Australia is back in the WTCS. Following the recent announcement of Wollongong as the host of the 2025 WTCS Final, the country will join a select group of countries to have hosted a WTCS stop in three separate locations.
Moreover, the Wollongong Final will represent the second occasion in which Australia has hosted the Final (the other being in Gold Coast in 2018). It will also stand as the third Final to take place in Oceania; Auckland in 2012 was the other instance.
Broadening the view, Wollongong will serve as the fifth WTCS stop in the southern hemisphere. Sydney and Cape Town complete the set. The latter, Cape Town, remains the only stop in Africa to have taken place, although the addition of the Tangier World Cup could spell hope for a future Moroccan event.
However, there is a clear region missing in this picture. South America has never hosted a WTCS event.
It thus remains the only (populated) continent to not have welcomed the Series (until penguins learn how to ride a bike the Antarctica stop remains a pipe dream). While the southern hemisphere has in general been somewhat underserved by the Series, South America has been left out in the cold.
The closest the region came to a stop was when Cozumel took on the WTCS Final in 2016. Even if the seaside resort is at least south of the Tropic of Cancer, it is neither in South America nor in the southern hemisphere.
Should the triathlon federations of the continent look at its counterparts around the world, it would be justified if they experienced a tinge of envy.
Asia has enjoyed the WTCS Finals in Beijing and Abu Dhabi while Yokohama and Abu Dhabi have become mainstays of the circuit. Europe has been the home of the sport, with Finals in Budapest, London, Rotterdam, Lausanne, and most recently Pontevedra. The 2024 Final is also pencilled in for the continent with Malaga scheduled to host in October.
As already mentioned, Africa has only had Cape Town as a Series stop and has not yet had a Final. A separate conversation is to be had there. Nevertheless, it remains ahead of South America. One important point to note is that meeting the needs of South America also does not have to come at the expense of potential African hosts. This is not a zero sum question.
Across the Atlantic, Bermuda, Edmonton and Montreal have been frequent stops in the WTCS in recent years. Furthermore, Chicago and Edmonton have hosted WTCS Finals (in addition to Cozumel), giving each of the three major North American countries a turn at holding the biggest race of the season.
Throughout it all, South America has remained untouched.
Part of the problem is the grouping of North and South America as the Americas in the triathlon world. When conceived of as one federation, it appears to have done well in terms of WTCS hosting. The Finals in Edmonton, Chicago and Cozumel all came in consecutive years (2014-2016) and represented a small high point for the region.
To scratch under the surface, however, is to see that only one half of the Americas triathlon federation has been well-served on the WTCS front.
Bidding may have been an issue for various South American cities. There simply may not have been an appetite to host the events. After all, the costs can be steep at times. Even accounting for that, to have not made something happen in the first fifteen years of the Series strikes as a missed opportunity.
Brazil hosted the Olympic Games in 2016 which included a successful triathlon event yet the Series has not returned to the country. Indeed, the World Cup circuit only made it back to the country, after a long hiatus, in 2023 with the event in Brasilia. Large crowds turned out to watch home favourite Miguel Hidalgo win. In the bigger picture, Brasilia could certainly stand as the first South American WTCS stop.
Plenty of options exist beyond South America. Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay are all hosts of international triathlon events. Chile has also staged recent World Cups in Vina del Mar.
The argument that there is not enough triathlon interest, then, is false. On that front, the success of the triathlon events at the Pan American Games give lie to any claim that the region is not sufficiently enthused to host an event. At the same time, even if it were the case, taking the Finals to such locations would boost the interest and grow the sport.
Timing could be an issue. This is a challenge that plagues almost all southern hemisphere locations as they do not always fit with the season running from the northern spring to autumn. Yet Wollongong, another southern hemisphere location, has the same issue and will overcome it. The Abu Dhabi Final in November 2022 also showed there can be flexibility in the season schedule where required.
At this point it does not matter what type of WTCS stop South America hosts. They key is that it gets onto the scoreboard. At minimum, hat would at least put South American on terms with Africa, bringing it further into the World Triathlon club. From there, progress can be made to establish South American (and African) races further.
So long as South America remains on outside looking in, the WTCS will not be able to truly call itself a global competition.
Fifteen years have passed since the WTCS commenced and this oversight has only grown. If the WTCS makes it to its twentieth anniversary in 2029 without having visited South America, something will have gone very wrong.
