The PTO T100 And Ironman Pro Series Explained Contributed By Laura Siddall
2024 is a big year in Triathlon. Not only is it the Olympics (30th and 31st July, 5th August) and Paralympics (1st and 2nd September), we have two new series for the Professional Long Course athletes; T100 (Professional Triathletes Organisation) and the IRONMAN Pro Series.
Along with this, the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, World Triathlon Series and Champions, Superleague, supertri E World Triathlon Championship and more. I’m starting to think we are turning into Boxing as a sport with multiple world championships and titles up for grabs across different organisations, and companies in the sport.
Whilst it is a little confusing for us in the sport, let alone the outsider trying to follow, it is also an extremely exciting time for triathlon.
Last month we saw the kick off to the PTO T100 Series, with a 100km race in Miami, in partnership with CLASH Endurance, at Homestead-Miami race track. This weekend we have the second race in the series, in Singapore. Just last weekend we saw the first race in the new IRONMAN Pro Series, with IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside. Next up for this series is IRONMAN Texas on 27th April.
As things get well and truly underway, I thought I’d give you a little bit of what I hope is an understanding to the two races series and the implications for the sport.
Professional Triathlete Organisation – T100 Series.
The T100 is an eight race series, with twenty contracted athletes, each athlete having to race a minimum of six races, including the Grand Final. For contract athletes who are likely to race in the Olympics, they have to race a minimum of four races, including the Grand Final. Athletes top three finishes, plus the Grand Final result will count towards the end of year ranking, a bonus prize purse payout and a World Championships title!
The eight races are:
| 13th-14th April | Singapore T100 |
| June | California T100 |
| 27th-28th July |
London T100 |
| 28th-29th September | Ibiza T100 |
| 19th-20th October |
Lake Las Vegas T100 |
| 16th-17th November | Dubai T100 |
| 29th-30th November | Grand Final T100 |
The race is 100km in total, consisting of a 2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run. They tend to be over a lapped course, to in theory make the racing more spectator friendly as well only impacting a smaller area of the host location.
Athletes are contracted to race in the series, being paid over the year as they race, adhere to media commitments, and also then eligible to win prize money at each race and be part of the end of year series bonus. A total of $7m up for grabs over the series ($3m in contracts, $2m in race prize money, $2m end of series bonus).
Athletes were contracted based on PTO Rankings in 2023. There were a couple of different cut off points for the rankings, which resulted in which athletes were offered contracts. 16 contracts (per gender) were offered based on rankings, with 4 contracts being offered to ‘hot shot’ athletes.
Athletes are then awarded points on the finish place at each race, which will culminate in the ranking at the end of the series. 35 points for the winner reducing down to 1 point for 20th. For the Grand Final, 55 points will be up for grabs for the winner, reducing down to 4 points for 20th.
On the whole, the women and men will have their own race on individual days, and will be Pros only on the course at the time. Some races, due to partnerships and logistics have had to overlap (e.g. Miami, California).
As athletes aren’t required to race every race, Wild Cards will be awarded to non contracted Professional athletes, to make up the race start list to 20.
For the full list of contracted athletes – see the here… and for more information on the T100 and how you can watch… see here
So how does this differ to the IRONMAN Pro Series?
Of course the IRONMAN series has been long established with Professional athletes able to race in many of the events. However, for many years now, there has been no change in prize money, in fact in reality it has reduced with less races for the Professionals, and the IRONMAN and 70.3 IRONMAN World Championships prize purse not changing for years.
However, perhaps in reaction to the PTO T100, in October last year IRONMAN announced a new Pro Series.
20 races, in 9 countries. 1000 eligible professional triathletes (e.g open to any Professional) with $1.7million bonus prize purse up for grabs (being paid to the top 50 ranked at the end of the series).
Athletes can race as many events as they wish with their top five results being included in their final score. A limit of three IRONMAN races can be included in that five, with the remainder being IRONMAN 70.3s.
Athletes will score points, where #everysecondcounts. For IRONMAN events there is a maximum of 5000 points for 1st place, and for IRONMAN 70.3 events, 2500 points for 1st. (6000 for the VinFast IRONMAN World Championships, and 3000 for the VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships). The winner will score the maximum points. For the rest of the field, their points will diminish based on the time deficit to the first place finisher at a rate of 1 point per 1 second. For example. If the winner of an IRONMAN 70.3 event earns 2500 points, and second place Pro finishes two minutes behind, or 120 seconds, then they will earn, 2380 points (2500 points minus the 120 second deficit = 2380 points)
At the end of the series, the male and female with the most points will be crowned the IRONMAN Pro Series Champions.
Unlike the T100, where the Professional races will be stand alone, getting their own clean race, the IRONMAN Series will be the standard procedure with the Pro Men starting first, the Pro Women next and then Age Group athletes. Also, unlike the T100, and as mentioned the IRONMAN Pro Series is open to any Professional athlete, regardless of ranking, however start lists for individual races do have a capacity, so athletes need to ensure they enter in time to guarantee a spot when the gun fires. To compete in the IRONMAN 70.3 and IRONMAN World Championships, athletes still have to qualify in the usual way at a race, and gain a slot. There are no Championships slots given out to athletes as a result of their ranking.
With the launch of the series, IRONMAN have created a whole new website dedicated to the athletes and races, covering results, rankings, stories, interviews as well as live coverage of the races.
For the list of races included in the series, see here and for more information on the IRONMAM Pro Series … see here
What does this mean for triathlon?
It’s exciting that we have more prize money being put into the Professionals racing in this sport. Sadly, if only the same could be said for sponsorship and partnership contracts. Also, it’s great that our sport, Triathlon does offer equal prize money, and equal distance in racing, for the women and men (again sadly if only the same for sponsorships).
But it is more than overdue that we have this type of investment into races, and that is a good thing. However, we still have a long way go. All organisations in the sport need to step up their broadcasting, which really hasn’t changed across the board (e.g. all events cover in the same standard way) and across the years. But that’s for another blog, so don’t get me started here!
Regardless we have an exciting and big year ahead and I can’t wait!