Built It, But They Didn’t Come: On World Championships Participation and Qualifying for 2026 and Beyond
Today’s news of a return to Kona only for the IRONMAN World Championship is a welcome one for many within our sport. As IRONMAN Chief Executive Officer Scott DeRue said in his letter announcing the move, in the recent survey on World Championship options “a significant majority of women and men, across all age groups, want the same two things – to race together, and to race at the beating heart of our sport in Kona, Hawai`i.” That, combined with how poorly received within the local community the two day 2022 race was, could only mean one thing: we’re back to a single day of racing, too.
When the move to a two-day, split venue race was announced, then-CEO Andrew Messick said that, “In 2022, we saw the power of a two-day IRONMAN World Championship, one with dedicated race days for professional women and professional men. We believe in this concept not only to showcase the depth of both the women’s and men’s fields but also to invest further into the growth of the sport of triathlon.” The hope was two-fold: first, to have more women participating in the sport, inspired by both fellow women participating within the World Championships and by the opportunity of more slots on the line; second, to give greater race coverage to professional women, who would often be ignored during the broadcast, especially during the run as the men’s top athletes were approaching the finish line.
In the case of professional coverage, two days has worked wondrously. The 2023 and 2024 women’s races in Kona and Nice, respectively, were exciting affairs. Lucy Charles-Barclay won in a wire-to-wire effort in 2023, holding off Anne Haug and Laura Philipp, while Taylor Knibb made her IRONMAN debut and finished a strong fourth. Last year, Philipp emerged victorious over Kat Matthews, pulling away over the latter half of the marathon. By all accounts, the separate focus on the women’s race worked.
But on age-group participation, according to IRONMAN, the two-day split has had the opposite effect than intended. “Splitting the IRONMAN World Championship race across two days has not inspired more women to enter the sport or increase the frequency of racing among women. Unexpectedly, this format actually resulted in more athletes leaving the sport after completing the IRONMAN World Championship.” The numbers, at least for the World Championships, are telling. The 2023 women’s race in Kona had 2174 finishers. Last year’s race in Nice, meanwhile, had only 1384 — a 36% drop. (The men’s races had 2269 and 2491 finishers, respectively).
In fewer words: it was built, but the women did not come.
Qualification is Also Changing
With the return to a single-day of racing, it means that the world championship field will also be getting smaller. The drop, however, will not be as large as some initially thought. According to IRONMAN, “operational changes will enable nearly 3,000 athletes to challenge themselves on the biggest stage in triathlon, which is a measured increase compared to prior single-day editions of the event in Kona.” When speaking with DeRue earlier this week, some of those changes will include transition layout modifications (such as the move of pros out to the road), and further wave starts to reduce athlete density on the bike course.
Still, even with those higher athlete numbers for a single-day event, based on the combined 2024 finisher volume, there will be a rough 20 to 25% reduction in total slots available. How those precious slots will be allocated is also a return to tradition: “mostly proportional,” says DeRue. It awards slots first to every age group with a starter in it, then allocates the remaining slots based on the percentage total of the age group field.
DeRue further explained that IRONMAN envisions certain races having additional slots for key programming, such as its Women For Tri initiative. It’s similar to how certain races have offered additional exclusive world championship slots for women at events to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships. But, as DeRue noted, additional slots may remain in reserve for other initiatives as well, such as IRONMAN’s well received Legacy program.
Keeping the Spotlight on Pro Women
When speaking to pro women, there were two standout requirements for the World Championship: equal media coverage, and protecting the integrity of the race. On the former requirement, DeRue spoke about two opportunities for media coverage. The first is the actual race broadcast itself. DeRue committed to equal coverage of the men’s and women’s race, excepting for race dynamics. But he also cited other opportunities for coverage; using more split-screens, a dedicated broadcast channel for the men’s and women’s races, or utilizing drones to help fill gaps where motorcycles or helicopters may not be practical.
Additionally, DeRue talked extensively about IRONMAN original content for the purpose of equal coverage, whether that be on social media, or video content such as their An Iron Will or A Fighting Chance YouTube series.
With regard to women’s race integrity, IRONMAN committed to the minimum five minute gaps between the fields; DeRue noted that this change is across all events with a professional field, and not just those in the Pro Series nor the world championship races. Larger time gaps may be expected at certain events so as to limit interference from the head of the men’s age group field in the pro women’s event (or to move those faster men later in the start waves).
Good.
A great idea, but they can barely pull off a single competent broadcast. Having multiple broadcasts likely means both will suffer. I hope they prove me wrong.
Hopefully they will try and do the broadcast themselves as opposed to relying on Outside.
I thought IM coverage in general has been fantastic over the past few years.
Some people always have to complain about everything I guess…
It seems the best way to prevent fast AG men from interfering with the W-Pro bike is start those men later in the morning. I thought it was so dumb starting M55-59 second to last this past year. Send out the 30-34 guys last.
Did you mean for that to be pink?
The problem with “equal” coverage is that this it’s a live telecast with real race dynamics. And we’ve already seen IM will cut for a commercial at the worst timing possible, so all that sounds great for PR to appease the women’s side of equality, but it’ll never really work in reality. I mean I’m sure they will show both races “equalily” but if they miss key moments, what really is the point. I’m sure some producer is going to have a stop watch so that IM can say “see we showed equal coverage”.
And it was sorta bound to come back to Kona only with they kept Kona in the IM rotation (so is it even considered a rotation?). And the locals have spoken, 1 weekend day a year disruption was all IM was going to be able to get.
The entire notion IM would take Kona out of the race rotation to try and force people to an alternate venue was alway a ridiculous premise that was never going to happen.
The right move. Undoing one of many Messicks many poor decisions.
However, due to geopolitical tensions, many are reluctant or refuse to travel to the USA. It will be interesting to see if that has an impact or not.
I don’t think it’s completely fair to say that they built it & they didn’t come when there were fewer overall slots and opportunities to qualify for Nice than for Kona the previous year, if I’m remembering correctly. They ultimately ran a poorly executed experiment and then concluded that the experiment sucks. It was always going to be Kona but I simply don’t believe that women just overwhelmingly aren’t interested in world champ events.
I don’t have much dog in the fight but I hope 70.3 champs stays gender segregated, I’d love to race it in Nice.
Agree completely. I was in the 50-54 and the run is really lonely when you start that far back. If they time it right you can have more people together on the run.
I don’t think anyone said to take Kona completely out of the rotation. I think the main gist was there was never going to be real data to show how real Kona appeal is or isn’t, if Kona is always just 1 year away and the only alternative was Nice. IE if they went to an actual 3-4 year “rotation” (while still keeping IM Kona in non-champ years) you would actually see the real value that is or isn’t Kona in our sport. Which I’m not denying it is a huge draw. I’m just saying the way it was setup was destined to end like this data conclusion.
(Kona-Hamburg-Gold Coast-Texas or whatever big 4 you want to insert)
Nice was NEVER going to eclipse Kona in regards to its iconic status. EVER. To suggest otherwise or to say it just needed more time and better marketing is wrong.
No changes to 70.3 Worlds.
I don’t disagree that this feels like they pulled the plug far too quickly – women are taking their Kona slots in droves. But having two completely separate venues, one for men, one for women, was never a long-term viable solution. If it were going to continue to be two days, it needed to be a Thurs - Sat or Fri - Sun split in the same location.
I would have torn the whole thing out and just done Nice. But that’s me talking. I also was hopeful that it wouldn’t be a return to standard proportional allocation, but…here we are.
Agree to disagree! It’s iconic for a lot of racers who have been in the sport much longer than me, I can’t deny that.
I’m in my 20s and got into the sport in 2019, I didn’t do my first full until last year. I want to race world champ caliber fields but I’ve never dreamed of Kona. It’s easier to change my mind than someone who has been in the sport for decades and really wants to get sunburnt on a lava field no matter what.