A T100 revamp, rivalries renewed, London WTCS and all return to Kona: our 2026 triathlon preview

Much like seeing the first Easter eggs on the supermarket shelves in January, we’re already starting to look ahead to next season! Except here we hope our assault to the senses will be met with more ‘ooh yays’ rather than ‘oh gawds’ and an accompanying eye-roll. 

Yes, we know the 2025 pro season has only just wrapped, but the next one is, can you believe it, only a couple of months away – effectively starting on 7 March at Ironman New Zealand. 

So, to prepare you for what’s to come – don’t worry, it’s all good – we’ve picked out the defining moments that are set to shape the pro year ahead. 

All you need to do is stick the kettle on, put your feet up – compression sleeves are not compulsory, it is the off-season after all – and start marking that calendar to make sure you don’t miss a second of the multisporting action.

1. Australian Open

The 2025 T100 season has only just culminated in the all-important World Championship Final, in Qatar, but we’re already gearing up for next year’s series, which, for the first time, will start in Gold Coast, Australia (21-22 March). 

One pro who’s hoping for the 100K call-up is the new WTCS champion, Matt Hauser. 

When we spoke to him at the start of the season he’d heard rumours of an Australian T100 in the pipeline – “I might just have to throw my hat in the ring for that,” admitted the proud Aussie. Expect the dynamo from Down Under to make his mark.

2. Big T100 changes

Sticking with the popular pro 100k race series, some major revisions have been announced for the 2026 tour. 

The biggest shake-up is that each of the eight regular season races will now just feature one pro race – the women will race four events; the men the other four, before they come together for the Grand Final in Qatar. 

The idea being, in theory, that it will improve the broadcast product. There are also fewer mandatory races for the pros – it’ll be the best three scores (it’s been four this year) plus the Grand Final. 

So, again in theory, that should mean more quality fields. Another change sees no season-long contracts in 2026, which the PTO believe will provide athletes with more flexibility throughout the season.

3. The WTCS returns to the UK

After a two-year hiatus, the World Triathlon Championship Series will be making a very welcomed return to these shores over the weekend of 25‑26 July, at London’s Excel Centre, as part of the age ‑ group ‑ only T100 weekend. 

The UK had held a World Series race ever since the current ‘season ‑ long’ format launched in 2009. 

Back then it was held in what would be the location for the London Olympics triathlon – Hyde Park – before it switched to Leeds in 2016, and then Sunderland for a one ‑ off race in 2023. 

Expect to see a strong British contingent in action, including local boy – and Olympic hero – Alex Yee. 

4. New Triathlon exhibition 

Whether your goal for 2026 is to complete your first or 50th triathlon, the new exhibition ‘World of Triathlon Live’ (28‑29 March, Excel Centre, London) is designed to provide a wealth of information to help you on your journey with new products, athlete Q&As and much more! Find out more at worldoftriathlonlive.com

5. Everyone back to Kona 

Yep, the one-day, ultimate endurance party is back for 2026, when both the men’s and women’s world titles will be contested on 10 October. 

It’ll have been seven years since the champs last took place on the same day. Post-pandemic, the 2021 champs were held in St George, Utah, (in 2022) with the men and women competing on separate days. 

The 2022 champs then took place in Kona, but again over two days. From 2023-2025 the two races were then split further still – alternating between Kona and Nice, France (which will host the 70.3 Worlds). 

Concerns about equal coverage for the two events persist, but Ironman have promised a much-improved broadcast in 2026.

6. The Knibb/Charles-Barclay rematch

Images of Lucy Charles-Barclay in the arms of her husband Reece at this year’s Ironman Worlds broke millions of hearts worldwide. 

The 2023 world champion had been leading the race, but the heat and humidity took its toll, and she was forced to retire with approximately 14km left to run. 

Three-time 70.3 champion Taylor Knibb was left in control, but with 3km to go the American also called it a day, leaving Kona newbie Solveig Lovseth to claim the title. 

A devastating day for the two favourites, without question, but man alive will that have stoked a fire in them both for a rerun on 10 October 2026 – ring the date in red right now.

7. A bumper WTCS calendar

Two thousand and twenty-six not only marks the start of the LA28 Olympic Games qualification period – no, really – but the World Championship Series has announced a bumper 10-race schedule, starting, as usual, in Abu Dhabi on 27 March and ending in Pontevedra (which hosted the Grand Final in 2023) from 24-27 September. 

As well as the London leg mentioned earlier, new stops include Samarkand, Uzbekistan (25-26 April) and Quiberon, France (20 June). 

The globe-hopping multisport circus will also touch down in Yokohama, Japan (16 May), Alghero, Sardinia (5 June), Hamburg, Germany (11 July), Weihai, China (29 August) and Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic (13 September).

8. Beware the Norwegian Juggernaut 

In 2025, Norway got really greedy. It wasn’t enough for the small Scandinavian country that two of its countrymen, Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt, had already won every major title going – Olympic, World Triathlon, 70.3 and Ironman (Blummenfelt alone holds all those titles, while Iden has won the full- and half-Ironman crowns). 

No, because Casper Stornes and Solveig Lovseth also wanted in on the action; the two world champs’ newbies both winning the respective Ironman world titles. 

Iden and Blummenfelt also, naturally, made the men’s podium, making Norway only the second ever country in Ironman world champs’ history to sweep the podium (the German men did it in 2016). 

They also swept the final Ironman Pro Series standings, with Blummenfelt top, Stornes second and Iden third. Lovseth, for good measure, finished second overall in the women’s series. Expect more of the same in 2026.

9. Yee and Wilde 2.0

The 2025 WTCS season boasted a tonne of terrific tussles and breakthrough performances, yet the absence of Paris gold and silver medallists Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde was keenly felt. 

Their go- big-or-go-home attitude, almost perfectly in- sync run pace and sportsmanlike behaviour on and off the course are a huge credit to the sport and an absolute treat to behold. 

In 2025, Yee switched his focus to full- and half-marathon racing, while Wilde lit up the T100 circuit. 

Yee has already said he’ll be back to the short-course stuff in 2026, while Wilde has yet to confirm. 

If the two-time Olympic medallist wins the T100 title – and it looks very likely he will – will he decide to stick with the longer format or have one more crack at an Olympics? His impressive haul is still missing a gold medal, after all.

10. Short-course trailblazers 

We’d need another feature to detail every athlete who caught our eye in 2025, but there are several names whose performances were sit-up-and-take-notice worthy ahead of the forthcoming season. 

The short-distance domain saw Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair winning her first World Series race, in Yokohama, and dominating the supertri season to take the title after winning three of the four-race series. 

Her fellow first- time supertri champion Csonger Lehmann (HUN) likewise had some notable moments in 2025, finishing top 10 in all five of his WTCS races to finish sixth overall. 

Miguel Hidalgo also filled several headline slots in 2025, and had it not been for Matt Hauser’s career-defining season would have most likely taken his first world title. 

The 25-year-old Brazilian podiumed four times, including a debut WTCS win in Alghero – and the first for Brazil – elevating him into the top-tier conversation for 2026 and beyond. 

Germany’s Lisa Tertsch stole the limelight at the final race of the year in Wollongong, taking the win to leapfrog the top three pre-race – Lehair, Cassandre Beaugrand and Beth Potter – and claim the world title. It was just rewards for the Paris Olympics mixed relay gold medallist, having raced all eight of the series’ events and starting the year with victory in Yokohama. 

We can expect more of the same in 2026, but this time it won’t be a surprise. 

Keep an eye on Germany’s Henry Graf (WTCS Kalovy Vary winner) and the ever-consistent duo of Vasco Vilaça (POR), who finished third overall, and Léonie Périault (FRA), who was runner-up behind Tertsch.

11. Historic move in Ironman Pro Series

The M-Dot brand’s flagship series is back for a third year and will be contested over 16 races – six Ironmans, eight 70.3s, plus the two world champs – with the top five race performances of the year counting towards an athlete’s final ranking. In a nod to the sport’s near-50-year-legacy, the organisers have bookended the series with the two oldest Ironman races. 

First up is the season-opener in New Zealand, on 7 March, which was first held back in 1985. The Ironman Pro year will then close out at the sport’s oldest event – the Ironman world champs (10 October), which officially started in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1978. 

Joining Taupo as a new venue in the 2026 series will be Ironman Kalmar, Sweden, plus 70.3s Pennsylvania, Boise and Elsinore, Denmark.

12. Long-course contender

Again we’d need another feature to do everyone justice, but there’s one new-to-long-course woman who deserves a special mention: Kate Waugh. 

Waugh was the undisputed star of T100 racing in 2025, winning the opening race in Singapore in her first-ever long-distance race, and mounting the podium in every race thereafter. 

At time of writing she was leading the series with just one race to go. If she can carry that confidence and form into 2026, she’ll be unstoppable.

13. Year of the Kat

Well, technically 2026 is the year of the Fire Horse – who knew?! But bear with us as we try and make our entirely nonsensical pun work. 

As Lucy Charles-Barclay will tell you – you may be the bridesmaid but you can also be the bride. The top pro famously finished second four times on the trot at the Ironman world champs before finally climbing the top step in 2023.

Compatriot Kat Matthews is now closing in on that record with three second places to date (one on St George, one in Nice, one in Kona).

In 2025, she finished just 35 seconds behind winner Solveig Løvseth, thanks in great part to a course-record- breaking 2:47:23 marathon (that’s an average of 6:22/mile – yeah, you read that right). 

“Finishing as runner-up on three different courses is something to be proud of,” said Matthews post-race. “I think it’s perhaps a case of just embracing the challenge, whatever it may be, not saying, ‘this course suits me, this course doesn’t’. It’s more about getting as fit as I can, and attacking the challenge that’s in front of me.” 

You’d be foolhardy to bet against her going one better in 2026.