Ironman will pump an extra $1.7m into professional prize money next year by launching a new Pro Series that looks to reward athletes who loyally take part in its events.
Mirroring the approach of the Profession Triathletes Organisation (PTO), the money will be given out through year-end bonuses to its top 50 ranked pros, with the No1 ranked male and female set to pocket $200k each.
This is in addition to the existing Ironman pro prize money awarded at races, making a total pro prize and bonus purse of nearly $6 million in 2024.
The change will see 18 events, a mixture of Ironmans and Ironman 70.3s, given Pro Series status, with triathletes best scores in up to five races – and a maximum of three at full distance – counting towards their final points tally.
Points will be awarded on the time deficit to the winner, with first place taking the maximum points and subsequent finishers dropping a point a second.
Ironman reacts
“This is us reacting to what we've seen in the last year or so, which is that we don’t see the top athletes racing with us as much as we want to,” Ironman chief executive Andrew Messick said.
“We see that a meaningful number of prominent professional athletes race with us enough to qualify for our world championships, but spend the rest of the calendar focused on other racing series.
“That’s fine. We’ve never attempted to limit pro athletes from racing in other series. We understand they always have and I suspect they always will.
“But we’d like to see more of them and it’s an opportunity for more athletes to race a higher percentage of their season in our ecosystem.”
Open to all
Unlike the PTO year-end rankings that award $100,000 to the top ranked athletes, only Ironman races will count towards the bonus.
The PTO includes its own PTO Tour races, plus Ironmans, Challenge races and a select number of independent events where the prize purse is high enough.
The Ironman Pro Series is also open to any pro who holds a pro licence. “We have 1,000 professional athletes and this series is open to all of them. Anyone who is a pro is entitled to race in any of the 18 races and able to score points like anybody else,” Messick added.
“Our goal isn’t to contract triathletes to create exclusivity or requirements to race with us. It would be a mistake for us. For other people, I’ll let them answer that question.”
The Pro Series will not affect the qualification criteria for the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 World Championships, but the prize purse for the Ironman 70.3 Worlds is being increased to $500K, as Messick says he wants to make good on his commitment to make it “the second most important triathlon in the world after the Ironman World Championship”.
The 70.3 Worlds in New Zealand in December will be the final race in the 2024 series, which kicks off in California in April.
You can see the full breakdown of races and prize money below.
2024 Ironman Pro Series Schedule
- 6 April: Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, California, USA
- 27 April: Ironman north American Championship Texas, USA
- 4 May: Ironman 70.3 North American Championship St George, Utah, USA
- 11 May: Ironman 70.3 Alcudia, Mallorca
- 19 May: Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
- 2 June: Ironman European Championship Hamburg (female pro), Hamburg, Germany
- 8 June: Ironman 70.3 Boulder, Colorado, USA
- 16 June: Ironman Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- 23 June: Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
- 30 June: Ironman 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne, Vendee, France
- 16 July: Ironman Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
- 21 July: Ironman Lake Placid, New York, USA
- 18 August: Ironman European Championship Frankfurt (male pro), Frankfurt, Germany
- 25 August: Ironman 70.3 European Championship Tallinn, Estonia
- 1 September: Ironman 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun, Austria
- 22 September: Women’s Ironman World Championship, Nice, France
- 24 October: Men’s Ironman World Championship, Kona, Hawaii
- 1 December: Ironman 70.3 Western Australia, Basselton, Western Australia
- 14-15 December: Ironman 70.3 World Championship, Taupo, New Zealand
2024 Ironman Pro Series pro money
Based on the standings at the end of the year, here’s the prize money athletes can win (in US dollars).
- 1st: $200,000
- 2nd: $130,000
- 3rd: $85,000
- 4th: $70,000
- 5th: $50,000
- 6th: $ 40,000
- 7th: $30,000
- 8th: $20,000
- 9th: $15,000
- 10th: $10,000
- Total top 10: $650,000 ($1,300,000 combined male and female)
- 11th-50th: Equal payments of $5,000, totalling $200,000 ($400,000 combined male and female)
- Grand total bonus pool (combined male and female): $1,700,000
Top image credit: Kyle Rivas/Getty Images for Ironman
