Take that, PTO – Ironman announces full 2025 Pro Series during world championship race week in Nice

It’s never been a better time to be a pro triathlete, with two major players offering lots of prize money (over US$13 million) and clamouring to get the sport’s biggest names to their events. Yesterday the PTO and World Triathlon surprised us with the announcement of at least seven races in the T100 series for next year. (No doubt a move to move past the announcement last week that there wouldn’t be a grand final for that series.) Today Ironman went even bigger, announcing the full 18-race schedule for the 2025 Ironman Pro Series which “will consist of six Ironman and eight Ironman 70.3 triathlons around the world in addition to the women’s and men’s Ironman World Championship and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship triathlons.”

The Ironman Pro Series will dole out over US$6 million in prize money next year, which includes the $1.7 million year-end bonus pool. (The PTO hands out just over US$7 million in athlete contracts and prize money.)

It’s been an interesting game to watch the sport’s biggest names make their picks when it comes to the various series. Many of the sport’s biggest names – including defending Ironman World Champions Lucy Charles-Barclay and Sam Laidlow – have been able to sign T100 contracts, while also being able to defend their titles this year. With the emphasis on the Ironman races in the Pro Series, full-distance specialists have leaned to that series. The end result is lots of opportunities for pro athletes.

According to today’s release:

The 2025 schedule will see seven new race venues added to the calendar, including the Ironman 70.3 Geelong triathlon in Australia, which will kick off the season in March, followed by the first Ironman Pro Series race in South Africa with the Ironman South Africa African Championship race. In addition to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship triathlon in Marbella, there are three other Ironman 70.3 triathlons in Europe added to the schedule with the Ironman 70.3 Venice-Jesolo and Ironman 70.3 Aix-en-Provence races, both taking place in May, and the Ironman 70.3 Swansea triathlon, the first Ironman Pro Series race to take place on UK soil, happening in July. The series will also take a new stop in Maryland with the Ironman 70.3 Eagleman triathlon in June.
 
All Ironman Pro Series races will be broadcast for free across multiple platforms for viewers around the world. Viewers in the United States and Canada can watch the coverage unfold exclusively on Outside TV, and international audiences can tune in across multiple platforms, including proseries.ironman.com, DAZN, and L’Equipe in France. On-demand playback will also be available through Outside+.  
 
Athletes and fans can also look forward to the return of some of the favorite races from this year, including the Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, Cairns Airport Ironman Cairns, and Ironman Hamburg European Championship and Ironman Frankfurt European Championship triathlons, with all races to be broadcast live and free to a global audience. 

The point system for the series will remain the same, with athletes able to count a total of five races to their score, with a maximum of three Ironman events. The point system is based on time behind the leader – the winner receives 5,000 points for an Ironman or 2,500 points for a 70.3 race, with the following athletes earning a point less for every second they are behind the leader. (The world championship events count for 6,000 and 3,000 points.)

Ironman takes on the PTO with new Pro Series

There will still be prize money offered at 40 other Ironman events, which is what brings the total purse available to pros at Ironman events to over US$6 million. The bonus pool for the series is paid out to the top 50 men and women.