The Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) was undoubtedly hoping for a peaceful 2024 edition, after the major environmental controversy of last summer, inflated by the surprising partnership started with Dacia. This naming of the event “Dacia UTMB Mont-Blanc” even pushed the association The Green Runners to launch a petition during the summer so that the flagship ultra race (171 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain) stops this collaboration with the car manufacturer, criticized for its carbon footprint.
This last minute controversy did not really upset the UTMB 2023 (2,300 participants in the main race), marked by the injury withdrawal of Kilian Jornet but above all by the first American double in Chamonix Courtney Dauwalter-Jim Walmsley, finally crowned ahead of his compatriot Zach Miller.
All smiles at the finish line, delighted by the first podium of his career in the most prestigious ultra-trail race, Zach Miller (35 years old) has just started a storm in the world of trail running. Because it split at the start of the year by a e-mail sent with Kilian Jornet himself to the hundred or so elite runners on the circuit. The objective? Ask them if they could consider “committing to participating in a race other than the UTMB this year”. In other words, these two very committed personalities, members of the Pro Trail Runners association, are calling on as many people as possible to boycott the UTMB 2024, and in particular the men’s and women’s Top 15.
“There is a way to do it without mistreating people”
For them, the UTMB Group and the powerful Ironman group, which is now part of the shareholders, have taken “a worrying direction”, gradually becoming an immense cash machine, especially since the creation of the UTMB World Series, a global circuit of 26 ultra races spread across 16 countries. “There are a multitude of things that we could cite that concern us,” specifies the famous email. We feel they are not running the event in the best interest of our sport and its athletes. We think there’s a way to do it without mistreating people and crushing anyone who gets in the way.”
So what can these sharp attacks refer to? If they do not cite an example, we can estimate that Kilian Jornet and Zach Miller, like many trail runners, took a dim view of the announcement last October of a new UTMB/Ironman race in Whistler (Canada). And for good reason, it forced the popular Canadian runner Gary Robbins to stop the organization of the Whistler Alpine Meadows (WAM), which took place at the same location. Likewise, elite trail runner Corrine Malcolm, speaker of the UTMB in Chamonix, announced last month on social networks that she was ousted from the organization of the 2024 edition because of her “outspokenness”.
“We value the opinions of the community”
Add to this the colossal increase in registration rates, from 250 euros ten years ago to 430 euros this year (383 euros for the 2023 edition), and you will understand how this punchy email came about at the beginning January. But how was it made public by the site? Spirit Trail Friday ? Quite simply because the British trail trainer Martin Cox (54 years old), “stunned” by seeing this message sent to him, chose to relay it in full on his Instagram account on January 9, even though he had until then remained confidential, although therefore sent to around a hundred elite runners. Contacted by 20 minutes regarding this immense controversy, the UTMB Group responded with a press release written by its president Catherine Poletti.
We would have appreciated a direct conversation with Zach and Kilian before discovering this email at the same time as everyone else. We immediately contacted them both to understand their position and initiate a direct dialogue. We have continued to speak to each other since then to discuss the situation, deepen our discussions and clarify any misunderstandings. We strongly believe in the value of open and constructive discussions to find solutions that benefit the entire community. We value the opinions of the entire community and are always open to discussion and collaboration. »
“An alternative race” already scheduled by Jornet and Miller?
The two men, however, fully assume their choice to implement a boycott strategy for the UTMB 2024 without expressing their grievances to the organization, which would nevertheless be almost forced to listen to the 36-year-old Spaniard given his status and his four coronations gleaned in Chamonix. “We are concerned that organizers will only make real positive changes when they are under pressure to do so,” the email said. And what better means of pressure than an edition low cost for an event usually “worthy of a world championship”?
If they are logically aware that the UTMB has “created a lot of opportunities for people like us, attracting a lot of money and attention”, Kilian Jornet and Zach Miller therefore seem determined to bring the event down around of Mont-Blanc from its pedestal, to the point of having thought of “an alternative race” to replace it. But will the best runners in the world be ready to sacrifice this meeting, even if it is only for one edition? Actually, three weeks after receiving the message from the two athletes, no trail runner has publicly taken a position to join their initiative. None of the elite runners we contacted this Monday wish to speak on this thorny subject.
François D’Haene favors the Tor des Géants over the UTMB in 2024
One of the reasons is simple: most of them cannot make such a decision unilaterally given the sporting and financial issues surrounding such a deadline. “We are aware of the fact that many of you have strong links with the UTMB, between personal and career objectives and the prospects of winning for sponsors,” said the email from the Jornet-Miller duo. Only the flagship rider of Team Salomon François D’Haene, quadruple winner in Chamonix and returning from injury during the last Diagonale des Fous (8th), will certainly not be at the start of this UTMB, on August 30, 2024.
But there is no link to be seen with this controversy: the Savoyard announced on January 1 that he would participate for the first time in his career in the monstrous Tor des Géants (330 km and 24,000 m of elevation gain) in the Aosta Valley (Italy), September 8, only eight days after the arrival of UTMB. The position of the title holder in Chamonix, the American Jim Walmsley, will be decisive on the subject.
“It would give the impression that we chickened out”
In this sense, his intervention on the possible questioning of the UTMB on the ultra planet, last September for the podcast Single Track, gave indications. “We could plan a race with François and Kilian and coordinate,” he explains. This is a question that has come up a lot in recent years. We could choose our own race rather than necessarily participating in the UTMB. But it would be strange to say that we are all going to organize ourselves to go for example to the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa (170 km, September 5, 2024), which is a magnificent course in Switzerland, and that a great runner will present himself at the UTMB at the same time. If he wins this major race, it would feel like we’ve chickened out by not going. » There is still a way to go before a total boycott.