Good thread, I have been thinking about this for awhile. Last year I dared a good friend of mine who is 5"7" and over 200, probably 220-240 to do a triathlon with me, she chose the location, I would meet her there. She raced athena, but watching the athena race seemed utterly unfair to me, all sorts of fit women who are tall and muscular fit into the category. A model about 5'10" and not at all struggling with overweight, and women who were, at the most "robust", but certainly not fat, and most certainly with nice muscular "big" bodies. It just seemed utterly unfair to me, here are these women, who mostly don't even go do triathlon because it means being in the public eye with their bodies half naked (she felt pretty humiliated and really needed to talk to herself when she saw the other athenas) , and yet they are competing against really fit women. I certainly hope I don't get raked over the coal for this, but it seems to me it does take a medal away from someone who has really struggled, not to undermine what it takes to do a tri for the non overweight.