We may be still in January but we are just weeks away from what promises to be a sensational start to the professional triathlon season.
First up is Challenge Family – there will be some pros using the incredible setting of Challenge Sir Bani Yas as a tune-up for the upcoming campaign on the last weekend in January but the season proper will explode into life at Challenge Wānaka.
New Zealand will also host the IRONMAN Pro Series opener in March, just before the T100 also gets under way in the southern hemisphere with the Gold Coast T100.
And an eagerly-awaited WTCS campaign kicks off that month too in Abu Dhabi – read on to find out more…
Challenge Wānaka – 21st February
There are few more scenic settings than Wānaka in the south island of New Zealand and this event sees the professionals return in 2026 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the race.
The likes of Fred Funk, Tom Bishop, Lucy Byram and home favourite Bec Clarke are all intended starters for what is a 1.9km swim in Lake Wānaka, a 90km bike out towards Mt Aspiring National Park, and a 21.1km run along the Wānaka lakefront and trails.
Click here for full Challenge Family 2026 schedule.
IRONMAN New Zealand – 7th March
Staying in the land of the long white cloud, this is the longest-running IRONMAN event outside of the World Championships in Hawaii.
And it has the honour this year of being the opening race in the IRONMAN Pro Series and is set to get a field worthy of that billing.
Reigning men’s Pro Series champ Kristian Blummenfelt has already confirmed that both he and Gustav Iden are heading there for the first time as they start their build up to another potential Norwegian clean sweep at the IRONMAN World Championship.
Indeed there’s every chance that the first four Pro Series races (70.3 Geelong comes next on 22nd March, followed by 70.3 Oceanside on the 28th and then IRONMAN Texas on 18th April) will feature incredible pro fields as athletes look to rack up the points early in the season.
Click here for 2026 IRONMAN / 70.3 calendar.
Gold Coast T100 – 21st March
The big news for the T100 this season is the split between women and men for the first eight races of the campaign and it all gets under way with the women taking centre stage on Australia’s Gold Coast.
They provided many brilliant battles last year and it all went down to the Grand Final where Kate Waugh just got the better of Julie Derron and Lucy Charles-Barclay in the overall standings.
Taylor Knibb was right in the mix for much of the season, Ashleigh Gentle bagged a win too and the likes of Jess Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown were to the fore as well so we’re hoping for more of the same in 2026.
A tweak to the PTO’s ranking format means Waugh starts the season as world #1 after leapfrogging Charles-Barclay and in terms of the make-up of the fields for the regular-season races, the PTO told us: “There will be a minimum of two invitational wildcards per T100 race in 2026. Last season’s top 10 of the T100 Race To Qatar will be invited to the Gold Coast and the next eight slots go to the top-30 in the rankings who decide to race. If there are slots remaining, they will become invitational as well.”
And there are any number of intriguing wildcard possibilities – Cassandre Beaugrand and Beth Potter anyone?
The first men’s race will be Singapore T100 at the end of April.
Click here for T100 calendar and more on those 2026 changes.
WTCS Abu Dhabi – 27th March
It’s a slightly later start this year for a bumper World Triathlon Championship Series featuring no less than 10 races (including London), culminating with the Grand Final in Pontevedra.
Abu Dhabi has been a staple on the calendar and in 2025 saw wins for Lisa Tertsch and Hayden Wilde.
Tertsch of course would go on to win a first world title after getting the better of Cassandre Beaugrand and Beth Potter in thrilling fashion in the finale in Wollongong.
Wilde meanwhile dominated the T100 and the format of that series this season (just four races per gender before the final) and the WTCS campaign (best four results count before Pontevedra) looks to give him a realistic chance of battling for a world title on two fronts if he chooses.
It will also be fascinating to see the WTCS return of Olympic champion Alex Yee after his incredible marathon exploits in 2025. It could be some battle for the title between Yee, Wilde and reigning champ Matt Hauser, who put together a perfect campaign last year.
Click here for 2026 WTCS schedule.
What’s missing?
So it’s some start to the season but the two highest-profile indoor triathlons are both off the calendar in 2026.
The T1 Liévin World Triathlon Indoor Cup has been postponed but will hopefully return in 2027 while Supertri have announced that they are pausing their Supertri E world championship in 2026 after the decision by the International Olympic Committee to cancel its Esports Games.
And talking of Supertri, their 2026 schedule is still to be confirmed from a pro perspective though they promise it will “culminate in the Supertri League Final carrying the biggest one-day purse in triathlon”.
