2025 IRONMAN World Championship Nice By the Numbers

Triathlon Forum
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Originally published at: 2025 IRONMAN World Championship Nice By the Numbers - Slowtwitch News

The men’s IRONMAN World Championship is set to go in just a few days, with both the pros and age groupers racing on Sunday in Nice, France. This is the second time the men’s IRONMAN World Championship will be held in Nice, and the third overall, as the women raced here in 2024, while the menwere in Kona.

This year’s race is also the last time (for the near future, at least) that either the men or women will compete at the IRONMAN worlds in Nice, as 2026 will see the return for both events in Kona. (Nice will host the 70.3 worlds in 2026 and 2028.) IRONMAN has released some stats ahead of the big day, including the total number of men set to race: a whopping 2,500 (including 59 pros). This is up from the 2,200 who travelled to and raced in Nice in 2023, and it is also more than Kona’s 2,400 men last year.

The geographical spread of racers has also changed since 2023. Back then, 54 percent of the men racing hailed from Europe, followed by 25 percent from North America. This year, both of those numbers have dropped, with Europe’s tally falling considerably to 48 percent and North America only losing one point to 24 percent.

The fall in numbers from Europe is by no means a sign of waning interest in triathlon on the continent, but rather of a boost in popularity elsewhere in the world. Just two years ago, Asia and Latin America sat at six per cent each, but this year they represent 10 and seven per cent of the field in Nice, respectively. Oceania has also seen a big jump since 2023, boosting its numbers from just four per cent up to 10 per cent this year.

All in, the more than 2,500 athletes will represent 86 countries, regions and territories on the start line on Sunday, giving Nice the proper send-off for a city that has excelled as a world championship host for the past three years.

 

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Was that number a set course limit? Is the 2500 this year also a set amount, or did everyone that wanted in get in??

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somebody has to say it …
did they finish project Nice too early…
one year Nice one year kona both genders same venue.

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2269 finishers in 2023 so registered was likely over 2300. 2491 finishers at Kona last year, so again likely over 2500 registered and that’s the current limit on space. Nice could accommodate 3000 if they had takers.

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Of course they did. Alternating Nice and Kona would be a much better idea (and yes I know the old white guys disagree).

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That is what my preference would have been too although I fully accept that is not the most popular choice. Nice is a fantastic venue and its triathlon history is immense too.

I would have loved alternating a single day event between Kona and Nice. They are such different races but both fantastic.

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Abandoning that spectacular bike course in Nice, which is a worthy world championship playground. Next year we’re back fantasizing about those cross winds…

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I still maintain that by going back to Kona they missed an opportunity to really showcase the sport for a global audience and instead tying its signature event to a small island in the Pacific (with the limitations and risks that that brings).

I get whey they did so, there’s huge risk in killing of the goose that’s laying a golden egg and when most of your customer base are saying they want Kona, its hard to make a decision in the other direction that won’t pay dividends for 10+ years.

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Wait a minute - I may be mistaken, but I thought a key reason for the return-to-Kona for both races, was that they were having a hard time getting the numbers they needed for Nice! The word on the street was that the AG’ers wanting to go to an IRONMAN World Championships - wanted Kona and they did not seem that interested in going to Nice. These numbers seem to contradict that!

As someone else suggested elsewhere on the page, was this decesion to amalgamate both men and women back in Kona, made a bit too prematurely?

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Only 1384 women finished Nice last year. Far less than half the capacity for the race. So both men and women are not filling the race. It’s about the cost of the event, they took a bath on Nice 2024 financially.

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They tried the “if you build it they will come” strategy for the women in Nice, but apparently didn’t realize it would take more than 1 year for the women to actually come. As @Bryancd pointed out above, they apparently lost a bunch of money last year, but I believe they made the wrong decision by going back to Kona full time and not giving the ladies their own race day.

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I wonder if they could have used Nice to revitalize some of the age old things people wish we still had like Single mass start all pros and age groups. Speedos and topless allowed (certainly that’s ok in France)

Make it a bit of a throwback spectacle.

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what is the breakdown of registered athletes at last year’s kona by geographic area?

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Nice probably would have been fine as a combined gender event. It was the women’s race, as bryancd pointed out, that was not selling enough.

Now I’ll put a big asterisk on that: over the years I’ve seen hilly Ironman races get rejected. Particularly by North Americans. People just stop signing up. Tahoe comes to mind, declining numbers each year.

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Money wise… alternate a one day Nice and one day Kona would have earned them more money in race entries
IE there is no pier limit in nice.

And since Kona is the tri mekka you would suppose they can fill a non world champ Kona. ( Ok I dont really think so for the long term but at least a few years )

Anyway

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I am sure the rich will find a way to do Kona 2026 but a lot of governments have issued travel advisories for USA, which affects travel insurance. The visa restrictions and newly introduced visa bonds likely won’t impact athletes but it could potentially impact supporters.

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It’s that the fast men didn’t want to do nice so it rolled further down and that women didn’t want to go. The ones that did reported it as too hard .

I just talked to a guy here he was 10th in Brazil and first to take his slot. I imagine if it was Hawaii he would not have got a slot at that position.

I love Nice and think it’s a better location, city and trip than kona. Just too maybe people have the nostalgia thing rather then its a world championship thing.

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The real money from the WC isn’t in the WC event itself. Its in having people entered in the feeder racers chasing the WCQ. Whether they have an extra 1000 people entered in Nice is besides the point if everyone’s entering the feeder races trying chase a Kona qualification. In fact, IM’s data that they were using to say why they picked the Kona model showed that people tend to fall out of the system once they’ve qualified. So more people at a WC may actually mean a net loss.

I suspect though that this is true to a specific point - make qualifying too hard and it turns people away. It has to be “just out of reach” enough so that people keep coming back but not so hard that they never think that they can get there.

(For the record, I still hold that they should rotate it and build up the WC as a brand distinct from any specific race, but this will take years to do)

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I hope none of the main contenders were due to fly in today. There is a massive general strike bringing the country to a stand still, both private and public sector.

There is a don’t use a debit or credit card day today that people are hoping will extend a couple of days just to add to the chaos. Welcome to France luvlies!

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Many a credit cards were used at the merch tent today

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