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Is Ironman offering slots to the St. George World Championship to athletes who haven’t qualified?

Some All World Athletes are receiving invitations to compete in Utah in May

Photo by: Ironman

According to Spanish website PlanetaTriatlon, some Ironman Gold All World Athletes (AWA) have been receiving invitations to participate at the upcoming Ironman World Championship in St. George, Utah this May.

Source: planetatriatlon.com

“As an athlete that held All World Athlete Gold status last year … we invite you to accept a slot and join us at the 2021 Ironman World Championship presented by Utah Sports Commission on May 7, 2022,” the email message states.

According to the PlanetaTriatlon’s sources, the entry costs 1.050 €.

A thread on the Slowtwitch forum appears to confirm the story – a number of athletes, including Canadians who haven’t raced since the Ironman World Championship in 2019, received the invitation as well. Ironman had encouraged “legacy” athletes – those who have completed more than 12 Ironman races who are eligible to apply to compete at the Ironman World Championship – to apply for last year’s Kona race before it was postponed and moved to St. George. According to posts on Slowtwitch, athletes who had completed more than 20 Ironman races were initially invited to compete in St. George.

Based on these invitations, one would assume that the event in St. George wasn’t attracting many athletes and that many might have deferred their entry to the second world championship of 2022 in Kona. A look at the list of athletes registered for the race in Kona, though, shows 2,295 athletes registered for the race, which is about how many athletes would typically compete in Kona. Does that mean Ironman is looking to have more competitors on the course in St. George?

We’ve reached out to Ironman for comment on the story and invitations, but haven’t heard back as of yet.