Yeah absolutely I mean if anyone knows me I love a good DNF lol. Was talking more as a whole and just using OC as an example. A one and done criteria would be brutal. Would have to be szn to szn analysis id say. Good take!
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Is this a real problem that needs to be solved? Rhetorically speaking, has there ever existed some pro who would have finished in the money, but didnāt because a BOP pro got caught by top AGers and thus got enough of a bike draft advantage to overtake that last in the money pro on the run???
If WTC thinks there are too many pros, or too many slow pros racing, Iām sure IM can come up with some policy to limit the field size. Or if they feel there is a problem with slow pros mixing it up with fast AGers, they could come up with some other policy to to thin the herd like intermediate time cutoffs where one has to be within some % of 1st place or you get pulled from the race. Iād think chip timing would make this policy reasonablely easy to implement.
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Available time is the currency of endurance sport success. Just because someone is in amateur status in any sport doesnāt mean they are holding less time currency to compete with than a pro.
I view the achievement equally. Which I think is a complement and not a slight.
I do think one unpopular opinion I have is amateurs with that level of time currency need to stop playing up the situation. Not everyone does, but a lot do. Itās a very fortunate situation to be in to be able to have the near equal time currency as a pro as someone with a job and family.
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I think USAT has tightened up the elite card criteria over the last 10 years. You are referencing āolderā proās who likely got the easy pathway 10+ years ago, and *only need to requalify for said pro license what 1 time every 3 years. Around the 2011-2014 they had some really āeasierā pathways if you finished X percentage in a large field Y times a year, suddenly you could qualify. Itās stronger now than it likely has ever been, in fact Iād wonder how many actually qualify end up taking their elite card now. Iād be curious if itās even 50% these days.
WT will never create a āglobalā criteria because so many different federations have much different needs. There are far more ādevelopingā triathlon federations than developed federations, so WT could never tell Ecuador federation your standard now is almost impossible to have any proās. The answer will be within IM fixing it, *if they deem it a problem (which isnāt likely). WTās tiered system basically takes care of itself within draft legal; thatās basically the model IM should follow. If IMPS is the ātop tierā then you canāt just sign up for that race as a pro. You should need a ranking to get in. But again thatās just adding more complications + more work for IM.
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Agreed. If anything, Ironman just needs monetize the pros a little more. Add a small $100 per race fee in addition to their annual license. At the end of the day, it might pay for their employee they have to dedicate to dealing with various pro interactions. And it also gives some value back to the organization for those fast (ish) athletes who also want to say they are pro.
In the end, a large pro field, in my view, is the sign of a healthy ecosystem.
Great article! Please note that the 1400 first-timers were Ironman 70.3 first-timers, which likely most were not first-timers..
There were more than a few of these too! I was at one of the meetings where they asked this and I was surprised at how many people raised their hands to the āIs this your first triathlon?ā question. Bless their hearts. Ha.
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I dunno about the US, but in Canada and other parts of the world, its still just an application fee.
Though it probably doesnāt matter anyway - only 6/70 MPros were from Canada, which is reasonably proportionate.
Itās an athletic criteria in the U.S. but even in some parts of Europe in top federations itās an application. The US has improved itās criteria in the past decade. But if your a pro who got it mid 201xās under *easier pathway, your standard to get it re-issued is I think every 2-3 year window (same as any US pro). So if you cherry pick a āsoftā pro race you can stay at it than if you raced only IMPS level events etc.
This is why triathlon needs a USAC CAT system (and dump 5 year AG). top AG and current BOP pro would be cat 1 (pro is pro).
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Out of curiosity, I ran the numbers on all 2025 Ironman 70.3 races, so that we have something to compare this yearās Oceanside to. A certain level of overlap between the pro and age group fields is the norm, not the exception. In fact, there were only very few races which had no age groupers with faster times than the slowest pro (Ecuador, Lapu Lapu, and Tallin for the men, Tallinn and Valdivia for the women).
The obvious flaw with the metric āfaster than the slowest proā is that a single extremely slow pro can dramatically skew the outcome. For example, in last yearās edition of Oceanside, MPRO Jacob Deysher finished the race with a time of 5:14:08, 1:27:07 or 38% later than winner Lionel Sanders. By doing so, he allowed 230 male age groupers (and even 31 female age groupers) to brag that they had beaten at least one MPRO.
A better metric might be to go by the fastest times and then look how many age groupers finished within 25% of the winnerās time. For this yearās Oceanside, that would be 66 male age groupers who were faster than 4:35:10, but just 20 female age groupers who were faster than 5:02:04. That that number is far smaller for the women than the number of women who beat at least one female pro is due to the spread between the fastest and the slowest FPROs being much larger than on the menās side: FPRO Jennifer Wilke finished with a time of 5:26:27, which is 1:25:18 or 35% later than Taylor Knibb. With 4:32:45, MPRO Brian Folts c only 52:37 minutes or 24% later than Kristian Blummenfelt.
| Ironman 70.3 | MPRO | FPRO | M_AG<MPRO | F_AG<FPRO | M_AG<25% | F_AG<25% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aix-en-Provence | 62 | 23 | 61 | 83 | 76 | 34 |
| Aracaju-Sergipe | 15 | 6 | 30 | 3 | 55 | 13 |
| Augusta | 54 | 26 | 19 | 9 | 30 | 26 |
| Boise | 51 | 32 | 22 | 15 | 41 | 19 |
| Boulder | 41 | ā | 32 | ā | 44 | ā |
| Brasilia | 28 | 14 | 176 | 21 | 61 | 40 |
| Chattanooga | 50 | 24 | 245 | 31 | 92 | 107 |
| Cozumel | 19 | 8 | 50 | 11 | 20 | 25 |
| Eagleman | 49 | 36 | 33 | 42 | 61 | 25 |
| Ecuador | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 16 |
| Florianopolis | 20 | 14 | 17 | 1 | 75 | 17 |
| Geelong | 41 | 21 | 22 | 3 | 66 | 32 |
| Happy Valley | ā | 30 | ā | 26 | ā | 13 |
| Hradec KrƔlovƩ | 30 | 13 | 109 | 45 | 93 | 27 |
| Italy Emilia-Romagna | 37 | ā | 18 | ā | 39 | ā |
| Jƶnkƶping | 39 | 17 | 45 | 7 | 64 | 28 |
| Knokke-Heist | 31 | 15 | 37 | 3 | 92 | 23 |
| Kraichgau | 45 | 23 | 162 | 18 | 154 | 65 |
| Krakow | 32 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 52 | 45 |
| Langkawi | 20 | 15 | 10 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| Lapu Lapu | 8 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 3 |
| La Quinta | 44 | 32 | 319 | 18 | 50 | 30 |
| Louisville | 43 | 20 | 11 | 36 | 27 | 19 |
| Nice | 46 | 18 | 9 | 12 | 64 | 23 |
| Oceanside (2025) | 65 | 32 | 230 | 76 | 72 | 37 |
| Oceanside (2026) | 69 | 32 | 56 | 70 | 66 | 20 |
| Peru | 16 | 18 | 18 | 5 | 38 | 25 |
| Port Macquarie | 27 | 17 | 32 | 3 | 66 | 25 |
| Portugal-Cascais | ā | 22 | ā | 14 | ā | 9 |
| Poznan | 20 | 10 | 56 | 10 | 80 | 28 |
| Pucon | 19 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 63 | 29 |
| Rio de Janeiro | 16 | 14 | 23 | 3 | 63 | 28 |
| Santa Cruz | 43 | 35 | 52 | 34 | 65 | 52 |
| Shanghai Chongming | 12 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 25 | 15 |
| SĆ£o Paulo | 24 | 10 | 40 | 3 | 42 | 25 |
| St. George | 62 | 32 | 27 | 43 | 30 | 20 |
| Sunshine Coast | 36 | 14 | 50 | 11 | 91 | 30 |
| Swansea | 38 | 25 | 92 | 1 | 38 | 15 |
| Tallinn | 12 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 40 |
| Tours Metropole ā Loire Valley | 23 | 9 | 41 | 4 | 170 | 26 |
| Valdivia | 13 | 11 | 56 | 0 | 41 | 18 |
| Valencia | 49 | 21 | 55 | 7 | 86 | 29 |
| Venice-Jesolo | 65 | 27 | 152 | 34 | 134 | 35 |
| Warsaw | 36 | 9 | 254 | 2 | 179 | 82 |
| Westfriesland | 40 | 16 | 254 | 43 | 103 | 38 |
| Zell am See-Kaprun | 52 | 41 | 12 | 12 | 49 | 18 |
| World Championship | 62 | 57 | 30 | 83 | 349 | 108 |
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Thatās a lot of work and a lot of numbers that really donāt mean anything in the grand scheme. How about how many age groupers would be in the money? If we are going to talk pro race vs AGāers, that is the only thing that really would matter. And that is before we even handicap how much easier the AG race is for a fast time vs the prosā¦
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Yeah this is all a silly comparison. If you are a pro who wouldnāt even make the AG podium in your AG, your not a pro.
Thatās generous. It seems like it should be overall top 10 kind of thing from a performance perspective. But Iām still a fan of the big tent approach. As long as it doesnāt excessively burden the race organization let these guys brag about triathlon to all their friends and followers etc. Thatās only helping to grow the sport.
While I think lost people are genuinely doing it for the right reasons, there is the knock on effect of a consistent 5hr MPro and the impact that has on the larger perception of triathlon in general.
For starters, it does beg the question as to how professional the sport really is if you have these kinds of guys claiming a pro licence.
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I think you need A-B-C pros (or atleast A and B if you want to use B level as development years); you just need to race to your appropriate level, and in the current LC setup, we donāt have that setup. So lower tiered proās can just sign up and race and affect world class athletes; and really in no other sport is that possible. In other sports, the A level world class athletes would take those C level pros behind the scenes and give them the riot act to guide them along the way; but we canāt really do that cus they are *allowed to be there. I mean hell you can have AGāers affect world class proās really if they swerve the wrong way etc. I donāt know that professional triathlon has ever been taken serious or will ever be taken serious, even if they culled the professional ranks stronger. But thatās less because of how the pro division is imo and more just the ārandomnessā of our sport.
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Are you one of these athletes? Let us know what yours plans are? Going pro? Or are you going to continue to collect age group titles.
Hi there! Fringe athlete here, with a few possibly amusing things to share. Here are some (too long) meandering thoughts. This applies to USA male elite criteria & not anything else. Some of my results are here: https://www.coachcox.co.uk/imstats/athlete/458687/
Racing background
I had pro eligibility in 2022-2023 via points ā¦ but never read the rules! Had some good finishes in full distance races like 4th overall AG at 2021 IM Coeur dāAlene (the very hot year) and 2nd overall at 2022 IM Chattanooga.
Some background - I work a lot (at my job) so training has been hot & cold over the years. Iāve come in sharp to some races, others less sharp. I do not swim a ton and usually manage a āpretty good AG, blasted by proā time (~1-2x per week, 11 sessions in 2026, 28:36 at Oceanside, 57:07 at IMLP off a lucky draft). I bike & run a lot. On the bike Iāve done 390w/20min, 300w/2:30 ā but never a knockout tri bike split. 2:39:59 open marathon, 100 mile ultras, good full IM results on hot/hard days. Pretty good, but not top dog.
I was thinking about chasing a pro card last year, 2025 (or, at least enough that I read the rules). Finished 4th overall (not top 3!) in the AG field at IM Lake Placid, which was an Elite Qualifying Race. I hilariously missed 3rd place by 5 seconds. Scored 114.XX points, so I needed one more race (criteria was 2 races greater than 110.X). I had a chance to log a second at IM CA in October (itās in the neighborhood!) ā¦ but had run UTMB 108 miler recently enough to still feel it & blew up there!
One amusing anecdote ā last summer there was a Slowtwitch thread about pro criteria being too soft (my summary). Someone shared a video of Jackie Herringās IMLP recap with (critical) commentary on the back of the male pro field causing an FPRO bike penalty, and (relatively positive) commentary about a random AG guy she worked with on the run. That was me!
I raced Oceanside this weekend, which could have been a second (and final) race >110. Goal independent of that was 28/2:10-15/1:19. Long story short ā I got a ābad crampā in my calf Thursday before. Rested Friday. Raced a 28:36 swim, 2:19:35 bike (some calf tightness). Was excited to run, the first recent time Iāve come in with solid run training momentum. But could barely walk after dismounting bike due to calf. I went to medical in T2 (25 mins, thank you staff!), walked a mile (45 mins), went to the next medical where they did an ultrasound and my ācrampā was a grade 2 gastroc tear. I DNFād ā¦ and missed my chance to make the body of this Slowtwitch article! Even in the best case, 4:1X isnāt a pro-competitive time. No complaints from me about a good weekend with friends, like my old XC coach used to say, āItās better to have a pain than to be a pain.ā
Some racing philosophy
I am just racing for fun. Want to go out there, blast it, make some friends, and have a great time. I know all the numbers and criteria (now, at least!) because I am a huge dork who likes numbers and reading manuals, not because I need the outcome. Itās fun to get outside, connect with people on something, push yourself, work on a goal for a long time, look at the physics & aerodynamics & equations and go faster.
There are pros and cons of AG & pro. In pro, I will get smoked by the big dogs, but wonāt āstealā AG slots. Many AGs Iāve raced with have gone pro. I love the purity of a clean, head-to-head, non-chip time race, which I do get at some small local events & miss at the big ones. Trying for an OA tape win at a non-pro race sounds awesome though also is weird because of chip times/staggered start. Pro gets you into closed/sold-out races, a clean start, easy logistics, and true head-to-head racing. Would probably get me to swim more. AG racing at or near the front is exhilarating and may be worth staying for. Also ā¦ I donāt have the new pro criteria (itās way harder, below) so this is moot! Would likely only upgrade if I get fast enough itās a āno doubterā & can dedicate the time to honor the race.
Part of how I got into triathlon is via my best friend since high school. We did some races at the Jersey shore in ~2011 and heās since gone on to win 2 silver medals at the Olympics for USA in triathlon. I got to be there in Paris to watch it (itās Morgan!). He came out to support me at Oceanside & was there with me at medical Saturday (thank you!). I am not in that league - no delusions that my times stack up there. It could be fun to get an elite license for the narrative arc & racing purity, though - not that Iād be cracking the front of a championship race.
2026 criteria
On the (USA only) 2026 criteria, this year things are much harder in a way that addresses some peopleās comments so far:
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The EQR route is gone which makes sense because it was too dependent on the arbitrary strength of the AG field at a given race
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Points threshold bumps from 110.XX to 115.0 (& up from 106.XX in 2022) and now requires 3 races instead of 2. Amusingly, I now have 0 of 3 & a torn calf instead of 1 of 2, since my 114.X no longer counts. So maybe didnāt need to write any of this!
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The main route is now 12% of winning time at a championship race or 8% at a normal pro race. 12% of KBās winning time at Oceanside is ~4:06, which was about 115 points last yr, which seems well calibrated.
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In my experience, getting top 3 at an elite qualifying full IM was much easier than hitting 8/12% of a pro winner, so I think itās reasonable that route is gone. And 115 seems like a more appropriate target than 110, itās pretty fast.
So uh - hopefully my freshly torn calf heals now & I can try to have fun & blast some races again!
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It is not entirely uncommon for a full IM to be someoneās first tri, eitherā¦
Itās something I need to write about moreā¦thereās a reason why these big events continue to sell out as opposed to [insert whatever local race name here].
Maybe Ironman needs to work backwards and license Ironsprint or Ironlite (5150 just doesnāt cut it) or something like to local RDs and make that an explicit part of their package with cities. Two short distance triathlons in the months leading up before a 70.3 or IM. Offer them as training packages to prep for the big race kinda thing.
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I guess the main issue is you dont have a proper club structure in the usa that somewhat guides atheltes into tri and start with a tri a tri or sprint race to get started.
also kind of seen in your short course racing you have one conti cup a year in usa and the male field was not completely full and female field was full with a very short waiting list . Meanwhile in europe there is like 3 conti cups in the next few weeks and some have a waiting list with over 100 atheltes. and many of those athletes have been with a tri club for years some till the age of 10 or so.