Dec 13 (Reuters) – A new World Triathlon Tour aims to streamline competitions and management and create a more attractive broadcast product as World Triathlon and professional athletes act following a report that called for wide-ranging changes for the sport amid declining participation numbers.
The new series, jointly created by global body World Triathlon and the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) will consist of several levels of competitions and will launch in 2027.
It will combine the existing T100 Triathlon World Tour — rebranded as the T100 World Championship Series — a new-look World Triathlon Championship Series and World Triathlon Cups.
The World Triathlon Championship Series will be rebranded the T50 World Championship Series and a newly formed feeder series will be branded a ‘Challenger’ series.
“The PTO will invest in creating a single and consistent broadcast product, providing fans with a true year-round offering of live triathlon broadcasts showcasing the incredible talents of the world’s ultimate athletes,” it said in a statement.
The swim-bike-run sport that emerged from the United States in the 1970s, gained worldwide attention via the iconic Ironman distance and joined the Olympics in 2000 with a standardised 1,500 metres swim-40km bike-10km run format has always had something of a piecemeal feel.
But it has been dogged by differing governing bodies, changing formats and struggles for commercial and broadcasting revenues, with the report in July calling for major changes in competitions, management, commercial operations and the broadcast product.
It also said commercial operations should be driven by a new entity to allow for more flexibility in decisions.
“The strategy responds to the key findings of World Triathlon’s Deloitte Report,” said the PTO.
“While identifying the potential in the sport, the report also highlighted a fragmented ecosystem and recommended a change from a technically driven model to a commercially driven one – which is the intention of the new Triathlon World Tour.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
