Sam Long here... I want to know your opinion on T100 or Ironman Pro series financial comparison

[Michal_CH]

Hey Sam,

in another thread I posted this:

T100 World Tour 2025

Everybody will decide for themselves, but from my PoV: if you’re not chasing Kona / Nice WC and decide not to do T100, then you’re chickening-out. I can understand full IM distance specialists and those chasing Kona / Nice WC as their primary objective (examples: Anne Haug, Laura Philipp, LCB, Lange, Magnus, Lionel etc.). But whining about “I’m not podiuming anymore, I better do a random race in the middle of nowhere” is bad sportsmanship for me.

and this:

T100 World Tour 2025

It’s a harsh take, but well… it’s mine. And thanks for simplifying my target group: middle distance specialists. So whoever decides to reject the T100 contract because of the reason that they’re not podiuming anymore, we can call them local middle distance specialists I think my misalignment with Ryan is because he looks at it with a more professional 70% money / 30% glory lense, while I’m the exactly opposite as a sports fan: 30% money / 70% glory. In the end I’m interested in r…

That being said, I think you’ll do better in IM Pro Series, but only if you’ll be ready to do 3 IMs. Don’t go the Lionel’s or the Joe’s way to pick & choose. Definitely don’t choose neither - I don’t want you to drop off the radar.

Why IM Pro Series for you?

• swim deficit less important in 70.3 and IM (it’s really the key factor here, sadly but realistically)
• less dense competition (two Norwegians, Lange and many others, but distributed over many more races than in T100 and you have a pattern of having good results when others are only in the build phase)
• less strong competition (the Olympians are stepping up through T100 more than through IM Pro Series)
• IM is naturally more American, from leadership to fan base, having an impact on your own fan group and (sponsor) earnings (now and in the future)

Cheers

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Edit: statistically / financially you’d need to provide input yourself. The framework for this would probably be like:

IM Pro Series Race	Probable financial outcome (prize money + sponsor bonus + appearance fee etc.)	Estimated travel cost	Result
Race 1	x	y	x-y
Race 2
…
Race 8
Total			IM Pro Series financial result

T100 Race	Probable financial outcome (prize money + sponsor bonus + appearance fee etc.)	Estimated travel cost	Result
Race 1	a	b	a-b
Race 2
…
Race 8
Total			T100 financial result

Probable financial outcome is the hardest to estimate. You either do a “best guess” for prize money or do another table, where you put places 1-10 in the first column, the probability of placing 1-10 in the second column (sum it up to 100%, but e.g. make the last option “place 10 or lower”, adjusting for a possibility of finishing 11th, 18th, 30th, DNF etc.), prize money for 1-10 in the third column and the multiplication of prize money & probability in the fourth column. The sum of the forth column is your probable prize money + bonus.

IM Pro Series financial result will still get you a PTO bonus end of year, so factor this in. The T100 will have more appearance fee and lower travel costs (only you know by how much, we don’t know your contracts) and still a PTO bonus end of year.