At least for those who plan to participate in a world championship.

Yesterday USA Triathlon announced their new membership plans. To be able to “compete internationally with Team USA” – which applies to aquabike athletes if they want to participate in the long or standard distance world championships – you have to become a Platinum Member for $400 a year. Yes, there are also some other benefits for Platinum Members. But honestly… I wouldn´t have any use for those. And reading the comments in the US triathlon facebook groups I´m not the only one.

The $400 extra might not seem a lot if you are planning to travel to the long-distance world´s in Australia this year. But it seems a legitimate question what you actually get for this money. You still have to buy your race kit from USAT, which also seems to be not on the cheap side.

“It feels that you are changing the rules in the middle of the game” as one US athlete commented. Having qualified for this year´s world championships, paying all the fees, booking the flights and hotel and now having to pay a few hundred dollars extra to be allowed to compete doesn´t really sound like fair play to me. And in two years the long-distance world championships are in Edmonton, Canada. They will be much more accessible to US athletes and the $400 extra will certainly be a relevant extra financial obstacle for some to go there.

A lot of athletes who have qualified for different world championship events in all multisport disciplines for the upcoming season are quite angry having to pay extra now. After the huge wave of criticism that USAT faced in the social media following the announcement of the new membership options, I don’t think it’s out of the question that they might row back a little.

Probably not least due to the many angry comments, USAT scheduled a virtual town hall meeting for today at short notice to answer any questions that arose. However, the fact that the meeting was scheduled at short notice during business hours also was not received favourably by all athletes. The next few days will probably show whether USAT will continue on its current course.