UTMB PR Disaster, Again

Corrine Malcolm on her Instagram account:

Well team, I’ve got some bad news for you. There is one place I won’t be in 2024 – and that’s behind the mic for UTMB Live. As of yesterday I’ve been informed that I can no longer be part of the commentary team that I’ve worked with for the last four years because I’m too outspoken. 

I just don’t even know what’s going on over there. This is not normal corporate behavior. This is one insane PR blunder after another. Of course, businesses can “business”, and will do things the community doesn’t like, but usually the way corporations move is that they announce new stuff, hype a new direction and vision, and the community and it’s beloved people are collateral damage. What is currently happening with UTMB Is that they seem to be nuking their biggest fans in brought daylight and aren’t giving us a reason for why they are doing this. Now we will need another series of explainer podcasts where the Ironman/UTMB team has to make the rounds and play damage control. This is asinine.

Of course, Corrine was outspoken. Not just on the broadcast, celebrating and fighting for equal coverage of the women’s races but also in the aftermath of the Whistler announcement on Twitter. I actually am a bit surprised she would’ve wanted to return to the UTMB broadcast. In some way you could be callous and say “what were you expecting”. But our sport is in a weird place. Are these announcers just employees that have to just stay on message, or are they allowed to speak freely and celebrate the sport? If UTMB controls the message so much that the announcers are just doing infomercials then maybe this whole thing is starting to loose a bit of shine and a reckoning is needed. But, I am also not too knowledgeable in sports media and don’t understand what the professional decorum is. If you are an announcer for the Superbowl, or the Olympics, do you get to speak freely? Or are you getting access to the mic by showing how ‘well-trained’ you can be?

Add on:

• Usually I refrain from reading the comments on social media posts, but in this case it’s worth it. Many of the big voices of our sport (mainly North Americans) are commenting, but even Kilian chimed in.