Tri at the Trump canceled ‘for circumstances beyond my control,’ event director says
For the second time in less than six months, the 2021 edition of Tri at the Trump — a sprint triathlon that was originally scheduled to take place at Trump National Golf Club, Charlotte this September — has been canceled.
“The race was canceled for circumstances beyond my control,” race founder Chuck McAllister told the Observer in a brief phone interview Thursday.
The news came four days after the Observer published a story on its website about the struggles McAllister and the race have had over the past several years, struggles that McAllister has long contended have been the result of the event being named for Trump and having taken place at a Trump-owned venue.
NC event named for Trump is trying to come back from the dead. It’s not going well.
McAllister, 56, of Mooresville, a longtime supporter of former President Donald Trump, made remarks in Sunday’s online article that were critical of Trump. He declined to comment on whether that had an impact on the decision.
“I’ll just leave it at that,” he said. “I had no control over what forced the cancellation.”
McAllister had previously announced the cancellation of the race in January, one week after hundreds of Trump supporters breached police perimeters outside the Capitol and stormed inside as Congress was beginning the Electoral College vote count. The decision was his alone that time around (and came on the heels of his learning that the Greensboro-based company that had managed the event since its inception was bowing out in protest of the Trump name and location).
“It had to be done,” he told the Observer in January. “I mean, I was hoping that I could (keep it alive) but you know what, I’ve got to stand up at some point in time and just say enough’s enough.”
Then in March, he suddenly revived the race, a sprint triathlon featuring a 750-meter swim, 13.25-mile bike ride and 5-kilometer run.
But in the process, he lost other sponsors and charities that had long been associated with the race, and registration numbers were down dramatically over previous years.
No announcement was made about this week’s cancellation on the event’s Facebook page. Most of the posts that were on that page are now gone; McAllister says he’s formally started the process of deleting the page with Facebook. The race website still exists, but if you click on “Register Now!” the site just redirects you to RunSignUp’s home page and says “Sorry, you are not allowed to view this race.”
McAllister added that those who are registered should have their refunds processed by the end of the day, and that he donated “everything that I could donate” from the previously-very-full-but-now-empty Tri at the Trump storage closet at Trump National to Goodwill.
“I’m sad,” he said, “because at the end of the day, something that was to benefit kids with cancer ... is no longer gonna happen.”
According to McAllister, Tri at the Trump “raised well over a half a million dollars over six years” for charities focused on supporting children with cancer and their families, including Novant Health’s Hemby Children’s Hospital and the Isabella Santos Foundation.
Since 2018, Tri at the Trump also was partners with Queens University of Charlotte’s triathlon teams, with the event hosting dozens of collegiate athletes on the same course at the same time, in what would be a regular-season race on several schools’ schedules. McAllister said Queens will now have to scramble to fill the hole in its schedule.
Tri at the Trump was held four times since its inaugural running in 2015. In 2017 — after changing the name of the race to “Tri for Good,” and then changing it back to Tri at the Trump — McAllister also canceled, saying then that he had “received numerous politically charged threats.”
The event was canceled in 2020 due to COVID.
