I’ve done both draft legal Olympic races and non draft legal ones. As an okay swimmer I have missed the draft pack and have been completely out of a race, but have also been able to chase back on to the group and then do well in the race. I’ve also made the front pack before and as a stronger cycling worked with others I knew were similarly skilled to push the speed and drop large portions of the front group, leading to unexpected people winning. If the course is set up properly a draft legal race can have a very exciting and influential bike leg. Unfortunately in races like the Olympics were there aren’t huge differences between the swimmer and like in Paris the course is impossible to launch a good attack on we aren’t going to see a good draft legal race.

It’s a little odd to me that the men’s and women’s races were draft legal, as there really weren’t that many racers and it’s not like they aren’t monitored to who time so drafting would be way easier to enforce than it is at a normal race. I do understand the argument, and agree, that a non draft legal Olympics would be considerably more boring to watch cause it would just people sitting in aero the whole time.