EDITORIAL

THE HEADLINE, WHILE a bit deceiving, signaled the basic intent of the fledgling Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), the group that put on the championship event that became the highlight of the 2020 triathlon season in Daytona, Fla.

“A New Challenge for Professional Triathletes: Toppling Ironman Inc.,” was the headline that appeared in the Dec. 4 edition of the New York Times. The article went on to describe how the PTO is looking to create a series of races similar to the Grand Slams in tennis or the Majors in golf. There will be four such races, coupled with the Collins Cup, an event modelled on golf’s Ryder Cup, the next big event on the PTO schedule scheduled to take place in May in Samorin, Slovakia. The goal, the article suggests, is that pros will own their own events and compete at those, but full-distance specialists will still be able to participate in a few Ironman events a year to ensure they can compete in Kona.

Armed with a ton of cash courtesy of Welsh billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, the PTO has embarked on an aggressive and ambitious program, forging ahead despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In April the organization paid out the year-end bonuses ahead of time to help athletes out, adding an extra $500,000 to bring the total bonus pool to $2.5 million. It recently announced a maternity program that will pay athletes for 15 months around their pregnancy. Then, of course, there was the PTO 2020 Championship, which offered $1.15 million in prize money and guaranteed that every athlete who finished would at least head home with a US$2,500 cheque.

Partnering up with Challenge Daytona, the PTO event took place in the iconic Daytona International Speedway, which has been hosting events for much of the year. The speedway staff had COVID-19 protocols dialled in, too, testing the pros, and ensuring age group competitors and volunteers stayed safe, too. Nascar productions was brought in to take care of the coverage, bringing a completely new look to the way we’re used to watching triathlon races.

With just over 3,000 athletes in all the events, its hard not to look back at the weekend of racing in Daytona as a huge success. As you’ll read in our coverage, the fields were stacked and all but a few of the sport’s biggest names were on hand. While the folks at Ironman probably aren’t feeling like things are “toppling,” the PTO came out of the gates for its first event in pretty good shape.

“Hopefully everyone saw the glimmer of how entertaining triathlon can be,” said PTO CEO Sam Renouf. “That’s what this event was all about – to start with a basic plan, we knew with COVID-19 we couldn’t do everything that we wanted to, but I think we put on a good show and it’s a good glimmer of what can happen in the future.”

It is certainly not going to get any easier for the PTO in 2021. Covering the Collins Cup in the Slovakian countryside will be considerably more challenging than it was to follow athletes around a four km track that’s dialled in for television coverage.

Money takes care of a lot of things, though, and, for now, the PTO has lots of that. We also know just how entertaining it can be to watch some of the world’s greatest triathletes compete, which is a mainstay of what the PTO is looking to do.

Triathlon has always been an interesting mix of competitive racing and lifestyle participation. We’ve seen that embodied in the Ironman coverage for years – coming up with the balance of pro racing and inspirational profiles has always been a challenging mix for producers. The PTO is banking that fans will be drawn to the pros and their athletic achievements in the same way that Nascar fans love the drivers, and tennis or golf fans are drawn to the professionals on their tours.

Here’s hoping it works, and that there’s no “toppling” of any organizations and that the sport grows so that we all can continue to enjoy this lifestyle and watch our multisport heroes like Paula Findlay and Lionel Sanders, the top Canadian finishers in Daytona, compete with the world’s best.