So you don’t think a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, with questionable scruples, that has invested many millions into a format/league/structure would have any interest, any at all, with essentially being an owner of an emerging Olympic sport(format)? And willing to dish some bribes to accomplish it’s goals?
Huh, ok. Well, I disagree. There’s a reason why this stuff was talked about openly (hype, I agree) a few months back. And that was before the ME investment. And before the WTCS “acquisition” of sorts.
Clearly if there’s ANY play to be made with what seems like a boondoggle of an investment in the PTO/T100 it’s the Long Game. Triathlon is probably one of those sports that has real legitimacy, and is “easiest” to influence and exert control over with the right investment.
Aaah sure… I loved that, and a lot of it must check out - yet:
When Tveiten and his young guns began their journey to the top together, the coach had to set the boundaries, namely none in terms of what might be achieved. The mindset which shines through in them today – ‘we are coming to win, we expect to win’ – was instilled early.
Iden was 16, Stornes was 15 (in 2012) and Blu was 17 (in 2011).
Somehow fun alone may not cut it? You have to go, like, race and not be last?
https://www.tri247.com/triathlon-news/elite/arild-tveiten-norway-blummenfelt-iden-stornes-dynasty
I feel exactly the same of Challenge and increasingly same of PTO after their gongshow of 2025. And i do not see a value proposition buying up licenses. Its a big risk.
My understanding is that Supertri and World Triathlon aren’t on great terms at the moment, possibly because of a substantial unpaid sum — reportedly in the millions — that WT owes ST.
Personally I think its great. PTO is creating a pathway for triathletes. T50 to t100 to t200 or whatever the numbers may be. From a pro athlete perspective this has to be a good thing. I think after a few years we will see the benefits, pro athletes will have a better career direction. Let’s face it IM is 100% business first. PTO is a business but some percentage is focused on developing triathlon as a sport.
PtO ith wto will have a legit world champs with t50. And PTO with will somehow get its branding to the Olympics, maybe 6 years away. IM only have ever have Kona, and lets be real, its Kona, not a world championship.
IM should be worried, years of counting profits and enabling tattoos for the payingmasses may have lacked a bit of forward thinking.
It’s far too early to predict their doom. But at a minimum, the short to mid term profit orientation has allowed Ironman to…checks notes…grow into the widest reaching event organization company in the history of the world.
I don’t think you get from only Kona to that with no forward thinking.
They don’t seem to creating anything, just acquiring and putting lipstick on it.
No different than any other sport, I guess. Just ask any hockey parent how much things cost.
Just because it’s non-draft doesn’t mean that everyone needs to be on TT bikes. You can do things like having road bikes for everyone up to a certain age.
ocean lava has 3 ish races left at some stage it was 15ish , so its contracting not growing, I do not see Wales or Poland profiting from the label ? Montenegro is defo an international race but less than 350 athletes and let’s face it I would be suprised if more than 2 out of 100 triathletes have an idea what ocean lava is.
the key point here is its extremly hard to build a race organising brand in tri as ironman is so dominant , and most attempts fail. and would say even t100 with big investors struggles very hard as the ironman brand is the big one , so I do not think its as easy as you say.and as I said even challenge has at very best stagnated since pto has entered the market and in a way while its not even sure there is place for 2 brands 3 is rather unlikely and you need very deep pockets ( in supertri there is billionaire involved and we agree its not going in the right direction) so I do not think 20 or so race directors have the capital. I mean there was a reason st poelten went back to ironman …. ( the numbers did not work out with challenge) and while I agree that pto is a bit of a ponzi scheme, ie coming up with new stuff while the old stuff does not really work , I guess it’s atm the only viable chance to create a real competitor to ironman. and on top of it I would say investors have sunk so much money in that, they kind of have to make it work now, or at least have to keep at it for 5 more years.
as for 3 I dont think a single person has suggested that they bought the races they bought the majority of a brand and likely with most races at a 1 or max 2 year contract . but that makes it even harder to make your plan feasibly, as not all 35 races will be out of contact 2027, and to be fair which investor would really go in at this stage when they see how much money supertri and pto have sunk at this point without moving the needle too much and Challenge Roth not part of the deal .
as they say if it was easy everybody would do it ( successfully)
I struggle to see why world tri would owe super tri millions
but yes their relations ship was always a bit difficult from the start when super league just had a male race ,and world tri went mad , and overall they where too close competitors at the start.