“People will think, ‘Is that what I have to be to succeed? Well, forget it,'” Allen said. “He took something very normal and turned it into a psychological disorder.”Īllen said his biggest concerns are that the book will affect his livelihood as a coach and motivational speaker and turn people off from endurance sports in general. “All the positives are the same thing that anyone who exercises would get from it,” said Allen. In an interview with the Camera, Scott said the way those sentiments were twisted makes Iron War “fictional.” Scott said he told Fitzgerald in an interview for a magazine piece, which was later used in the book, that exercise keeps him balanced and centered and that he gets irritable when he doesn’t exercise. The book also says that Allen had developed a training program that did not require him to interact with clients and included family information that Scott said misrepresented his relationship with his children and the emotional impact of a serious accident. He said some of the draft versions showed up on eBay, though none were listed Friday afternoon, and the overall premise of the final book is the same. Mastbaum said some of the most egregious statements were removed from the final copy, but enough copies of the advanced reading copy were distributed to damage Scott and Allen. Neither Scott nor Allen has been diagnosed as having any mental health condition, Mastbaum, Scott and Allen said. The lawsuit describes the most egregious statements as: “In a sober, clinical sense of the term, Dave and Mark are both somewhat psychologically unbalanced,” that Scott was “bipolar,” that for Scott a “week without exercise” was like “a week without antipsychotic medication for a person suffering from bipolar disorder.” “Even assuming that Mark and Dave are public figures, which I don’t concede, the bar that exists is that the person making the statement knows that what they are saying is not true or makes it in reckless disregard for the truth.” “There are certain kinds of speech that the First Amendment does not protect, including defamation and invasion of privacy,” Mastbaum said. Trendler said he could not comment directly on the lawsuit, as he had not seen it yet.ĭavid Mastbaum, an attorney for Scott and Allen, said the book crossed the line from constitutionally protected free speech to defamation. However, the “legal conversation” around the book has caused Velo to rethink several author appearances planned around the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, on Oct. The level of pre-orders from large booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble have been much higher than for other Velo offerings, Trendler said. The promotional material for the book describes it as “a soaring narrative of two champions and the showdown that forced one to master his inner demons and left the other unable to forgive his loss.” Trendler said “Iron War” is “more ambitious” than previous works of narrative journalism published by Velo Press, and it appears poised to break into more mainstream audiences. Most of Velo’s books have been instructional in nature, but it has published several personal histories and journalistic pieces. Velo Press is an endurance sports book publisher specializing in cycling, running and triathlon. We think the book is a celebration of them.” It changed the view of mental toughness in the sport. “The fact that Dave and Mark were able to go head to head like this is a great story. “I think this book makes them look like the heroes of the sport that they are,” Trendler said. The book that resulted is accurate, Trendler said, and supported by copious notes.Īnd while it might touch on some sensitive personal matters, it isn’t defamatory, Trendler said. Dave Trendler, marketing and publicity manager for Velo Press, said the publisher worked with Allen and Scott and their attorneys to make changes from the advanced reading copy to the final version.
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