no you have to do 3 races to get an end of season bonus
Thx that makes sense. I wonder how much percent a âbig nameâ or local will take spots (Sam Long for NA races for example) vs the normal lineup of athletes. And then I wonder how much those big names take up podiums from said race and then arenât heard from again (would sorta be a bad look if a âbig nameâ won/podium each regional race and didnât race other events or the GFâŚno Iâm not thinking Sam Long will win T100, Iâm thinking a Laidlow, KM, Knibb, Blu type of athlete).
Also Taylor Knibb notably did not want to race Singapore this year and definitely wonât want to next year given her heat injury in Kona. Sheâs a big name, so they will want to get her back.
She wants to go back to Kona though so sheâll have to do another Ironman and at that point it may make sense for her to do the Pro Series, which she would have a very good shot at winning. Could still rock up to SF or another NA T100 and make some dough.
LA Games olympic qualification period will begin ~May '26 and go through ~May '28. Doesnât have to race every race, but will need to balance how to get ready for LA Games and/or AQ race in July/Aug of '27 or risk having to âchaseâ being picked at the final qualification races in spring of '28. It would be my guess if she races more IMâs in '26 (assume she will), itâs going to make for a very hard turn to be ready to AQ for a late July ITU race. (USAT policy likely will be podium or if only 1 person, top 8 in test event). This isnât as much what she should or shouldnât do, cus she can do whatever she wants basically at this pointâŚbut thereâs a lot to it if you keep going down 1 pathway and want to quickly pivot to another super different pathway. Sheâs likely still one of USATâs best LA Games athlete, but being an AQ and being a discretion or AQâing 6 months later offers very different schedule demands.
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Taylor said post-race that she wants to do Kona again next year so sheâll need to punch her slot at another IM in 2026.
Likely Spivey will make the triathlon team. If they take only 2-3 it will be a shoot-out between Knibb / Jorgenson / Kasper / Sereno / Ackerlund.
Knibb will also likely be trying for the time trail again. Dygert is basically a shoe-in so Knibb will be competing against Faulkner / Edwards / Williams / Jastrab for a slot there.
My guess is she goes Pro Series + SF T100 next year and pivots to Olympics in 2027-2028, with the goal of doing Kona post-Olympics again in 2028.
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Right which sorta delays her ability to âfocusâ on itu until post Kona, so then she has 9 months to nail the demands to AQ test event. The chances of her AQâing under those circumstances on the course that is going to be LA, Iâm going to say are small. Which means she then has to chase itu races spring of '28 to then make the team, even if she is going to be picked (assume sheâs ahead of others- Kasper/Sereno for sure; Ackerlund in '28?). AQâing for an athlete like Knibb is very important I would think, but itâs also going to take a great effort to do that.
But pertaining to T100, I agree with much of your Knibb schedule; race the N.A. T100 race and then do some IMPS (if sheâs going to race 2 IMâs) to fully prepare for '26 kona.
I have precised/edited the PTO press release, below.
Revisions to the T100 competition format for 2026:
Only three races to score â Four races each for MPros OR WPros (three plus GF to score), before coming together for the Qatar T100 World Championship Final in Doha to settle the T100 Long Distance Tour World Championship titles.
No contracts â Ranking-based invitations. For Gold Coast (W?) and Singapore (M?) initially based on the 2025 T100 rankings [top 10]; the top 5 from the Contender Rankings and 5 Wildcards, and then 10 from the 2026 T100 rankings, plus 8 from the PTO World Rankings and 2 wildcards (PTO picks).
Way more prize money per race, half the 2025 EoY pool for the final rankings â Prize fund for each T100 race will be $275k (cf Ironman World Champs at $375k paying 15 deep): $50k for first, $40k for #2, $30k for #3, down to $3,500 for #20. The Tour final rankings prize pool will be $1.45M split equally, with $100,000 to the T100 Long distance Tour World Champions. Iâve drafted out how that end of year prize pool might be split (each sex).
| T100 | 2025 | 2026 ($k) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | 100 |
| 2 | $170,000 | 80 |
| 3 | $150,000 | 70 |
| 4 | $120,000 | 60 |
| 5 | $110,000 | 55 |
| 6 | $90,000 | 50 |
| 7 | $85,000 | 45 |
| 8 | $80,000 | 40 |
| 9 | $75,000 | 35 |
| 10 | $70,000 | 30 |
| 11 | $50,000 | 26 |
| 12 | $45,000 | 22 |
| 13 | $40,000 | 19 |
| 14 | $35,000 | 17 |
| 15 | $30,000 | 15 |
| 16 | $28,000 | 14 |
| 17 | $26,000 | 13 |
| 18 | $24,000 | 12 |
| 19 | $22,000 | 11 |
| 20 | $20,000 | 10 |
Totals $1,470k $724k
Is the GF only for athletes who have âqualifiedâ 3 races regular season, or can there be a wildcard/discretion and they win the larger(?) single race prize purse (but then not eligible for overall end of year awards).
idk but
I expect the start list of this yearâs Race to Qatar GF in December to be constructed starting with every contracted athlete who wishes to race and all non-contracted athletes in the top 15 (say) who wish to race. This may create a start list more than 20: if so, so be it. However if the number is <20 the balance can be filled in order from the T100 standings after Dubai, irrespective of the number of races scored. Take for example Derron last year who only raced/scored two before the GF: her standing from her two excellent post Oympics T100 races set her up for #3 overall with her GF #2.
In 2026 I expect the start list of the Qatar GF to be filled in order from the T100 standings after the last two (M and W) races. With no wildcards.
T100 should copy the IM Pro Series scoring system next year. Itâll reward dominant performances like in the womenâs race today with a big gap from second place. It will also be fairer if the gap between the podium is small especially with sprint finishes.
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So it looks like there will be no contenders rankings for next yr. Back to the pto rankings where full distance races have much higher points to 70.3. This is not the best move in my opinion.
That drop to half for rankings win and no contenders ranking prize money will save them heaps and with no contracted payments will have many athletes yearly earnings drop loads for 2026.
This is not the case. There is a 5% bonus for an athleteâs best Gold or below tier score. All the IM Pro Series races, both full and half, are Gold.
| Tier | Races |
|---|---|
| Diamond | T100s, Ironman World Championships, Ironman 70.3 World Championships |
| Platinum | [Edit] Challenge Roth |
| Gold | Most IM & 70.3 Regional Championships, Challenge Family The Championship, World Triathlon Long Distance World Champs [In fact/practice all IM Pro Series races but the PTO donât want to swear.] |
This hasnât even been updated for 2025 let alone 2026.
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My compliments
The PTO Ranking system to which I linked changed at the beginning of 2024 and remained unchanged for 2025. We havenât got to 2026 yet, but I suspect it will remain unchanged. There were no Platinum tier events in 2024 but with Roth upping its prize package, Challenge Roth was the only Platinum tier event in 2025. Well done spotting the PTOâs failure to update Platinum: I am very disappointed I did not spot this when offering @chrisb12 an insight.
I note that in WPro nearly every top 15 ranked athlete is scoring at least one non-T100 result.
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I suspect the rankings system will still have a real refresh since theyâre chucking contracts. T100 events in reality should not be scored the same as World Championships, but whatever. Their little thing.
With only 3 (I wouldnât be surprised if this drops to two for '26 or in future years) mandatory if invitedâŚI would think they would hamstring themselves if they only from the athletes who do three events for their series championship race. Because injuries and stuff.
May I say how pleased I am that youâre showing such a positive interest in the PTOâs offering. Not sure whether true but donât some of these changes for 2026 reflect some of your constructive suggestions this year and last?
I left the prize money criteria off my table, but each T100 next year is [edit] $275k: thatâs for single sex, Only the IMWC is more ($375k). So T100 races very much Diamond tier.
Please explain why the rankings protocol needs refreshing as a result of no contracts next year: I donât see the relationship.
There are no mandatory T100s in 2026. But itâs âthree to score + GFâ so thereâs clearly an incentive to race 3 of the 4 races in the calendar to qualify for the final and to be in with a shout of the Final Standings prize pool (see my (estimated) table above).
I really donât think that inviting athletes to race four 100km events in a season can be described as onerous: even with âinjuries and stuffâ. If athletes donât want to thatâs fine, but the moneyâs there on the table. If Kona is a âmustâ then four T100s plus a KQ and the IMWC in October is entirely doable. Give or take thatâs exactly what all the top men and women in the IM Pro Series will be racing this year (three fulls and three 70.3s).
Well, with the contracts that mandatory number of races was 5, right? So if itâs 3 or 2âŚ
I think cutting to 4 races, like when they talked about the Opens ad trying to create âMajorsâ which you canât really do that at 100k but thatâs a different discussion, is smart.
No, thatâs just me predicting that the world is unpredictable. But you can definitely guarantee athletes being able to slot 3 races in their calendar without impacting the rest and minimizing the error for injuryâŚwhich you couldnât do in a 7 or 10 race format. 4+1, a lot better. And you may have people racing 5, but itâs a lot better when 5 is the max.
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i believe t100 is 275 k per race per gender . while ironman worlds 70.3 is 500 k for both sexes
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The more I think about it, I actually think they hit a home run in shrinking the race schedule (per gender) while still having max number of events for its overall brand/developmen to max AG demands as well. Major kudos for that development. Will be curious if more big names non regular t100 get picked for regional races now that there are no contacts.
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