2024 US Triathlon Participation - Good News and Bad News

Triathlon Forum
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Originally published at: 2024 US Triathlon Participation – Good News and Bad News - Slowtwitch News

Two different reports using the same data offered an interesting look at triathlon participation last year. Among the list of “good news” you’ll find in USA Triathlon’s 2024 Impact Report is that there was a slight rise in membership numbers in the US last year – the 302,000 adults and youths had multi-year, annual and one day memberships, represented a rise of 1.6% from 2023. On the other hand, a report by Cal Tri Events found that there’s been a “46% Decline in USAT finishers and 40% Decline In Races From Their Peaks.” (That was also the title of the story written by Thom Richmond and Ben McClure that was posted on the site on Feb. 12.)

Let’s start with a look at the data from USA Triathlon (USAT). Basically the news is this – there are fewer unique active members than we saw at the peak of the sport (roughly 2012 to 2014) and athletes aren’t competing in as many events. (Anecdotally, that’s been my experience as a coach, for sure. In the 90s and 00s athletes I worked with would compete in a number of races in a year, even if they were competing in an IRONMAN or long-distance race. Those days seem to be over – now many of the athletes I coach need to be prompted to add a few shorter races to their schedule – many would be happy to do a half-distance race as a tune up to a full.) There is some good news, though – post-COVID growth in the industry continues, and we’re seeing an influx of younger members. The other bit of good news is that USAT has identified the issues and we’ll presume the upcoming strategic plan will look to address these concerns.

Slide Supplied by USA Triathlon

While the membership number might have gone up last year, USAT reports that overall participation was down in 2024 from 280,000 from 287,000 in 2023. Annual memberships have been declining for over 10 years, and the increase in members in 2024 “is primarily driven by new members, who are purchasing more one-day/ single-race memberships.” The most significant growth in those memberships came in the 20-29 and 30-39 age categories. The 20-29 membership increased by more than 10,000 members from 2023 to 2024, and the 30-39 membership “is now the largest cohort of members, overtaking the 40-49 age group post-COVID starting in 2022.”

The big concern for USAT is that there are fewer events for people to participate in. There were 825 sanctioned adult events in 2024 and 209 youth events. Those events included 3,600 races – as you’re used to seeing, event weekends now include a variety of different races including duathlons, swim/ bike, etc. – which was an increase over 2023 levels, according to the USAT report. The number of people at each event was up, though – “354 average participants per event and race (120 average participants per race) was the highest average recorded.”

Slide Supplied by USA Triathlon

The other concern is that we’re losing race directors. That’s likely a case of many aging out of the sport, but it’s also likely a sign of how challenging it’s getting to put races on.

Slide Supplied by USA Triathlon

While many triathletes will happily travel for a long-distance race, beginners aren’t likely to travel very far for a sprint. The decline of events is definitely hurting the ability for people to be introduced to the sport. You can see below that there are a number of states with very few, or even no triathlon events.

Slide Supplied by USA Triathlon

“USA Triathlon is continuing its focus on supporting adult event growth, which has been in decline since the sport peak in early 2010s,” the report continued. “The constriction and elimination of adult events is the greatest risk to the overall sport and ecosystem. Supporting race directors and events is core to the go-forward focus for USA Triathlon.”

Cal Tri’s Take

The report by Richmond and McLure suggest that there were 996 events in 2024, which was down from 2019’s 1,100 events. Comparing race participation since 2010, Richmond and McClure see a decline from the high of 546,000 finishers in 2011 to the 302,000 finishers in 2024. (Their numbers coincide with the membership number USAT cited.) Here’s a graph from their report sourced from usatriathlon.org:

Richmond and McClure also point out that “82% of the decline was pre-pandemic, confirming that an overwhelming majority of the decline was prior to 2020. On a brighter note, the most recent year over year data – 2023-2024 – is relatively flat at about 300K finishes. Flat is the new up.”

They also point out that there’s been a 40% decline in races from 2012 (1,667) to 2024 (996). Their analysis also found that increasing the number of races at events hasn’t helped curb the decline in race finishes: “In 2024 the average number of events, e.g.  triathlon, runbikerun, swimbike, at a race was 2.5 per race compared with 1.7 events per race in 2012. There were more choices, but that didn’t significantly change the trajectory of the overall finisher numbers.”

Short vs Long Distance

Richmond and McClure’s data also paint an interesting picture of distances and brand loyalty. While 76% of triathlon finishes in the US are at sprint- and Olympic-distance races, there’s been a 51.5% decline in those numbers between 2011 (474,000) and 2024 (230,000).

That trend is confirmed by USAT, which provided this chart:

Slide Supplied by USA Triathlon

There’s been a 26% decrease in half-distance (IRONMAN 70.3-distance) finishers from 2014 (75,000) to 2024 (55,600). IRONMAN hasn’t felt that impact as much because, over that time frame, the IRONMAN 70.3 market share has increased from 56% to 86%. IRONMAN 70.3 events average 1,713 finishers. Non-IRONMAN branded events average 105.

When it comes to Ultra or IRONMAN-distance race finishes, there’s been a 38% decline in finishes between 2014 (26,000) to 2024 (16,000), Richmond and McLure found. Almost all of those finishers (99%) in 2024 competed at IRONMAN races

“Flat is the New Up”

Participation numbers have definitely bounced up since the painful COVID years, and that free-falling line on the graph has definitely “flattened.” The increase in memberships for the 20-39 demographic is also really encouraging. Hopefully we’ll also see a surge in interest for triathlon, and especially shorter races, during the lead up to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Ultimately what all this shows is that the industry isn’t dialled into the numbers all that well. As Richmond and McClure point out, there’s no consistent definition of events and races, which leads to the same data coming up with different numbers. Despite all these numbers, we still don’t really have an idea of what former triathletes are doing if they’re not racing.

“Without the right information, the entire ecosystem that supports multisports, including race directors, registration companies, timing companies and brands are limited in having a consistent knowledge base,” Richmond and McClure point out.

USAT is definitely working to alleviate the information issues, and have identified the issue around the decreasing number of events in America. As mentioned earlier, we’re looking forward to seeing the organization’s strategic plan and how it looks to reverse that decline.

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Thanks for overview. I find it interesting that their report has no mention of male or female other than their “Athlete of the Year” page.

When discussing growth, trends, demographics, potential, etc. you’d think there’d be some recognition about who is your customer. Indeed, I played an old public relations game and counted the subjects in the photos. 38 female subjects and 14 male. It would have been MUCH more female if I didn’t only pick subjects, and didn’t include the tons of women in the background of some shots. But even so, most of the male pictures were of medal/award winners so it would have been pretty vicious for USAT to ignore those men. There were only what I’d call two discretionary male photos (and one child male), and the rest of the pics were all female.

Why does this matter? Maybe it doesn’t, but if you’re marketing a sport predominantly participated in by males, that appeals predominantly to males, and you’re wondering how you can grow it and stop it from declining, and you appear to have a heavy female oriented bias in your media strategy… well, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re missing a lot of growth potential right under your nose.

Don’t get me wrong, I do my part to support women in triathlon, paying entries, sharing equipment, nutrition, helping with training, even paying for a flight and hotel once for a non family member. But we have to recognize where the strength of the sport is, and it’s very strong and has a lot of potential with men eager to train and go have an adventure in competition. I’m not suggesting suddenly attendance goes up if they did a find and replace with all those photos. But I do suggest the people at the helm might be building an expensive set of scaffolding to pick a few apples at the top of the tree, rather than just use their arms to get the ones a little closer.

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What surprised me:

  1. The extent of Ironman’s quasi-monopoly in half distance racing and its virtual monopoly in 140.6. This is really different to what’s on offer in Europe.
  2. That Arizona only had 8 sanctioned events, like a tiny state.

Does a thing like a non-sanctioned event exist in the U.S.? If it does, then that might explain 1&2 maybe, the data being “incomplete”.

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Here’s an example of a non-sanctioned (I believe) triathlon in AZ

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Live in Madison, Wisconsin. We have many non sanctioned events in the state, although longer distance events have gone away as IM has taken over the 70.3 market (REV3 OOB High Cliff cancelled). We also had a couple sanctioned events Sprint/Oly go away and can’t really explain why (e.g. Elkhart Lake was a great event).

Former RD of running races and it has become expensive to keep these races going since COVID (police, food, race company prices have sky rocketed) and many areas make permitting a PIA.

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This stuff is all a joke. USAT for ever has gotten away with not being honest about numbers, and they still are!

But what are the facts. Cal Tri presented real facts and all of a sudden, USAT has anyone trying to give them credit they care?

USAT hid the number from endurance exchange, wanted for to have to go and pay. But someone posted the info in my facebook group.,

and the cat was out of the bag, and boy has USAT been trying to scramble.

USAT says they have 1800 coaches, their website say like 1100.

I could go on and one with examples of things not correct. But, USAT says everyone is not honest about numbers so who cares. Well, some folks care.

Just wait until the second document on the USAT NCAA real data comes out any second. Again, USAT is NOT being honest about the numbers.

I just love how social media can FORCE someone like USAT having to be honest.

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This comment is interesting, where is the data.

I have asked in my group tell us one thing USAT has done in the last 5 years that moved the needle? Winter nationals? 100 folks. Gravel Nationals? 100 folks. Womens tri series? ETc Etc. All that came back was crickets. Nothing has worked, they just keep raising the prices, laying folks off, but the top folks keep getting their huge salaries.

So, Kevin, you stated they have identified the one issue on decreasing numbers. I cannot seem to find in the article?

Will USAT be around in 5 years? They have lost millions the last 2 years and all bets are USAT lost money in 2024 also. In business, when things are this bad, folks lose their jobs and new leadership is hired? Hint.

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I am not sure if this is what you’re referring to, but there is a chart that shows the number of events - Sanctioned Events Still Consolidating/ Declining Post Covid. That shows the decline in events since 2017, and specifically lists the decline in events in California from 2014 (172) to 2024 (79). That’s all I was referring to with regards to USAT having identified an issue that I assume they will look to take on with the upcoming strategic plan.

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This does not answer your statement

“USAT is definitely working to alleviate the information issues, and have identified the issue around the decreasing number of events in America.”

Yep, they are being forced to deal with the false information they have put out for years.

Again, what is the identified issue? Has nothing to do with charts, it is your statement. Where are numbers that can be verified?

IMO, the issue which I have been telling them for years is the age of folks wanting to be competitive is over! This is for old folks like me.
Why are sports like pickle ball growing like crazy? Or 5K run races?
It is because they want social. No real training us old folks are used to!!

First thing I would do as CEO is fire a lot of folks. Then I would kill off these nationals and make them regionals TeamUSA qualifiers. Now, whether it makes sense to have a peacock level nationals, would have to look at data.

But, USAT folks live in an echo chamber and cannot think outside the box, let alone brain storm ideas for changes. It is just their way or the high way.

And having all the focus on DEI at USAT IMO is not where the majority are at anymore.

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From a financial perspective, isn’t nationals a big revenue driver for USAT? Both in terms of entrance fees, but also some sponsorship clout they get to charge their sponsors $$$ to be featured at such a large event?

Or are you saying to have smaller 3 regionals in place of one nationals?

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From the best folks can figure, no, nationals has not made them money, good chance they have lost.

They have tried doing things like they had over 6000 athletes, but when you look at the finisher data, it is like 3400. For years what they said to the media and what their data show means they do USAT math/marketing. But USAT’s comment when called out is but all business fudge their numbers.
I believe USAT should have integrity, rather than , well, …

Based on how few folks they have been having at nationals, and since they have not for years had a venue the masses will travel too, something new needs to be tried!!! But USAT is stuck in their ways of losing money. But so far, the big salaries keep getting paid. Like over 30% is overhead/ Is this the type of non profit one wants to invest in?

The sponsors are all starting to see the USAT math, they promise numbers but never meet them. Our sport is very small, everyone, and I mean everyone talks to each other.

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The identified issue is that there are fewer events than there used to be. That’s all it’s saying. It doesn’t indicate that the cause of that issue or a solution to that issue have been identified.

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They should have like 8. Or however many USAT regions there are these days.

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Yeah, I’ve always wondered how the southern Wisconsin triathlon events get away with not being USAT sanctioned. They must be insured some other way? But then why don’t more race companies do that?

It was sometimes tricky when I was living there to find a race to qualify for Nationals.

I think that is a fairly unique situation, but it has always made me skeptical of USAT numbers because I knew what a thriving triathlon scene southern Wisconsin had but it was invisible in any USAT analysis.

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Starting with race numbers is backwards imo, and a very profit-centric view. The demographic will be in training data from Strava and Garmin - how many people swim, bike and run of a year tells us what the target market looks like. How many of them choose to race will be a smaller portion.

Then you can start asking why, what else they are doing, and then you can consider options on how to address the needs of the multi sport community, and what they will see value in.

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Excuse my ignorance (and laziness), please educate me -
a. Is USAT only source of revenue the membership/one day race fee, or are they subsidized somehow (government)?
b. Do they actually organize races, or just provide insurance, regulation, etc? if not organizing, how big can the costs be?
c. Do they have any other monopolizing power, i.e. do they select athletes to the Olympics, or something else decreed by government or similar? Otherwise, why isn’t there a nimble competitor coming in and eating their lunch?

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I’ve been part of the AZ triathlon scene since 2006, never heard of this race. Then I looked to see where Thatcher AZ was and holy hell, it’s in the middle of nowhere.

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1.) USA Triathlon is also a member of USOPC. They’re responsible for the elite triathlon / paratriathlon / duathlon, etc. teams. So yes, there’s USOPC money. And sponsorship. But the bulk of their funding is from membership.

2.) They contract out for the production of the National Championship events. Some are tied into other events (e.g., Gravel Nationals is part of the big Gravel Worlds event). Others stand alone (e.g., Age Group Nationals).

3.) Yeah, they’re responsible for the entire Olympic cycle. As well as age group sanctioning, etc.

I have said for a long time that I thought triathlon might be best served by splitting in the same way that USA Swimming and US Masters Swimming have. Or, if IM decided to start self-insuring / opted out of USAT sanctioning, it’d be the death knell of USAT as we know it. But the latter I do not know just how beneficial or detrimental that would be to the sport overall.

I will say that, after a challenging 18 month period, it would appear that USAT is trying to be more focused on its core customer (the age group athlete). But those efforts take time to show up.

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The answer is we need the encouragement and support to grow local/grass root races. That is the ONLY feeder system that works and it has been largely abandoned due to lack of support, sponsors, logistics, costs, and everyone wants to skip to doing Ironman.

BUT it can be done. I produce two local Triathlons - same weekend with kids on Saturday and adults on Sunday. Both sell out every year and are ranked among the best in the country. Of course it would really help to have triathlon media focus on these races also (slowtwitch??).

We need to focus on ordinary people - that’s where the participation is AND it plants the seeds that will grow in the future. If you want to join us, hurry! We will sell out.

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If you’re on Facebook then you’re likely to get retargeted with ads now! I got hammered with ads for while and I had to admit I was very impressed that at least they are trying. And it looks cool that they have camping etc. Seems like a cool event for that out of the way community.

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