As 2023 ends are the Professional Triathletes Organisation on track with their goals and aspirations for the sport and themselves?
There’s no doubt their PTO Tour races– 3 in 2022 and the exact same number this year– have actually galvanised the triathlon landscape by bring in the best professional athletes to routinely race versus each other for what, in triathlon terms, is big prizemoney.
And now the IRONMAN Pro Series, which has actually been revealed for 2024, appears a direct action and includes more considerable cash into the swimming pool.
We’ll search in more information early next year at the characteristics of the PTO, IRONMAN, World Triathlon and others co-existing in what’s most likely to be a jam-packed calendar.
Putting the spotlight simply on the PTO for now, can they not just take triathlon to a far broader audience however likewise provide for Sir Michael Moritz and their other significant financiers?
‘We’re ahead of our financier metric’
We took a seat with the PTO’s CEO Sam Renouf and among the very first concerns we asked was how far are they from success– and what does he view as the essential actions to arriving.
And he informed us: “There is not a public course to success that we’ve shared, however we’re ahead of our financier metric is most likely the very best method of stating it. Our financiers are really delighted.
This is a double-down. Therefore the financiers have actually been encouraging of the journey that we’re taking.
“We believe we truly have actually revealed over the last 2 years the capacity that triathlon can go mainstream. It’s not an over night thing. You can’t snap a switch.
“Look at roadway biking in the UK– it was relatively specific niche before Sky doubled down on it. 5 or 6 years of focused effort from numerous different celebrations, and biking ended up being mainstream. We believe it’ll be a comparable sort of journey and most likely a comparable type of timeframe for us.”
‘It’s about doing more’
Simply 2 PTO races have actually been revealed up until now for next season and their complete schedule will not be launched till early 2024 however the expectation is for a minimum of another 4 occasions in addition to Singapore and Ibiza, with Renouf including: “This next year is an advancement of the strategy in rather a huge method. When we initially began, we discussed producing an equivalent of the majors, which would just be 4 races.
“But we discovered rather rapidly that the traction we were receiving from media was that this can be a tv sport, however for it to be really important and get cut through, we require more volume. Therefore that’s why we’ve actually developed now into a sort of PTO 2.0– it’s about doing more.
The PTO’s CEO Sam Renouf [Photo credit: PTO]
“We’re certainly even more ahead than where I expected being with tv and starting to get the sort of traction with sponsorships that we ‘d like.”
Essential to that for Renouf is the broadcast item.