Saturday, June 09, 2012

Lance Armstrong Enough For NBC to Extend Ironman Coverage for 2012

This year’s Ironman WorldChampionship triathlon will be televised about six weeks earlier than originally planned, and lengthened to 2 hours. Why? The presence of the one and only Lance Amrstrong, who has won his last two Ironman 70.3 races (Florida 70.3, Hawaii 70.3) and is on his way to building enough points to debut at the World Championship on October 13th, 2012. More on the story here.

(Lance Armstrong wins Ironman Florida 70.3 in 3:45:48, photo courtesy of Elizabeth Kreutz)
The network is currently scheduled to air two hours of the Oct. 13 race in Hawaii on Oct. 27 as Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, seeks to challenge the world’s best triathletes in the sport’s premier race. While the program changes will result in more coverage of top pros and elite age-group racers, NBC will continue to feature select human-interest stories throughout the broadcast as it has in previous years.

Armstrong will race his first professional full Ironman event June 24 in Nice, France. To qualify for the Hawaii championship, all athletes must first complete a full Ironman race. Armstrong currently ranks 59th with 2,305 points earned through his half Ironman events. The top 40 ranked professionals by July 29 will qualify to go to Hawaii.
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6 comments:

  1. John White6/09/2012 05:40:00 PM

    Hah, it's going to be a zoo at Kona this year! Thanks for posting this, first place I've seen it so far! It figures Lance will draw media attention, he's a rather polar figure...

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  2. JojaJogger6/09/2012 08:00:00 PM

    Now all we need is for Lance to run Western States so we can see coverage of that ;)

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  3. Scott6/09/2012 08:57:00 PM

    2 weeks or 6 weeks is largely irrelevant. If you follow the sport you'll follow it live. If you don't, who cares when it's shown?

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  4. Unknown6/09/2012 09:07:00 PM

    I'm all for running and stuff but I can see this as being watched by a lot of people. Running is that exciting to watch.

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  5. Unknown6/10/2012 09:19:00 AM

    Think what you will of Lance - he knows how to draw a crowd and still has the "engine" to back up what he sets out to do. To me, increased coverage of any forms of endurance sport is a good thing. Lance is returning to his roots and shining a light on a sport that gets nominal attention (especially when one considers to commitment required to excel).

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  6. Anonymous6/13/2012 02:29:00 PM

    Lance is a phenominal athelete and probably the fittest person on the planet. At age 41, he is kicking the butts of people half his age. Way to go Lance, you are my hero!

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