Women For Tri, and organization dedicated to getting more women into racing triathlon, was given a block of slots to allocate to women with high ranks in the AWA standings but who otherwise had not qualified. I know a few people that got into the 70.3 WC this way.

If you are a male, however, you are stuck qualifying the traditional way.

Gotta make the revenue! My perception from having done 6 IMs in the US and 6 IMs elsewhere is that the percentage of female participants outside of America is much lower than it is here...so yeah, they have some work to do to increase female participation. Maybe someone had the stats to back that up. Regardless, this seems like a good way to fill out the women's race to be held the day before the men's. Still, you would hope they limit the offers to at least AWA Gold and/or Silver elsewise "high ranks in the AWA" would not have much meaning.

Found it:

Slots to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, Port Elizabeth

After previously announcing 50 additional slots allocated to the Standard Bank IRONMAN 70.3 Durban race for top finishing female athletes, Women For Tri, a program of The IRONMAN Foundation, is excited to announce that an additional 400 slots for women have been added to the 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship taking place in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa on September 1 and 2. These slots are reserved for the top-ranked female athletes (proportional by age group).
Allocating these slots based on women's 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 Age Group Ranking (AGR) points will create a deeper field of female athletes and maintain the integrity and prestige of a world championship event. (The AGR system measures an athlete's performance in IRONMAN 70.3 races throughout the 2018 qualifying year.)
It's also important to note that all net proceeds from the registration revenue of these 400 additional slots will go towards supporting Women For Tri’s TriClub grant program. To date, nearly $250,000 has been awarded by this program to TriClubs around the world to support women’s engagement initiatives, including bringing first-timers into the sport. Since its inception in 2015, Women For Tri has seen an 18 percent increase in female participation in IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 events, totaling more than 66,000 female athletes globally.

Originally from: http://www.ironman.com/...s.aspx#ixzz5EveN0TL8

There were 450 slots given to Women For Tri. What proportion of AWA that accounts for, I wouldn't like to say, but given that at least some female AWA probably qualified the traditional way, there are likely athletes who got invited who Slowtwitch wouldn't deem "worthy".

(Edit to correct - 450 slots, not 400)

It sounds like they will get a lot of women who could not have qualified on their own merits, but I'm not going to fault WTC on this because it sounds like a good investment into the future of the sport. If fact, I hope WTC gets a good return on its money for this.

I had a female friend that went to the 2017 70.3 WC via this route.

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I also wonder if they did not get a good uptake on qualifiers because of the expense and difficulty of traveling to SA - if slots are not taken in the women's field, do they eventually roll to the men? That could be part of it also, especially for races outside the US.

For 70.3 worlds outside of the local continent what type of roll down do you see? I would expect a much farther roll down from a 70.3 race in the US when the location is in SA.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/23685202

For both Kona and 70.3 WCs, slots cannot cross genders. For the record, I will be racing at Port Elizabeth (I did IMSA last year and thought it was worth a second trip). I hear the same comments every time the WC is outside of the US, but while it is pricey to get to South Africa, there are always people that want to attend a WC and will find a way (and that applies to ITU and WTC WCs). So IM can pretty much unload all of their slots until they get within a month or two of the cut-off (mid-July). I.e., as you approach the point where races begin to qualify for Nice, it becomes very difficult to plan the travel logistics to PE. I paid for my room in full last year and from what I'm seeing it is very difficult to find a room anywhere near transition at this point in time.

That's what I'm curious about, too. I'm not seeing anything in particular - I'm thinking out loud, as it were, about why there might be a need (or desire) for additional womens' slots, or whether those slots are really "additional" or unfilled from the other races. I am not in any danger of qualifying for a slot by any mechanism except lottery, so this is mostly a thought experiment for me. I am a woman who is interested in womens participation, and a Brit living in the US so my perspective is maybe different.

I agree - I would expect a deeper roll down in countries from which it is harder and/or more expensive to travel to SA. That's not exclusive to the USA, though. I also understand that female participation at the longer distances is much less, proportionately, in other parts of the world than it is here in the US. (IM France in 2017 awarded 10 women and 30 men slots for Kona, just as one reference point, with only one slot rolling beyond the second place AG finisher.)

I wondered if perhaps a number of slots had gone unclaimed (I didn't know whether or not they moved them across genders) and whether that had prompted the push to offer them via the AWA program.

I did IM70.3 Wisconsin last year which was a qualifier for Worlds 70.3 in Chattanooga. The roll down for many age groups exceeded 20, at which point they just asked anyone in the age group if they wanted to go and took the highest placements from there. Point being, even for races decently close to the Worlds location within the SAME continent the slots seem to roll a long way. Wisconsin may have been an outlier seeing as worlds was the same weekend as Ironman Wisconsin, which meant many potential qualifiers for worlds were already signed up to do IMoo.

I would not be surprised if many US slots go unclaimed for a race in SA. That is a LONG way to travel for a race.

In any event, I do not see 70.3 Worlds slots to be anywhere near as competitive as Kona slots.

Thanks for the info and insight (and have a great WC!). I would also assume that eventually you can roll far enough to find a taker for a WC slot.... But maybe not? I'm nosing through results to see what I can find out.

As I said, this in no way affects me personally. I'm just... curious.

No, they did this for last year's 70.3WC in the US as well. My wife got a slot that way. I got one the traditional way. It was a really cool experience to have us both there racing, and get to do it on separate days

There will be deep rolls depending on the race, location of the WC, and the timing of the year. I was fortunate to do the WC in 2015 at Zell Am See, Austria and I can tell you that a few of the participants were rather rotund so I know they rolled deep somewhere. But good on them for taking a slot and doing the race! This will be my 4th 70.3 WC, and I've always gotten there on a roll although I was never lower than 5th in my AG. But they can rolll way, way low if everyone has left and they basically offer the slot to anyone in the gender that wants one. If you want to go to a WC, the rule has always been to never pass up the roll-down ceremony even if you are like 70th in your AG. Lightning doesn't strike often but it does strike.

There were many slots at St Heorge due to being the NA Championships.
My friend stayed for allocations and said there were more slots than people. They basically said, if you finished and want a slot, come on up and you got a slot.

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They used to do IM slots in a similar manner. E.g., years ago when North American Sports had the franchise for most Ironman races, you could wait around after awards and they typically would give out 25-50 spots to sold out races...back when IMs were selling out a year in advance. E.g., in May 2008 at the Disney 70.3 I scored an IMFL slot for November. The WC 70.3 is like that in the last two months when the planning for an international trip becomes more difficult. Most of the hotels within a mile of the race were sold out last Sep although I'm sure a lot of people were booking before they even had a slot.

You'll see huge roll downs in these situations. The 2016 70.3 WC was in Australia, and at 70.3s in the US it would often just turn into "is there anybody here that wants it?" I remember a M50-54 BOPer (might have the AG wrong) being pushed up on stage by his wife to take a slot.