Ideal racing weight

I was watching IM Melbourne online just now and I remembered a picture of Craig Alexander and how small he looked compared to everyone else in the picture.  So, I did a quick search on him and came across an interesting (albeit unscientific) study of elite triathletes and their height to weight ratio.  For what it’s worth, it appears Craig Alexander is 5’11” and 150lbs. His weight to height ratio (lbs/inch) is 2.11.  Of the 10 or so pros that this article covers, the average is 2.25 lbs/inch and the numbers are surprisingly

consistent among them.  Here is a link to the original article if you want to see the full story.

To go a little further, I calculated their BMIs based on the information provided (for what it’s worth, I think BMI is a misleading and therefore useless calculation, but I wanted to see if this was as consistent just out of curiosity).

Results:

Name	Weight/Height	BMI	2012 Kona Power	Power to Weight Ratio
Andreas Raelert	2.20	21.6
Andy Potts	2.33	22.5
Chris Lieto	2.22	21.7
Craig Alexander	2.11	20.9
Dave Scott	2.25	22.0
Matt Reed	2.34	21.3
Michael Lovato	2.36	23.1	266W	3.45
Michael Raelert	2.20	20.9
Pete Jacobs	2.18	21.8	292W	4.17
Jordan Rapp	2.06	19.37	292W	4.15

Average BMI: 21.51

And of course, I had to do the calculation on me b/c I’m curious how I compare.  I’m 5’10 and at race weight, I’ll be around 150lbs.  So my weight/height is 2.14 and my BMI is 21.5.  Not bad.  I guess I’m right in line w/ them.  Now I just have to figure out how in the world they’re so fast b/c according to the numbers, it’s probably not that I’m too heavy! haha

For those that are curious as well,  .  Here is a link to a calculator if you don’t want to do the math yourself 🙂

Updated information linked here