Last week, World Triathlon released its Financial Statements for 2020 and 2021. The statements were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, more commonly known as PwC, and reveal that World Triathlon finished the 2020 and 2021 financial years in a position of profit.
In this article, we will delve into the numbers and show how World Triathlon makes its money, where its major expenses lie and how it turned a profit during the pandemic.
Note, all numbers listed below are in USD.
Main Income
The Olympic Games remains short distance triathlon’s primary source of income.
In 2021, World Triathlon declared revenue of USD 2,637,197 from the Olympic Games. A year prior, in 2020, they declared revenue of 1,982,916.
In both years, this represented the largest portion of income for World Triathlon. In 2020, with the loss of income due to the various lockdowns, travel bans and loss of racing, the Olympic Games amounted to over 50% of World Triathlon’s revenue.
How does Olympic funding work?
What does it mean to say the Olympic Games was a source of revenue for World Triathlon?
In every Olympic cycle, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) distributes each sport’s share of funding from the IOC Contribution Fund. This takes place over a four year cycle based on the previous iteration of the Games. The Olympic funding from Rio de Janeiro therefore lasted through to the next Olympic Games in Tokyo and the Tokyo funding will last through to Paris and so on.
After the Tokyo Olympics, World Triathlon received 13,800,000 from the IOC.
With the funds available over the Olympic cycle, global federations can utilise the amount as they see fit.
At the start of 2021, World Triathlon still had 1,487,197 left from the Rio Olympic cycle. To that amount, they could add the 13,800,000 received after Tokyo.
Over the course of 2021, World Triathlon declared 2,637,197 as revenue, which means that they used that amount of the Olympic funding. Heading into 2022, then, World Triathlon were left with an amount of 12,650,000 of Olympic funding to be used.
(The 12.65 million comes from the 1.48 million left over from 2020, plus the 13.8 million from Tokyo, minus the 2.63 million declared as revenue.)
The Olympic Games, though, was not the only noteworthy source of income for World Triathlon.
Sponsorships accounted for 1,097,451 of revenue, representing a rise from the 665,551 declared in 2020. Moreover, television and event fees brought in 1,955,873 in 2021. As racing was actually allowed to take place in most of 2021, this naturally was a great improvement from 2020 in which World Triathlon early took in 141,921.
Other revenue streams included grants and contributions, affiliation fees and prize money received.
Total Revenue
In total, World Triathlon received 6,522,653 of revenue in 2021. That number was an encouraging bump on the 3,328,352 of 2020. At the same time, it represented a dip from both 2018 and 2019. In 2019, World Triathlon declared 8,132,060 in revenue, highlighting how there was still some way to go in terms of triathlon’s recovery from the pandemic.
Main Expenses
Revenue is only one side of the coin when it comes to an organisation’s finances and the expenses also determine whether a profit or loss has been made.
To start with, World Triathlon had to cover an array of basics. Administrative expenses cost 242,061 in 2021 while World Triathlon salaries set the organisation back by 2,022,022.
Legal and accounting expenses amounted to 30,638 and marketing costs came in at 252,270.
We then turn to the more relevant items.
Competitions and events had a total cost of 1,240,965 in 2021. By comparison, the competitions and events expenses in 2020 stood at 458,289. Anti-doping expenses also went up. In 2021, they stood at 339,599 as opposed to the 284,451 from 2020.
With the return of racing came a concomitant return of TV production costs. Having accounted no costs for this in 2020, World Triathlon declared an outgoing 647,671 in 2021.
Being an Olympic year, Olympic expenses stood at 65,876.
Finally, two of the other major expenses were the Sport Department and Development. The former saw 272,281 leave World Triathlon’s coffers, which was a rise from the 171,999 of 2020. The latter also went up in 2021. Whereas World Triathlon spend 403,317 on Development in 2020, they spent 866,440 in 2021.
President’s Salary
The Executive Board expenses stood at 103,921 in 2021. Alongside this, there is another important item to note.
The President’s Honorarium represents the salary paid to the President of World Triathlon. Marisol Casado has served in this role since 2008 and has served on the IOC since 2010. In 2021 she was renumerated 212,529 by World Triathlon. In 2020, the Honorarium stood at 210,870.
There are two approaches that stand out when it comes to evaluating the President’s Honorarium. Ms Casado has an MBA in Sports Administration and Management and previously served as the Secretary General of the Spanish Triathlon Union. Between 2002 and 2008 ran the European Triathlon Union. Among her most recent achievements as President of World Triathlon (formerly the International Triathlon Union), she succeeded in putting the Mixed Team Relay into the Tokyo Olympics, which was one of her core election pledges.
Good governance is essential for any sport. To ensure the sport can attract the necessary talent to serve in its executive body, it will need to pay the market rate.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the President’s Honorarium essentially exceeds any amount paid to an athlete. Under the current WTCS prize money guidelines, if an athlete wins four WTCS races, as well as the WTCS Final and the overall Series, they can make USD 176,000.
Therefore, one takeaway is that World Triathlon pays its President more than any athlete. That detail may come as a surprise to some.
At the same time, to compare the Honorarium and prize money in such a way is a slightly reductionist approach. Athletes also have additional sources of income and are not solely dependant on World Triathlon to make a career. Furthermore, governance and administration determine the future of the sport as much, if not more so, than any athletes.
Just as there is no product without the athletes, there is no product without good governance.
Total expenses
World Triathlon’s total expenses for 2021 thus stood at 7,342,949. In 2020, the amount stood at 4,317,378.
When factoring in the revenue made, World Triathlon made a pre-tax loss of 820,295 in 2021. (In 2020, the pre-tax loss stood at 989,026.)
However, there are two additional points to note. World Triathlon received Extraordinary Income and Financial Income in both years. The inclusion of both (which are classified separately to revenue in the Financial Statements) carried World Triathlon into positions of profit in 2020 and 2021.
As an example of the Extraordinary Income, World Triathlon were able to reclassify funds reserved for the pandemic that were not ultimately required. Said reserves were then accounted for as special income. As per the notes of the 2021 Financial Statement:
“Due to the success of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite the ongoing COViD 19 pandemic, World Triathlon did not need to use the Short Term Provision (STP) provided for the Tokyo 2020 OG. Therefore, the corresponding STP has been recognised as Extraordinary Income as at 2021YE.”
To provide a little further colour to the above statement, the STP for Tokyo stood at 250,000.
Profit
As a result, when factoring in the Extraordinary Income and Financial Income alongside the Total Revenue and Total Loss, World Triathlon made a profit of 116,852 in 2021.
In 2020, their total profit stood at 100,369.
As such, the sport appears to have weathered the financial hardship of the past few years and emerged unscathed. The fact that World Triathlon was able to remain in profit in both years represents a major success for the organisation. With sound finances, the sport should be able to survive.
On the note of profit, it should also be noted that World Triathlon is a not-for-profit association governed by the provisions of the Swiss Civil Code. The profits made in 2020 and 2021 should therefore not being distributed to any shareholders and should remain within the sport.
You can read the Financial Statement for 2021 here and for 2020 here.
