Team Clydesdale

Team Clydesdale International (TCI) is the promotional body for the Weight Class Athletic Association, the foremost expert organization on weight class athletics. We strive to give the large athlete a voice in the multi-sport world. As an organization, we are striving to be the official governing body for weight class athletics throughout the world.

Team Clydesdale was founded by Guy East in 1995. TCI encourages competition based upon body weight. His efforts have opened the door for world-wide Clydesdale competition. USAT adopted his resolutions in 1997. Ironman North America implemented his proposals in 1998. The ITU supported weight classes in 2001-2003 due to TCI’s efforts.

Guy has been a triathlete since 1995. He became an Ironman triathlete in 1997 and a Clydesdale World Champion in 2000 in Windsor, England. He developed the Zipp/Clydesdale wheel. He created the TC World Games, hosting their tenth championship this August.

Guy has been married 26 years and has five children. He is a former Purdue football letterman. He is a fourth generation builder, engineer, and teacher. His oldest son, Guy Jr., rides for the USAC National Team, and is a pro with the LAF/Trek Team. His second son plays football for Wheaton.

A graduate engineer with expertise in sports facility, green, solar and quality construction, Guy is writing a book entitled “Builders Association of Ancient and Bible Times”. He instructs and certifies builders for the DC based University of Housing. He owns UBuildIt, and has trained over 200 homeowners to manage their new or remodeled projects. He has sponsored the UBuildIt/MOB Squad cycling team for 7 years.

Mission

Team Clydesdale exists to encourage and promote fitness, camaraderie, and competition among large athletes.

Vision

Team Clydesdale is the international governing body for weight class athletics, developing, marketing and executing programs and products for large athletes.

Team Clydesdale, also known by it’s official name, World Weight Class Athletic Association, will reestablish itself as the preeminent association for weight class athletes by October 2010.  Within the following two years, Team Clydesdale will have reemerged into the triathlon, running and cycling industries by developing relationships with key businesses in a mutually beneficial way.   Within another three years, Team Clydesdale will be an international enterprise leading the way with programs and products within the health and fitness and recreational sports industries, fully engaged in the multi-faceted sports, and including athletes ranging from the beginning out of shape weekend warrior, to the strongly competitive elite performing athlete.

Meet the Staff

Photos

Bios

History

Since the late 1970’s, recreational athletes have enjoyed age group competition.   Event directors, under pressure to increase attendance at their events, determined that if more than the first 3 finishers could have an opportunity to “win” in their own age group, then possibly more athletes would toe the line.  Athletes that competed outside the “elite” or “professional” class were called “age groupers”.  Then in the early 1980’s, a large recreational athlete, over 200 pounds,  named Joe Law, realized that the age group had little benefit for large runners.  He began promoting weight class competition, and until his untimely death in the late 1980’s, he had managed to develop the case for the large athlete to a wide crowd of US event directors.

About the same time that Joe Law began lobbying event directors on the east coast, the marketing manager for the Boston Marathon, David McGilvray, in a sarcastic statement, commented to the Boston Athletic Association, that allowing large runners into the country’s most prestigious marathon, would be like allowing Clydesdale horses compete at the Kentucky Derby!  Joe Law heard about McGilvray’s idea, and thus started calling his group the Clydesdales.

Grass root efforts for weight class competition seemed to come and go for the next decade. Some events, such as the Columbia (MD) Triathlon, have supported Clydesdale racing since 1986.  In August of 1995, USA Tri-Fed member and Athena athlete Christina Kowalski began discussions with then Tri-Fed Executive Director Steven Locke.  Locke, who had heard from other large athletes preparing to start a movement, teamed Kowalski with John Kapovich, from Chicago, who co-authored a letter to then President of the World Triathlon Corporation.  In Yate’s response to these early Clydesdale lobbying efforts for  Clydedales, and with standards and rules believes that it may exist at the Ironman.”

In late 1994, Guy East, a 282 pound former offensive lineman at Purdue University, decided to lose weight using the Weight Watchers program.  As part of his discipline, he began entering into local runs and eventually duathlons.  It was the summer of 1995 when East entered a Tuxedo Brothers sponsored event in Indianapolis that he realized the importance of weight class racing.  Tuxbros, as they are called, recognized the “Big Guy” and the “Big Gal” division.  This peaked East’s interest and he was soon hooked.  By the summer of 1996, after one full year of indoctrination into multi-sport, East competed in the International Triathlon Union World Championship Triathlon in Muncie, Indiana.  On that September 7th day in central Indiana, the Clydesdale movement was about to change.

Knowing that an international audience would appear on the roads of Muncie, East launched his own type of awareness campaign.  Arriving the night before, East planted over 30 informational signs along the bike and run course, attracting attention to the plight of large triathletes.  Professionally printed signs with sayings like “Gravity Challenged athletes race here too”, or “Say Yes, to Kona Clydesdales”, referring to the Kona, Hawaii Ironman.   East also printed the first Team Clydesdale logo wear and gave them to the first six large athletes who were competing that day.  From that, Team Clydesdale was incorporated as a non-profit Indiana organization, using some of the Muncie Clydesdales as the first board of directors.  Kowalski was asked to be a board member, but was in the child rearing mode.  Kapovich joined the board, and soon, a mission statement was created.

The goal at that time was simple, and the board wanted to express that in their mission, so on September 10, 1996, just 3 days after the Muncie Endurathon event, Team Clydesdale was made official with this mission, “Team Clydesdale exists so that large framed, 180 pounds and over, male triathletes and runners, can compete across the country on an equal basis.”  In May of 1997, the Team Clydesdale board members reconvened in Indianapolis and retooled the mission statement to read “Team Clydesdale exists to encourage and promote camaraderie and competition among large athletes.”  This mission went unchanged until the summer of 2003, in preparation for the ITU World Championships in Cancun, Mexico, where the Clydesdales had become official.  A slight change in the mission statement broadened the scope by stating that “Team Clydesdale exists to educate, encourage and promote, fitness, camaraderie and competition among large athletes”.  This is the present day mission and belief of Team Clydesdale.

Team Clydesdale was challenged early into their existence.  The challenge was this, if weight class competition was legitimate, then national governing bodies, such as USA Tri-Fed (now known as USA Triathlon), should adopt rules and standards that promote large athlete competition.  So in October 1997, Guy East, President of Team Clydesdale, proposed to USA Tri-Fed, seven (7) resolutions that would make Clydesdale racing official.  East and Kapovich were then invited to the December 1997 Tri-Fed meeting in Colorado Springs, at the Olympic Training Center.   East sat next to Triathlete star Karen Smyers for the two day meeting. He also captured a photograph of the group, as well treated the board to some refreshments at a downtown nightspot.  With Tri-Feds approval, Team Clydesdale was off and running, and doing it with the support of the triathlon national governing body (NGB) for the United States.   That December 1997 board meeting was instrumental to the sport of triathlon in many ways.  First, it set the ground work for the official procedure and rules in which future weight class athletes and board members would adhere.  Second, the meeting provided for personal relationships to be formed, many of which still last today.  Thirdly, it was the meeting in which age groupers and professional triathletes would learn how to qualify for the 2000 Olympics, the first appearance for triathlon in any Olympic Games.  To this day, East receives inquiries from occasional USA Triathlon members about weight class competition.

Also, in August 1997, East rented booth space at the Chicago Mrs T’s Triathlon, under the name of Team Clydesdale.  At that time, Clydesdales were not recognized at but just a handful of events around the country, but not in Chicago.  So, East set up his booth and positioned a scale just off into the aisle, and registered 168 large athletes, who would provide valuable data for many of the directions that were to come, mainly, the resolutions presented to USA Tri-Fed.  The next year in Chicago, Clydesdales were made official, and have been ever since.  In 1998, on the streets of Chicago, the inaugural National Team Clydesdale Championship was held, in conjunction with the Chicago Mrs. T’s Triiathlon.  Champions were literally crowned with their new title.  Names like John Cannon, Kim Miller, Kevin Kelley, Daryl Haley.  These were the first all-stars to be recognized officially for their triathlon prowess.

In 1999, Guy East and David Maher visited Windsor, England to solidify the agreement to bring the Clydesdales to an international stage.  This event was a precursor to the 2000 Team Clydesdale World Championship, where 38 of the worlds top Clydesdales competed on an international level.

There were many other events and initiatives that layed the groundwork for what was to come.  Probably the most impressive was the meeting in Montreal with the ITU Executive Director.  At that meeting, the ITU committed to East and Cannon (a former NFL star for the Tampa Bay Bucaneers), that the ITU would experiement with weight classes for two years.  So in 2002 the Clydesdales competed in Edmonton and in 2003 in Cancun.  The ITU promoted events introduced Clydesdales from over 20 countries to compete.  It was with great excitement that the Clydesdales would have a voice at the ITU Congress meeting, held in Cancun, to determine the future of weight class racing at upcoming ITU events.  When word got out that the Clydesdales would be official after the positive vote, the cheers could be heard across the Yucatan Peninsula from several happy international Clydesdales.

The cheers would soon be silenced, as just three weeks after that monumental vote, the President of the IOC, demanded that NGB’s find ways to streamline their sports.  Unfortunately for the Clydesdales, the voice of the age grouper speaks louder, and thus doing away with any future plans of ITU signficance.

However, Team Clydesdale had already started hosting their own World Championships in Windsor in 2000.  Sponsors like Roark Bikes (titanium custom frames) and Built 2XL (clothing) jumped on board to help promote Team Clydesdale and vice versa.

Since the Inaugural Team Clydesdale World Championships in Windsor, Clydesdales have competed internationally in Chicago, Cancun, and Miami.  The Triple Crown series was created to give top Clydesdales a qualifying attempt at the national championship and entry into the world championships.  The Triple Crown events included St. Anthonys Triathlon (St. Petersburg), Chicago, and the LA Triathlon.  In was Team Clydesdales inaugural year in Los Angeles, where on September 10, 2001 many athletes had flown back home, across country only to be surprised with the next day’s disastrous news of the World Trade Center.

Another problem with being a large athlete is finding durable equipment.  Roark Bikes stepped up with their titanium frames that are impossible to break, but light weight racing wheels had always been a problem.  So, East contacted hometown wheel manufacturer, Zipp Speed Weaponry, with a new concept.  Andy Ording, President of Zipp, and East, began a working relationship that lasted many years.  East provided the large competitive athletes, (ie John Cannon, and Doug Hackl, both phenomenal world champions, and others) and Ording provided the research and development team to develop the Team Clydesdale/Zipp wheels.  These wheels eventually were used in international events by light weight riders, who enjoyed the reliability of the carbon fiber and aero spokes.  East made a handful of trips to the wind tunnel in College Station, TX to test the wheels, with aerodynamic greats like Wayne Stetina, Steve Hed, John Cobb, and others.

In recent years, Team Clydesdale shifted its focus away from the member base, which had attracted over 1500 paid members by 2003, and more towards the more simpler, product management program with the Zipp wheels.  Now that Zipp has been purchased by SRAM, and the new direction they are taking away from these heavier wheels, Team Clydesdale was in a position to refocus on it’s membership base.  This was evident in a meeting last December (2008) in Colorado Springs at the offices of USA Triathlon.  East had discovered that without a national association promoting itself and being the voice of the large athlete, that fewer events and weight class athletes existed than ever before.  So, East has been on a quest for nearly 10 months to find the perfect match of talent and personality to relaunch Team Clydesdale.  So beginning in late August, Guy East has been joined with social networking genius Ben McCann, and web expert Stefan Bean to help in this new initiative.  Let us know how you feel about this new change, and most importantly, what we can do to help you!

Strategy

Website - Partner with the best website designer, proficient in the areas of emphasis and member needs desired.   Social interaction with be the emphasis as the TCI website evolves into a useful resource that will lead the large athlete community.  Contributing volunteers will provide a mixture of content for the range of conditioned athlete, from the beginner to the elite.

Membership -  Create five levels of membership (family, Under 18, fitness, competitor, and elite).  Optimize the member benefits within each membership level by partnerships with contributing athletes within each level.  In short, be the obvious choice of an effective resource to be utilized, for each membership level.  Be so good that members could not reach their potential without being connected within the Team Clydesdale community.

Partnerships – Form strategic alliances with industry related corporations that would benefit from the large athlete relationship. Like our members, create such a healthy network of partners that their businesses feel and know the partnerships exist!

Governing Body – Look like a governing body, with the website, at the events, and with the supporting information we create.  Be the ultimate authority for weight class athletics.  Stay current.  Resurrect the implementation guidelines for race directors.  Develop rulebooks.

Objectives

Website – The TCI website will be fully integrated, interactive, and informative and creatively fresh, with daily updates on products and programs, as well as a daily blog.  The website is an essential tool considered to be as the best source of information for the weight class athlete.

Membership – TCI will benefit members because of it’s consistent, reliable, expertise in filling the needs and desires of the large athlete.  Both tangible and non-tangible member benefits will provide the best lifeline to the member.  Because of the forever changing, yet always reliable, perfect fit for our members, TCI is expected to grow to 500 members by October 2010, 3500 members by October 2011, and reaching 10,000 members by the end of 2012.

Partnerships – TCI will continue to benefit service and product providers.  Our Team Clydesdale trademark will flourish among our corporate partners who count on TCI’s expertise in the recreational sports, health and fitness industries to improve their bottom line.  TCI will also be positioned with event directors as a catalyst to increase event attendance.

Governing Body – TCI will develop and enforce standards, unify and attract athletes, and spread globally to accomplish the TCI mission.