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Ironman offers “alternate race options or deferrals” to international athletes unable to race after British Triathlon policy change

Photo by: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images for Ironman

Race organizers are hoping that a solution is in the works, but until then international athletes who have registered for races in Great Britain remain in limbo after learning that British Triathlon will require them to come up with a personal insurance policy that provides £5 million in public liability. We wrote about this issue last week after being approached by a couple of Canadian athletes who had registered for Ironman events in the UK, only to learn that they would need to come up with their own liability insurance in order to race (see below).

Updated: British Triathlon insurance rules block international athletes from competing at Ironman events in the UK

 

After we had enquired about athletes who had purchased a one-day race pass when they registered for events, British Triathlon provided a “final statement” on the issue:

Non-UK athletes and insurance to compete

British Triathlon has not been able to sell insurance (so membership or Race Pass) to non-UK athletes competing in events permitted by British Triathlon since Autumn 2021 and our competition rules in their current format have been live since Autumn 2022. This follows rules brought in post-Brexit that prevents UK insurers selling insurance outside the UK.

British Triathlon’s competition rules state competitors need £5 million public liability cover and follow World Triathlon’s rules that state public liability insurance must be in place to compete.

It is clearly stated on our website that non-UK residents can’t purchase a Race Pass and this is also in the Terms and Conditions (which people need to confirm they have read before purchasing). We are updating our website and information about Race Pass and membership to make this even clearer. 

We suggest non-UK athletes reach out to their national federations first and if they do not provide it, they will need to find an insurance provider that can offer Public Liability insurance to allow them to race in the UK.

Triathlon Canada insurance

We reached out to Triathlon Canada for more insight. Like many other national federations, it doesn’t offer the kind of insurance that British Triathlon now requires. While Triathlon Canada does provide out-of-country insurance for age group athletes competing at World Triathlon events, it is part of the registration process for world championship events and paid for by athletes. That insurance includes liability up to CDN$5 million. Even if Triathlon Canada could figure out a way to make that coverage available to athletes not competing at a world championship event, the liability coverage is still a long way off from the £5 Million (about CDN$8.87 million) that British Triathlon requires.

The other sticking point in Canada is that Triathlon Canada doesn’t actually sell memberships – athletes join through their provincial association and a small portion of that membership fee goes to Triathlon Canada for “developing national programming.” Each provincial association has their own insurer, adding to the challenge of coming up with a national solution for Canadian triathletes.

We’ve reached out to USA Triathlon, but have not heard back. We’ll update this story if we do get a response from the association.

Ironman provided an update yesterday who are looking at providing alternative options for athletes who have entered any events and aren’t able to “secure appropriate insurance:”

As you know Ironman have been continuing to engage with British Triathlon to express our concerns on the change of policy, while exploring potential solutions to reduce the impact on our athletes.  We recognise that this is frustrating for our athletes as well as other event organisers, who, like Ironman, look forward to welcoming international athletes to their races, and want them to have the smoothest event experience as possible.

In the meantime, we will be offering alternative race options or deferrals for any athletes who are unable to secure appropriate insurance via their national federation or a third party insurer to avoid exposing our participants to an incalculable risk of liability.

Both Ironman and athletes remain hopeful that some sort of a solution will be found for athletes. The two people who reached out to us were both racing in events taking place in September – Ironman 70.3 Weymouth and Ironman Wales – so there remains a bit of time to get things sorted out, but not much.

We’ll continue to update this story as more information becomes available.