12 years? World Triathlon and PTO announce (really) long-term partnership
Long-term deal includes framework to host short-distance events alongside the T100 Tour
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
World Triathlon and the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) have a “12-year strategic partnership that will run until 2036,” according to a release sent today.
“Following the announcement in August 2023 to collaborate on a new Official World Championship Tour of Long Distance Triathlon and then the launch of the T100 Triathlon World Tour in January 2024, World Triathlon and the PTO have taken their work together a step further by expanding their commercial relationship to grow the sport longer term,” today’s release continued.
Event hosting
The deal allows the PTO to put on the “sole and exclusive Official World Championship Tour of Long Distance Triathlon,” and also includes partnership on Anti-Doping and collaboration on rights management on sponsorship and broadcast.
Finding new venues for events has been a challenge for organizations over the last few years, especially for major races like World Triathlon’s Championship Series (WTCS) races. One interesting component of today’s announcement includes “a framework for both parties to explore new opportunities to grow the sport together, including hosting shorter-distance events alongside the T100 Tour.”
Presumably World Triathlon and the PTO are anticipating potential cost saving possibilities of organizing two events at the same venue over the same weekend, along with other potential benefits of working together at an event, including increased participation numbers.
“Having seen three amazing Olympic Triathlon races in Paris, and just before the Championship Finals in Torremolinos and the T100 Finals in Dubai, we believe that it is both ours and PTO’s responsibility to double down on the good work that we’ve already started and use the great exposure our sport enjoys at the moment as a catalyst to grow deeper engagement with the sport’s committed fan,” said World Triathlon president and IOC member Marisol Casado. “We also want to find a way to promote our sport to the broader sports fan. We believe we’re already starting to answer part of that question through our partnership with the PTO around the new T100 Triathlon World Tour and want to ensure we provide it with the right support and solid foundation to go from strength to strength. We will see in the near future athletes moving from the World Triathlon Championship Series to the T100 Tour, and we see more and more fans engaging with both worlds and enjoying the shorter or longer distances events alike. This brings excellent opportunities to all of us. And we want to continue embracing this cooperation and take it to further levels.”
“From an athlete perspective, the introduction of the new T100 Triathlon World Tour has been a significant step forward in giving longer distance triathlon the global platform and profile we think it deserves,” said PTO Athlete Board member David McNamee. “But along that journey, it has also highlighted other things we could explore, in order to continue taking our sport forward and to grow and engage more fans and audiences around the world. It’s an exciting time to be a professional triathlete.”