This is a preview of the 2022 Collins Cup – click here for reports on all 12 matchups as Team Europe dominated from start to finish.
The Collins Cup is back for its second edition this coming Saturday, 20 August 2022.
Team Europe delivered on their pre-race favourites status to win 12 months ago – and will be odds-on to repeat that again this year. Their team of 12 includes the top four ranked male and female athletes in the PTO’s World Ranking system – and their Captains’ Picks are hardly weak either. Can they be stopped?
What is the Collins Cup?
Golf’s Ryder Cup is in the inspiration behind the Collins Cup format, which will feature 12 three-athlete ‘matches’, with points earned in those going towards the overall points totals of the three competing teams – Europe, USA and Internationals.
This two minute explainer video from the PTO gives a swift summary on how it all works. As explained in the video, points earned in each match are a combination of finishing position (1st / 2nd / 3rd), and potential bonus points for margin of victory.
How can I watch on TV and live stream?
The 2022 Collins Cup takes place on Saturday August 20 in Šamorín, Slovakia as the world’s best descend on the purpose-built x-bionic® sphere.
The racing action gets under way at 1300 CET (1200 UK, 0700 Eastern, 0400 Pacific). With the women’s matches starting first and spaced 10 minutes apart, the final of the six women’s starts is at 1350.
The first men’s match will then start at 1420 CET, and again, there will be 10 minutes between each race start, with the final match of the competition kicking off at 1510 local time.
We would love you to follow the race via our LIVE Updates alongside the broadcast, and you will be able to watch the event live (in Europe and Indian subcontinent) via Eurosport / Discovery+ / GCN+.
In the rest of the world there are a host of local broadcast options, as well as the PTO+ app. Check your local coverage for broadcast start times.
There are two other key timings to note too – both of which will be broadcast live on the PTO+ app:
- Thursday 18 August: Opening Ceremony
- Friday 19 August: Press Conference
The Opening Ceremony takes place at 1800 local time (1700 UK, 1200 Eastern, 0900 Pacific).
The Press Conference on Friday takes place at 1330 local time (1230 UK, 0730 Eastern, 0430 Pacific)
The Opening Ceremony also includes the athlete draft, when we will find out who will be racing who in the 12 Europe vs. USA vs. Internationals matches. We will of course bring you the full rundown on that separately, swiftly after they have been announced.
CLICK HERE FOR ALL OF THE MATCHUPS
Big Money and big name athletes
With a total of $1.5million paid out to the 36 competing athletes, there is a significant financial incentive for every athlete either auto-qualified for, or selected via Captains’ Pick (Europe | USA | Internationals) to race at the x-Bionic sphere in Slovakia.
Once selected, the prize money is allocated on the basis of relative PTO World Rankings, as applied to the Special Collins Cup Qualification Protocol for 2022, and split equally between men and women. Thus, the higher your ranking at the cutoff date within that Protocol, the bigger slice of the overall pie that you get served.
As the PTO’s #1 ranked selected athletes, Kristian Blummenfelt and Daniela Ryf will thus be rewarded with a $90,000 prize purse, for example.
By contrast, Olympic & Commonwealth champion, Flora Duffy, and Olympic bronze / Commonwealth silver and current WTCS series leader, Hayden Wilde, will receive the lowest purses, as neither athlete currently features in the latest PTO World Rankings.
That allocation is as follows (with the athlete names / PTO rankings our unofficial – but we think accurate (!) – interpretation of that logic).
| 1 | $90,000 | Kristian Blummenfelt (1) / Daniel Ryf (1) |
| 2 | $80,000 | Gustav Iden (2) / Anne Haug (2) |
| 3 | $70,000 | Patrick Lange (3) / Laura Philipp (3) |
| 4 | $60,000 | Magnus Ditlev (4) / Kat Matthews (4) |
| 5 | $55,000 | Lionel Sanders (5) / Paula Findlay (7**) |
| 6 | $50,000 | Braden Currie (6) / Skye Moench (6**) |
| 7 | $45,000 | Daniel Bækkegård (7) / Ashleigh Gentle (8) |
| 8 | $40,000 | Matt Hanson (9) / Chelsea Sodaro (11) |
| 9 | $35,000 | Sam Long (10) / Holly Lawrence (12) |
| 10 | $32,000 | Sam Laidlow (11) / Jackie Hering (13) |
| 11 | $30,000 | Max Neumann (13) / Nicola Spirig (16) |
| 12 | $28,000 | Rudy Von Berg (14) / Tamara Jewett (17) |
| 13 | $26,000 | Chris Leiferman (17) / Jocelyn McCauley (18) |
| 14 | $24,000 | Jackson Laundry (18) / Ellie Salthouse (20) |
| 15 | $23,000 | Ben Kanute (19) / Sophie Watts (23) |
| 16 | $22,000 | Jason West (28) / Sarah True (61) |
| 17 | $21,000 | Aaron Royle (43) / Vittoria Lopes (152) |
| 18 | $20,000 | Hayden Wilde (NR) / Flora Duffy (NR) |
[** NOTE: As as 25th July 2022, Skye Moench is #6 and Paula Findlay #7 in the PTO World Rankings as noted above. However, the Collins Cup Qualification Protocol is very slightly different to the World Rankings (athletes gain a 10% points bonus for the PTO Canadian Open, rather than 5% within the regular rankings), and thus for Collins Cup prize money purposes, Paula actually jumps ‘above’ Skye].
Why is it called the Collins Cup?
The competition is named after Judy and John Collins, who helped introduce the idea of long-distance triathlon events on the shores of Hawaii – which eventually led to the introduction of the IRONMAN World Championship.
The couple designed a course which took competitors around the idyllic island that tested the endurance of the ‘all-round athlete’. Initially based on the island of Oahu, the event comprised of the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, the Around Oahu Bike Race and Honolulu Marathon, which provide the origins of the 2.4-mile / 112-mile / 26.2-mile distances.
The original race around Hawaii consisted of 15 participants, planting the seed for the global spectacle that has become long distance triathlon.
The PTO was keen to honour the duo, and by naming this landmark event after Judy and John, have created a much deserved accolade for the founders of endurance triathlon.
