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.
I fundamentally disagree with the premise.
If you’re truly being “professional,” you need to maximize your earning potential within the window that you have.
The math does not always math to tie yourself to a series in a bunch of bespoke locations. And it’s evident that sponsor contracts still are valuing IM wins (even at “smaller” races) as much, or more so, than T100. Which…speaking as someone who has seen this story a bunch of times first-hand, does not shock me.
If you can net out more cash racing more exclusively in North America and the two IMWC events…that seems like a perfectly rational, professional decision. It’s not chickening out of anything.
Think that’s harsh @Michal_CH or at least harshly put, and I don’t think Findlay (or other) has so implied, and I’ve heard no “whining”.
But @rrheisler you are tilting at a premise he didn’t make.
If you are a middle distance only professional (Gentle, Derron, Duffy, Findlay, Simmonds, Byram, sticking to the women) then you are not trying to win “IMs (even ‘smaller’ races)” nor pick up bonuses therefrom. And 70.3 wins are small parochial beer, except for the competitive IM Pro Series ones (winners like Knibb, Findlay, Pohle, EPB so top 15).
“it’s evident that sponsor contracts still are valuing IM wins (even at “smaller” races) as much, or more so, than T100.” Is this evidenced or are you assuming (idk, maybe you are the agent for both a T100 winner and an IM winner). Not many athletes in the world are getting T100 win bonuses: certainly there’s a lot more IM wins available. For a win the IM Pro Series Ironmans pay the same as a T100 win. But since the subject cohort aren’t racing full distance this is a false comparison. The winner at St George (pays top of 70.3s) will get half the winner at (say) Frejus or San Francisco or Vancouver.
I think this year that only Matthews, Sanchez and Lange have won two Ironmans. Ditlev has this season (November to October) won an Ironman and a T100 (and Roth). So Lemieux is ideally placed to help you with an answer with evidence.
"If you can net out more cash racing more exclusively in North America and the two IMWC events . . . "
You can’t (as I hope I ‘evidenced’ in my post above), unless you podium at both the IMWC (out of scope in Michal’s posit) and the 70.3WC (which btw will be emasculated because Marbella is an adjacent weekend to the T100 final in November 2025).
Blockquote If you are a middle distance only professional (Gentle, Derron, Duffy, Findlay, Simmonds, Byram, sticking to the women) then you are not trying to win “IMs (even ‘smaller’ races)” nor pick up bonuses therefrom. And 70.3 wins are small parochial beer, except for the competitive IM Pro Series ones (winners like Knibb, Findlay, Pohle, EPB so top 15).
70.3 prize money is smaller, sure.
Blockquote Is this evidenced or are you assuming (idk, maybe you are the agent for both a T100 winner and an IM winner). Not many athletes in the world are getting T100 win bonuses: certainly there’s a lot more IM wins available. For a win the IM Pro Series Ironmans pay the same as a T100 win. But since the subject cohort aren’t racing full distance this is a false comparison. The winner at St George (pays top of 70.3s) will get half the winner at (say) Frejus or San Francisco or Vancouver.
I have seen multiple sponsor contracts. To borrow the PTO’s parlance: Kona/Nice/70.3 Worlds are diamond bonuses. Regional IM/70.3 Championships are platinum ones. Regular IMs/70.3s are gold. And any non-IM race is silver or bronze.
Unless, of course, an athlete/agent negotiates these things. Which I have seen first-hand on, too. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
So yes, I am taking both prize money and sponsorship (and cheaper travel costs) into the entire picture.
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 race(s) because of the racing, struggles, emotions and titles, not because of the athletes’ bank accounts.
A lot of athletes hate the schedule and the travel, they went long course because they didn’t want the WTS lifestyle.
A lot of you have Kyle Smith for the podium, even with his Covid last week? I mean he could be right, forced taper and hopefully a super mild case, but seems like a monkey wrench thrown into the works for one of the top seeds…
I missed that he had COVID. I’ll have to think about that a bit.
From a spectator POV then we absolutely want the best of the best fighting out each and every race (both T100 and Pro Series). That for sure I 100% agree with you on.
Unfortunately, from an athlete POV it’s a lot more nuanced. If you’re PF are you happy to watch as Knibb, Gentle, and Derron wrap up every race. And not just from a financial perspective either. Mentally it must be super rough trying to get yourself ‘up’ for a race in which your only hope is a late withdrawal or major blow up from those 3 and hope that nobody else steps up. Now try do this 5,6,7 times per year with the insane travel & jet lag thrown in.
In a sport when the mental aspect is huge, I think there comes a point where you need to make a choice on whether it’s worth it or not (which I assume is where PF is currently at).
You assume a lot!
Paula is a world class athlete and earns a very respectable income. She hasn’t said what her plans are but she was a med school student part-time so she has other options when and if she chooses. Not when people decide to write her off.
For the record, Findlay has raced triathlon just twice outside USA this year: Ibiza in September and Dubai in November. I really don’t see the “insane travel and jet lag” you mention being a factor.
If an athlete (not Findlay) wishes to be a big fish in a small pool, that’s fine. Do they want to be the top crow in the tree tops or soar with the eagles on the high cliff above (choice of three overlooking cliffs: Ironman Pro Series with IMWC, full focus on IMWC, T100 Tour).
Just back from the pub!!
Some pre 70.3 content that people seem not to be able to find.
Findlay gives her take on the T100 contract; @19:37 and insight on the contract design: remuneration back loaded (to encourage athletes to actually completing the tour) [5 minutes]
Slowtwitch shout out at 54:14 !
FYI, she also travelled to China for the Challenge Beijing and to Zurich for the UCI TT WC.
But I don’t see anything above & beyond other athletes - it’s pretty common to travel at this world level.
You say this as if you want to be a point of authority. Yet her husband was very clear about the series and the toll it has taken on his wife. The comments are out in the public for you to read. I get you are all in on T100, but as I wrote above. A lot of these athletes went long course because of the long course lifestyle. And to be frank…this series shifted the goal posts a whole lot with how long the season they’ve created (as mentioned by Knibb on her BwB interview).
I get that you’ll say it’s a fact. But it’s also a fact that this series has been very attritional, some of that attrition can easily be lessened by compressing the timeline. Instead of 8 events over 10 months I’d go 8 events over six months. Note how SuperLeague generally did their main events in the WT[C]S offseason.
Some of these folks at the pointy end will re-sign for 2025, but it will be interesting to see how much the guaranteed money is a motivator (this money actually isn’t that much when you consider what PTO/Moritz want).
I think you forget how small this sport is.
It’s a bad contract from the athlete perspective. Those that take it do so for the money. You call it encouragement, I call it coercion.
Well here’s Findlay’s insights for you (@17:54) which also reveals more detail of the contract and that the ‘gold ones’ have a sign-by date of 15 December (so best Bogen and Smith get round quick on Sunday):
" it’s also a fact that this [T100] series has been very attritional" NB “a fact”! 
Has it? Which athletes have been attrited by too many T100 races?
Philipp? Nope
LCB? Nope
Jewett? Nope
Findlay? Nope
Ryf? Nope (one race)
Sodaro? Nope (two races)
EPB? Maybe (but she raced 3 x 70.3s as well)
Help us here.
“some of that attrition can easily be lessened by compressing the timeline.”
YFJ
How would putting 8 races four weeks apart help? PTO learnt from this year that an early March race was not great even after the 2023 season ended by end October. The schedule has to allow athletes to slot in other stuff (eg Roth, IMWC) or several won’t sign. Renouf has said that the PTO need to avoid exclusivity.
Noticed that Paula in her Breakfast with Bob interview saying she is interested in doing Ironman races next year. So will really be interesting to see who actually does take up a contract.
Full distance or 70.3?
She has always done 70.3 races especially N American ones and I think she loves the vibe as well that comes with it
Full IM - she is 35 and I think is at the age where she wants to cross some things off the list. It’s going to be interesting to see which women take their cards. There might still be a lot of surprises…
ETA - I can see, at least with the top women, the ability to pick and choose T100 races if they want (at least a calculated gamble) while not doing the series. Not sure the exact benefit of it but…not having to do 6-7 races might be worth the freedom? Of course we don’t know how the money will be distributed - the per race prize purses were good but not amazing…
