Nathan Fa’avae is one of the most respected figures in the world of Expedition Adventure Racing and he’s just published an open letter to the organisers of AR World Series events in an attempt to persuade them to adopt National teams at the top level of adventure racing – or at least for the World Championships. (We’ve published it on SleepMonsters and you can read it here.)The idea may not affect most of the adventure races on the calendar, but it is nevertheless an important issue for the sport as expedition races and the World Series in particular are still regarded as the pinnacle of the sport and attract much of the publicity around Adventure Racing.
So is it a good idea?
He argues the case very well and from the perspective of someone who has raced for his country in a National team (at Eco-Challenge) and would like to do so again in a World Championships.
I won’t repeat his points here, but he is definitely right that from a press perspective having teams of a single nationality would make the sport a lot easier to write about.
So often I’ve had write something along the lines of “this team are the defending champions, but with a completely different name and line up, and one of their winning team from last year is racing with another team against them ... etc.” It is hard enough to explain what adventure racing is and what is going on as it is!
If you think about it pretty much all top level international sport is organised along National team guidelines, it does not make sense otherwise ... expect for adventure racing, which does its own thing and generally avoids any kind of formal organisation. The World Series have now carefully moved along a more formal lines with a set of mandatory rules and equipment (and a world ranking), so maybe National teams is a next step?
As Fa’avae points out Eco-Challenge made it work, and it was the best known and most successful race in the history of the sport. Since then the World Series has helped maintain top level expedition racing but it has not attracted much in the way of sponsorship or T.V. coverage since Discovery Channel sponsored the first AR World Champs in Switzerland (... and that was in 2001, when Eco-Challenge was still making AR a commercial hot property.)
Not surprisingly prize money has fallen off too and many of the top teams are now in China, racing for the cash at the Wulong Mountain Quest rather than in the two World Series races taking place. (XPD is on now and Bimbache Extreme is about to start.)
There may be some in the AR 'establishment' who won’t agree with the proposal. Changes to the status quo can be very difficult to make and making a new recipe omelette will require breaking a few eggs.
Established teams of mixed nationality (Thule for example) understandably may not like the idea. Race Directors too might feel it will put another barrier in the way of teams entering their events and reduce numbers – and it’s a valid concern. (Remember the races are put on by private companies, often at some financial risk.)
There are also many too who think the fact that AR is a ‘free spirited’ sport (one without committees and governing bodies) is one of its best qualities and that the chance to race with other nationalities and varied teams is all part of the adventure.
I put these counter arguments to Fa’avae and he commented, “The same discussions all happened when Mark Burnett made Eco Challenge a race for countries, in 2000, but officially in 2001 and 2002. Despite the reaction from the corporate teams at the time voicing their concerns, which is what you're saying now, everyone agreed in the end it was far better, new athletes were discovered (Mike Tobin being one of them), but the biggest change came in increased sponsorship and the downstream effect of increased media.
It does not need to change the World Series a lot, but it'd be good if it did, if Eco Challenge was anything to go by it generated a lot more interest.”
There may be some short term pain before the long term gain and the process might have to be gradual, unofficially encouraging national teams (maybe even with slightly lower entry fees) for a period before moving to a World Championship with National teams. It wouldn’t have to affect Adventure Racing across the board either, there would still be plenty of races open to commercially sponsored and/or mixed nationality teams.
When an athlete of the calibre and experience of Nathan Fa’avae says; “I’m happy to grab the title and exploit it for sponsorship reasons, but it has no greater meaning for me because I do not believe it is an authentic World Championship event.” – it might be wise to listen.
Comments are welcome, either on this blog or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SleepMonsters where we will set up a Poll on the issue.
