation, I would have made sure I saw a live kangaroo in Australia, not just a dead one on the road.

2. The UK Foreign office advises only to remain outside the 80km exclusion zone around the reactors. Its chief science advisor and Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies has examined worse case scenarios and found: "even in these worst cases, it considers that the risks to human health beyond the exclusion zone . . . could be managed by precautionary measures, in particular staying indoors to avoid exposure."

3. Yes, risks remain in Japan and we don't know what may happen in the next several weeks. But this is true of any race venue. The future is uncertain. I do not pretend to be an expert, but living on a major fault in Berkeley, my understanding is that one earthquake does not beget another earthquake. In fact, by relieving the built up pressure on the tectonic plates, one earthquake may reduce the likelihood of another quake. So why do we think Japan is going to be subject to some additional catastrophic event that couldn't strike elsewhere in the world?

4. ITU has held competitions in other countries during state department travel warnings due to violence and health concerns. Mexico is notable among these. In fact, a travel warning has been in place for Mexico since last September, meaning that the WC in Huatulco and our Pan Am Champs were held in spite of state department travel warnings. Monterrey is specifically named in the travel warning; a WC is scheduled there for just over one month from now. Monterrey was the subject of a travel alert in February. I and other Americans (and staff) travelled to races in Mexico during fears of swine flu and violence.

5. Those athletes leading the charge against racing Yokohama may be those who never intended to race. They may be being strategic: preclude competitors from earning points at a race they never intended to contest themselves. I want to race. Jarrod wants to race. I don't know about others.

6. Athletes take considerable risks for racing. We race ourselves into heat strokes and heat exhaustion (Did you see Ali Brownlee at London last year? Yikes!) We race in polluted waters. We race on uncontrolled courses. Risk is inherent in what we do.

So I think we should show our solidarity with our Japanese friends and be vocal about it. We won't let the scaremongering deter us from our objectives. And there is an element of scaremongering here. I admit to not having a precise comparison, but I think it is nearly true that people are exposed to more radiation flying across the Pacific to Yokohama than they are exposed in Yokohama.