While the big news announcement last week was Friday’s T50 and T100 calendar reveal for 2027 there was also a fascinating press release a couple of days earlier from the Professional Triathletes Organisation.
It underlined that the PTO has doubled down on its belief that wearable technology can help transform triathlon’s broadcast product after announcing Meta as the ‘Official AI Wearables Partner’ of the T100 Triathlon World Tour.
The partnership will see Oakley Meta Vanguard and HSTN Performance AI glasses used to capture first-person footage from professional athletes, age-group competitors, race officials and supporters, offering fans a unique perspective of racing.
It also shines a spotlight on the very different philosophies now being adopted by the sport’s two biggest professional race organisers.
While the T100 is actively embracing wearable camera technology as part of its push to bring fans closer to the action, IRONMAN’s Global Competition Rules prohibit athletes from capturing photographs or video during races using any device, including smart glasses, with disqualification the penalty for doing so.
A new way to tell triathlon’s story
The PTO believes the partnership is another step in its drive to make professional triathlon more engaging for both existing and new audiences.
“We are very excited to be announcing this partnership,” said PTO Chief Commercial Officer Stuart Ramsey.
“Meta aligns perfectly with our desire to use innovation to transform the sport of triathlon and champion the journey of every triathlete. It represents an exciting step forward in how cutting edge technology can support endurance athletes while making triathlon more engaging and accessible for fans worldwide.”
The organisation has already trialled the technology during recent T100 events. New Zealand’s Kurt McDonald wore a pair of the glasses during the run leg of the San Francisco T100 before sharing the footage on social media, while Dutch professional Lotte Wilms has also been pictured using them during the Spain T100.
The glasses combine Oakley’s sports eyewear with Meta’s connected technology platform, but for the PTO the biggest attraction is simple: the ability to capture immersive first-person footage that conventional television cameras cannot.
‘Bring triathlon closer to people’
Germany’s Lasse Nygaard Priester, the runner-up on what was his T100 debut in San Francisco, is another athlete who has already tested the technology and we caught up with him recently to get his perspective.
“The more we can bring triathlon closer to people, the cooler it is,” he told TRI247.
“I saw something from Kurt McDonald and I think they were posting videos from his race on Instagram – I think it was the first in-race test.”
Priester admits, however, that wearing a camera while racing is an added challenge.
“It’s not so easy to be racing and being a camera. You’ve got enough to think about!
“But anything that takes it to a wider audience has got to be a good thing. It’s cool the way T100 is thinking. They bring a little bit of a new spirit to the sport.”
Different visions
The contrasting approaches are perhaps best illustrated by the organisations’ respective positions on in-race filming.
Earlier this year, IRONMAN updated its competition rules to explicitly prohibit athletes from using cameras, phone cameras or smart glasses to capture photographs or video during races, clarifying a long-standing position as wearable technology continues to evolve.
The T100, meanwhile, is taking a markedly different approach, making smart glasses an official part of its ecosystem and viewing first-person athlete footage as another way of enhancing its broadcast offering and engaging fans..
The announcement has prompted debate among some observers over whether connected smart glasses could theoretically be used to receive outside assistance through features such as messaging or AI services – or even simply having the opportunity to listen to music while racing.
However, many of the connected functions of the glasses rely on being paired with a smartphone – something professional triathletes would not ordinarily carry during competition – meaning their practical use in elite racing is expected to centre on capturing video rather than accessing connected services.
Whether wearable cameras become a permanent fixture of professional triathlon remains to be seen. What is already clear, though, is that the sport’s leading race organisers have adopted very different visions of how emerging technology should be used, with the T100 viewing it as another opportunity to bring fans inside the race itself.
