We take another small step closer now to the delayed 2021 IRONMAN World Championship set for St George, Utah, on May 7 2022 – while the list of athletes qualified to race has been known for a while, we now have the final start lists with bib numbers.

Pro Men racing at St George

A total of 40 athletes are scheduled to start in the Men’s Pro race, with several notable withdrawals already known, including multiple winners Jan Frodeno and Patrick Lange. We can now add Spain’s Javier Gomez and Britain’s Joe Skipper to the list of known absentees with their hopes shattered by COVID-19.

On Friday, the very eve of the race, we had yet more bad news with both double 70.3 World Champion Gustav Iden and double Olympic Champion Alistair Brownlee both being added to the list of high-profile absentees.

With defending champion Frodeno out, the only previous IRONMAN World Champion set to start for the men – Germany’s Sebastian Kienle – has been given the lowest start number (M2).

Aside from 2014 Kona champion Kienle, the only previous IRONMAN World Championship podium finishers are Ben Hoffman (M4), Bart Aernouts (M8), Lionel Sanders (M16), David McNamee (M38).

The USA – with Sam Long arguably its top pick for podium success – leads the way in volume terms with eight athletes, followed by France and Germany with five each.

Start list and bib numbers – Pro Men