New announcement: World Triathlon and PTO partner to 'redefine the future of triathlon' with a new '80+ event' Triathlon World Tour
Is this a merger, an acquisition or something else?
How does this align with the original theme of the PTO, with it being effectively an athletes organisation? Are the athletes still stakeholders?
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lets see I was always critical for t100 to go to bed with political bean counters. I just dont want feds get involved into middle distance tri. at the same time I guess its clear t100 has to work with somebody, and while I still think challenge would have been the more natural partner , and I did not think frejus and especially Wollongong did work for t100. lets see âŚ. maybe it is the only way to break the ironman monopoly ( at least in Europe and Asia)
to add at least now London makes some sense .
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this basically means t100 is the operator of word tri races.. its more like they hold the license for every world tri race ( in a way how ironman man used to operate with the difference that one group holds all the licenses, not serperate people like it was with ironman , ie that gives more power to the franchisee as its all or nothing )
Adding to thisâŚIf you follow short course triathlon WTCS, the standard tri (olympic distance) is 51.5K not 50K. In 2027 it will be the T50 WCS, so theyâre cutting 1.5K off the distance. Also, with the Olympics coming up in 2028, what will that distance be - traditional or 50K? Since WT is the governing body and works with IOC, it will be interesting to see what happens.
I do think the PR is blowing it way out of proportion and that theyâll keep normal short course racing, except the highest tier of draft legal racing (whether Oly distance or sprint) will be called âT50â, and the lower tier (World Cups) will be called âChallengersâ. No idea about what is now Conti Cups. Also, no idea what theyâll do with mixed team relays, branding wise, but they sure as hell canât get rid of them or reformat them substantially before LA 2028!
This whole thing looks very complicated to me by the way, if my understanding is correct that the substance is unchanged but the names are. Youâll have two tiers of non draft 100 km races and two (?) tiers of draft legal, but instead of having different names, they will now have similar names.
Is this how Deloitte wanted triathlon to be unified? By naming different worlds similarly but keeping them different?
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On itâs face this is a great move for PTO and the T100.
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As Brad Culp would say: Triathlon is Stupid.
Athletes havenât been stakeholders in the PTO for years. They havenât paid anything into it, it is not a representative body. It has shareholders and a board who reports to those shareholders. The key one being Moritz.
This looks like another check has been cut to the ITU by Moritz Events Co to hopefully save the PTO. Itâs a lot of fluff and not much different. I really abhor the inability of the ITU to just stick with the branding that that they had 5 years ago WTS. Rebranding every five years means that people have no idea who you are in the market and you will have no ability to build an identity that is valuable.
The funny thing about this is, no one has a clue if PTO will be around in 2027. Not even sure if the funding they raised in Series C will be enough to get them through 2026. What happens when the money dries up and the ITU is left holding the bag?
ETA: the fact that this was released on a Saturday means they want this buried or theyâre incompetent.
I look at it as the other way. Every race they have run they have not been the actual organizer. It basically means that theyâre subsumed and integrated into the ITUâs structure. Wonder if this means the check to the ITU is much larger since there will be production costs. Iâm guessing there wonât be any Singapore or Qatar race in 2027. It also likely means that T100 wonât be in North America unless itâs at Legacy Tri.
Feds have been involved in middle distance triathlon at least with T100 the last two years, they control the wait list.
dont forget there is a 9.9 percent leeway in distances ie hardly any oly distance is really 51.5 k. so I dont think anything will change ( now iam not sure about t25.75 and the relays.
conti cups are run by the Conti feds such as ETU ( European triathlon union) etc etc
world tri statement .
âOne of the key insights was the need to follow the example of other international federations by clearly separating commercial operations from governance functionsâ
and yes the entrance lists will stay with world tri , i would say. as this is governance and making sure feds keep power over athletes. ( no good standing with the fed no racing)
Someone better check if that Deloitte report is just another AI slop like what they did for Australia recently. I guess Renouf and his bosses intend the T100/PTO to become what Amaury Sport is to cycling.
This rebranding is straight out of management consultancy playbook. I wonder how many iterations it took them to come up with T50? What are they gonna call sprint, MTR, or eliminator races next?
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Awesome!
So are these AG races or just pro races they are talking about?
50k is super easy and helps with the marketing round numbers. Just make the ride 38.5k and there you have it. We can still compare the 1500 swim and 10k run times to standard distances, and you lose nothing knocking off 1.5k off the draft legal bike.. It is a great move to team up, Ironman has dominated for far too long without competition, in fact they have actively gone after and crushed any race that got in their way, to the determent of the overall sport. Now all 3 entities will have to up their games and cater just a bit more to the athletes, rather than their bottom lines. Both things can be healthy in our sport, and one could argue in the long run both things are necessaryâŚ
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100%.
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What World Federations are doing that? Hilarious.
Sounds to me like both organizations are broke but PTO is less broke. Which is crazy. But I can tell you this will end poorly.
If this âT50â is going to fly, reasonable to make the splits 1.5km, 38.5km and 10km for the Olympic distance.
In which case, for some consistency, the T100 distances should adjust to 3km, 77km (like Dubai), and 20km. That should suit the SC guys even better as theyâve already had to survive the swim standard threshold to get results in SC given the âblow dryâ nature of the bike.
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Now now,donât go getting the Oro Valley fan club all worked up. You will end up in the naughty corner with me.
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How does this have anything to do with Ironman? Thatâs like saying creating a 10k park run league would impact UTMB or Western States. Ironman isnât triathlon and triathlon isnât Ironman. What this does is make ITU/PTO the new âvultureâ who will eat up independent short course races to grow their T50 bank of races, the thing you lament IM doing in the past.
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Actually no. Ironman would target and destroy competiting races, while this group seems to buy and promote the old race. Completely different thing, so no worries about your local sprint races disappearing. And the big(if you have one) short distance races are now subject to being bought up, but not to shelve them..