Sometimes the best way to move forwards is to take a step backwards.
For fifteen years, elite short distance triathlon has been held up by the World Triathlon Championship Series (or the WTCS). The Series has brought together the best triathletes in the world over the course of around six to eight races (with four races usually counting towards an athlete’s score) before a Final is held at the end of the year. The world champion is then determined based on the points accrued over the season.
It is a format that has seen notable success and has brought about some spectacular racing, not least with the finales to the men’s 2022 and 2023 seasons.
However, the question remains as to whether it is the best way of organising the sport. Furthermore, a better option may actually reside in what preceded the WTCS.
Prior to 2009, the world title was decided at a single-day world championships. Around the world championships, a World Cup season took place at which athletes could race, sharpen their skills and fitness, and earn their keep as professional athletes.
On balance, the single-day world championships may represent the best path forwards for triathlon today.
One of the core driving forces behind a return to the single-day world championships is consideration of athlete welfare. As things stand, a lot is expected of athletes. The volume of racing has made the calendar a real grind for some. Although that is not entirely down to the WTCS – in reality, the process of Olympic qualification holds greater culpability – it is nevertheless true that expecting athletes to participate in a Series that runs for over six months creates a taxing burden, both physically and mentally.
In some cases, athletes may even need to be protected from themselves. There are plenty of accounts of athletes that have raced through pain and clear red flags to keep going. The WTCS structure, with its emphasis on repeat racing, only reinforces this mindset.
Of course, a single-day world championship may prove unfair on injured athletes. Those with an ill-timed issue would lose their shot at the biggest race of the year. Yet injuries happen nonetheless.
The greater danger is the athlete that thinks they can rush a return to make up ground in the Series only to hurt themselves in the long run. Injuries already cost athletes world title shots under the WTCS structure. The difference with a single-day world championships would be to make it easier for them to accept that their season has gone.
To compare triathlon to other sports, the WTCS is also somewhat of an outlier.
We cannot pretend that the grind of the triathlon season is unique. Sports like tennis and cycling have similarly brutal calendars. As such, we do not intend to make an argument for triathlon being any more or less gruelling than another sport.
What we can say., however, is that the Series does not match up with comparable sports. Swimming, cycling, track and field, rowing, gymnastics and more all utilise a single-day world championship. Tennis does not formally have a world championship per se; the end of season finals are close but their are not as valued as a Grand Slam. The Slams, though, make up for any world championship.
Most of the sports with a comparable structure to the Series are different to triathlon either in character – such as Formula 1 – or in wealth – such as any ball sports league, like football (Formula 1 is likewise considerably richer than triathlon).
One benefit to the WTCS is that it ostensibly brings cohesion to the sport. However, it seems that the sport is trying to enter a club for which it does not have the facilities. With none of the fan base, money or history that other series possess, triathlon is a bit of an odd man out.
Even the point of cohesion can be debated.
One outcome of the WTCS is to manufacture a different narrative than would otherwise be the case with a single-day world championship. The central aspect that the Series removes is the sense of build-up to the Final. By that, we mean the suspense and uncertainty. After an entire WTCS season, it is already clear what each athlete can do.
Take track and field or swimming; athletes can still log incredible performances (even breaking world records) in the build-up to a world championship, but there will always be a unique pressure of the event itself. If the WTCS Final is just another WTCS stop, that sense of aura and uncertainty is removed.
In a single-day world championships structure, triathletes would be able to log astonishing performances at races in the World Cup season. Their challenge would then be to back it up at the world championship when it truly counted.
Another factor that the WTCS compromises is the cast of potential winners. On their day, any of Georgia Taylor-Brown, Taylor Knibb or Sophie Coldwell (and more) could be a world champion. None, however, were in contention to win this year’s women’s WTCS.
While both women’s Series have been alive going into the final race, only two women have been in a position to win the world title, which rather reduces the significance of the rest of the field.
In a single-day world championship, in which any of half a dozen or more women hold legitimate world title chances, the racing would be far more suspenseful.
The last two denouements of the men’s WTCS have been fantastic. That cannot be disputed and they present a clear case for keeping the WTCS. Yet they still invited a limited cast of potential winners. When race winners like Jelle Geens, Vincent Luis, Kristian Blummenfelt and more become after thoughts in a world title race, the sport is not making the most of the assets at its disposal.
When only a couple of men (or even five like in 2023) can win the title, it narrows the scope of the race too much. By contrast, if ten or more men can win, the race suddenly crackles with life.
Another benefit of moving to a single-day world championship would be to restore the Continental Championships, the other single-day championship on the calendar. As things stand, Continental Championships do not really have a proper place and feel more like an after-thought than anything.
Similarly, a single-day world championship would repair the standing of the World Cup circuit. Since the creation of the WTCS, the World Cups have become a strange second tier that does not quite have a space. They are world-level races at which the world’s best seldom race. Aside from offering additional chances to accrue Olympic qualification points, what is the point of them right now?
The chasm between the WTCS and World Cup is anecdotally growing so the value of World Cup experience is also diminishing.
We have separately proposed a system of promotion and relegation between the WTCS and World Cup levels, which could stand as an alternative to switching back to a single-day world championship. Whatever is done, something is out of kilter in the balance between the Series and the World Cups.
Moving away from the WTCS could also be the environmentally sound choice. Without the pressure to race intercontinentally, athletes could remain in their own continent for more of the season. As exotic as it is to jet around the world for races, it is not the best approach for all athletes, nor is it ideal for the environment. If the sport is serious about its green commitments, travel is an obvious source of fat to trim.
The 2023 WTCS season was actually better than previous iterations when it came to air miles and jumping across oceans. Moreover, athletes have autonomy and can race wherever they choose. The point is that racing on three continents (or more as has previously been the case) is not always necessary.
Ultimately, the entire question comes back to the rationale of the WTCS. When inaugurated, the plan was for the Series to jump-start the next era of the sport and capitalise on its first few appearances at the Olympic Games.
Yet while the sport is in a good position, it has not made giant strides forward.
The finances of World Triathlon are not noticeably better than they were before 2009 when the Series started. Additionally, in real terms, athlete pay has gone down in the last decade. Far from ushering in a new dawn, the WTCS has not moved the needle. Rather, World Triathlon now has a watchable and good product, but not something that a proven trajectory.
Part of the issue here may be the casual fan. Die-hard triathlon fans will follow the Series (let’s be honest, you would not be reading TriStats right now if you weren’t keenly interested in the sport).
However, the casual fan does not want to commit to eight races a year. They also want to know that they races they do watch matter.
For casual fans (and some of those that are passionate about the sport), there has been some confusion at the fact that Alex Yee has won more WTCS races than any man in the past two years but has not become world champion. He has been close, but his dominance has not translated into a crown.
As much as the Finals in Abu Dhabi and Pontevedra were gripping, they do not help the casual fan. It was amazing to watch the upsets unfold, but if a casual fan asks who the best male triathlete in the world is, what would be the best answer?
Is the answer Coninx, the world champion who has one WTCS win in the past two seasons? Or is it Yee, the man with six wins in two years? We shall leave this as a rhetorical question because it is surprisingly difficult to answer.
Not all WTCS races matter as athletes do not need to race at them to fulfil their quota of scores. Based on recent history, it would seem that frequent dominance does not matter either. Mathematical probabilities of becoming world champion based on possible points will interest some. The casual fan will not go for it.
A valid question can be asked here. Why prioritise the casual fan? The reason is simple. There are more of them than there are hardcore fans.
If the sport is to grow it needs to catch them first and then deepen their interest over time. Every single sport in the world is in an arms race to recruit more fans. In most cases, they are tapped out in terms of those that already like their sport and so the fertile ground lies with casual fans who are yet to fully embrace it.
In track and field or swimming, more people are interested in the world championships than an in-season meet. That is both logical and reflected in viewing statistics. The Tour de France and world championships likewise carry cycling while the Grand Slams pay the bills in tennis.
Sports cannot – and do not – expect casual fans to stick around for a whole season. So what makes triathlon different?
There is no problem with having a central event stand above all else that spikes the interest of those outside the sport. Given the proper treatment and narratives, it can lead to a brilliant product.
Even then, it is not guaranteed to work. Switching the WTCS to a single-day world championship is not a panacea to all of triathlon’s problems. Instead of taking such a risk in reverting to the pre-2009 structure, the safer option would be to stick with the WTCS.
Equally, the WTCS has been around for fifteen years and there are limited signs of the casual fans picking up their interest. The athletes are being stretched thin and are underpaid. The relationship with Continental Championships and World Cups makes little sense. And the air miles are ever-growing.
The proposal is therefore simple. Cut away the WTCS until only the Final remains, leaving a single-day world championships. Take all the existing WTCS prize money and assign it to one race for the biggest payout possible. Use the World Cups and Continental Cups as a narrative device to build tension for the world championship and make the Continental Championships feel special.
Above all else, give the different parts of the sport meaning.
Triathlon is a wonderful sport with some truly spectacular athletes. Dogma about how the sport should look and its structures should not govern the future. If a single-day world championship has a shot at growing the sport, World Triathlon should take it.
After all, sometimes the step backwards is the one that takes us forwards.
