Avignon Start Gate

I’m making a big push with The Streak. Near-daily blog posts and a weekly podcast. I’ve got about 20 episodes half-finished.

One idea I had years ago was to do a podcast series purely about the 1989 World Short Course Championships in Avignon. Inspired by Wind of Change. To cover. The politics that created the race. Why Avignon was chosen. The build up. Race day. Controversies. The fallout and the future.

Using my huge archive of triathlon magazines. And the race day coverage. Contacting people who were there. Professional triathletes. Age groupers. Spectators. Members of the organising team. And the TV crew.

Images: Tri-Athlete 1989 Avignon Special Issue

But then I started scanning my whole triathlon magazine collection. And buying more. Finding so much good stuff that I wanted to put out there.

But the Avignon idea hasn’t gone away. Because the race might be the biggest turning point in our sport. With the first ironman in Hawaii.

So I’m starting to write the series now and will record early in 2024. Sometimes I’ll use this blog to trickle out some cool photos, short stories and snippets of the research I’m doing.

Here’s the spring-loaded start gate. Above. I wonder where they got it? And check out the actual swim start from 27:30 in this video.