The middle (and long) distance landscape has been transformed in the last couple of seasons thanks to the PTO’s T100 Triathlon World Tour and the IRONMAN Pro Series.
The PTO were the catalyst for change – but IRONMAN’s response to create the Pro Series in 2024 has meant more money than ever before is on offer for the top athletes, something which will continue in 2026 and hopefully well beyond.
But in the season just gone there was limited crossover between the two – Kat Matthews bossed the women’s IRONMAN Pro Series for the second year in a row but not once did she race against T100 champion Kate Waugh.
That duo were the highest female earners of the year and it was a similar story on the men’s side with Kristian Blummenfelt and Hayden Wilde. They too were the respective winners of the two series and also topped the money list – but you have to go back to the Olympic Games in Paris for the last time they were on a start line together.
Here’s our verdict on how things have played out in 2025 from a pro perspective – and how the future is looking…
The story so far
The first big difference between the two is that the nine T100 races were essentially limited fields – around 20 men and women at each of them. They were mixed between those who had qualified by finishing in the top 10 of the overall standings the previous year, those invited as ‘Hot Shots’, which included eventual winners Waugh and Wilde, various ‘Wildcards’ and more.
It’s a complex system and the contract aspect has been ditched for 2026. Ironically the strength in depth at times in 2025 was way off the PTO Opens which pre-dated the current T100.
But with so much choice on offer, you’re not going to get stacked fields every weekend and it was a similar case for plenty of the IRONMAN Pro Series events.
The difference there though is that IRONMAN didn’t have to create any new races, they already existed and it was more a case of putting the Pro Series structure around them. Higher profiles for many of the races and added incentives to the athletes so essentially a simple win-win situation.
They were also open to all so long as you got in before they filled up so in terms of the smoother process and ease of understanding, it was advantage the Pro Series.
Prize money comparison
Again, there’s a fundamental difference in that the event prizemoney at pretty much every Pro Series race already existed.
Some of those are hefty too – £750,000 at the IRONMAN World Championship, with $125,000 to the two winners. But it’s not new money.
The $1.7million bonus pool is though and it’s shared among the top 50 finishers in each gender, with $200,000 to winners Matthews and Blummenfelt in 2025.
That compares to an identical £200,000 for the T100 overall champions, but there’s significantly more up or grabs for positions 2-10. Finish 10th in the Pro Series and you get $10,000 whereas it’s $70,000 in T100 terms.
All of which means just under $3million is distributed by the T100, though this time just between the top 20. And in addition there has been $250,000 at each race, with each of the winners taking home $25,000.
But when things all played out there was actually very little between the top earners. Blummenfelt was always in pole position in the men’s Pro Series and collected a total of $353,500 which was almost exactly the same as Wilde ($355,000) after his T100 dominance.
For the women, less than $15,000 separated Waugh and Matthews. But right up in both lists were the IMWC winners Solveig Løvseth and Casper Stornes who also both passed the $300,000 mark and each finished fourth in the combined money standings.
And where there was some crossover came from the two in third place – Lucy Charles-Barclay and Jelle Geens. That pair not only won the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship but also collected significant T100 prizemoney. LCB was third overall in the T100 for an additional $150,000, exactly the same as Geens.
How have the fields stacked up
This is now a tough one to weigh up as the PTO’s ‘strength of field’ metric is so heavily slanted towards T100 races that it’s hard to suggest it provides an accurate view.
What we can say is that the T100 especially and the Pro Series to a lesser extent have benefitted from this being the first year after an Olympics as a whole host of short-course stars have stepped up to make middle-distance racing more competitive than ever, no wonder given the current prizemoney on offer.
And the likes of Waugh and Løvseth have moved so effectively to the ramped up distances that they’ve been able to make their mark straight away.
How that plays out over the next few years as LA2028 comes into view remains to be seen. For if even the great Kristian Blummenfelt was unable to successfully juggle Olympic distance and middle / full last year, it illustrates just how tough that is.
And no one has combined T100 and Pro Series better than Kat Matthews did in 2024 but even she decided that wasn’t possible in 2025 if she wanted to contend for a first IMWC crown.
But the good news for athletes and hopefully fans is that 2026 sees a pared down T100 calendar. Rather than eight races each for women and men before the Grand Final in Qatar, it will be just four. That will surely make it easier for the top names to pick and choose their schedules – and race against each other more often.
Do the titles really matter?
The PTO has made much of the fact that the T100 winners are official world champions thanks to their partnership with World Triathlon.
But when push comes to shove, the prestige of a 70.3 world title and especially an IRONMAN World Championship in Kona still currently trumps everything bar Olympic gold.
Taylor Knibb was the reigning T100 champ this year and still in the mix to defend her title but she didn’t head to Qatar, instead signing off her season with a runner-up spot at the 70.3 Worlds just a week before.
That sort of scheduling wasn’t doing anyone any favours and looks to have largely been avoided next year, made way easier by that reduced T100 programme.
The broadcasts
You’d have called this a mismatch at the start of the year.
The T100 had already raised the bar significantly with its broadcasts, with the likes of triathlon great Jan Frodeno an instant natural behind the mic imparting his wisdom – and also there on the ground.
Contrast that to an IRONMAN output which seemed more product placement than live action and often studio based.
But in common with much of the T100 / Pro Series dynamic, both have helped push each other to vastly-improved offerings.
IRONMAN’s broadcasts have been way more engaging than in the past, helped by some great insights from current or former pros, either there on the ground or on live calls.
The data still hasn’t been nailed by either though. The T100 live metrics have been much vaunted but countless times this season there have been blips which make it hard for viewers and commentators to completely trust what they are seeing. And that was brought home by what happened in Dubai with the lap-counting fiasco.
That also underlined just how much the setting helps the broadcast product – the countless laps in the likes of Dubai and London were worlds away from the spectacular one-lap bike loop (for the pros at least) at T100 French Riviera.
And it’s good to hear that IRONMAN already have plans to introduce Starlink satellite technology for some of their more off-the-beaten track Pro Series races in 2026.
How is 2026 looking?
At this stage, things are shaping up nicely for 2026 for both athletes and fans, even if 2027 is very much up in the air in terms of how that PTO / World Triathlon ‘merger’ will play out.
It feels as if the PTO have pivoted again by going down to four female / four male races before they come together in Qatar. But as we have already said, we believe it should work much better.
IRONMAN meanwhile look to have played it beautifully right from the start of the Pro Series. There have been minimal changes to their overall race structure but the bonus fund has given athletes added incentive and made the racing more competitive – and not just for the podium positions given the ‘every second matters’ scoring system.
In terms of 2026 they also appear to have more early commitment from the biggest names, with the Norwegians heading what should be some stellar fields early on in the season.
So it appears advantage to the Pro Series at this point, especially as the Dubai T100 chaos is still fresh in the memory.
But there are aspects which aren’t as effective as the T100 – the standings for example can be taken with a big pinch of salt until we get to the World Championships – probably all the more so in 2026 when the men and women are back together in Kona at the end of the campaign.
And if we’re being honest, when the action at Kona is playing out are there really going to be many viewers who care what’s happening in terms of the Pro Series picture?
Ultimately though the T100 Triathlon World Tour and IRONMAN’s response to it has taken longer-distance racing to the next level for the season as a whole.
And if 2026 can see the two exist side by side more effectively and keep raising the bar then fans, viewers and the athletes should all benefit.
