At the start of the 2023 WTCS season, World Triathlon announced the new scoring structure for the Series.
In a shift from 2022, races of different distances would be worth different points. In a continuation from the season prior, events over the Olympic distance would be worth 1000 points for a win. The WTCS Final would also be worth an additional 25%, with 1250 points being awarded for a victory.
However, the Sprint and Super Sprint eliminator races would be of lesser values.
In 2022, they had held the same 1000 point value as Olympic distance contests. In 2023, Sprint races would offer 750 points for a win and Super Sprint eliminator events would be worth 875 points.
The shift in scoring placed a greater emphasis on the longest event in the Series. It also created a scope for one athlete to beat another by adjusting the races they targeted.
In this article, we will investigate what the 2023 women’s standings would look like had the 2023 Series been scored like 2022.
Below you can see the top-20 finishers under the 2022 scoring with their 2023 position noted in brackets (and you can see the actual 2023 standings here):
- Beth Potter – 5175 points (1st)
- Cassandre Beaugrand – 4786 points (2nd)
- Emma Lombardi – 4067 points (3rd)
- Taylor Spivey – 3517 points (4th)
- Sophie Coldwell – 3328 points (5th)
- Kate Waugh – 3078 points (6th)
- Lisa Tertsch – 3033 points (7th)
- Jeanne Lehair – 2960 points (8th)
- Nina Eim – 2828 points (9th)
- Summer Rappaport – 2769 points (11th)
- Georgia Taylor Brown – 2589 points (12th)
- Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal – 2577 points (10th)
- Laura Lindemann – 2502 points (13th)
- Leonie Periault – 2443 points (18th)
- Taylor Knibb – 2265 points (14th)
- Rachel Klamer – 2204 points (15th)
- Katie Zaferes 2153 points (17th)
- Nicole Van Der Kaay – 2015 points (19th)
- Kirsten Kasper – 1985 points (17th)
- Annika Koch – 1956 points (21st)
The top-9 is unchanged under the 2022 scoring but the gaps are considerably different.
Instead of winning by 148 points, Potter would have won by 389 points. Her two Sprint distance wins were a little under-valued in the 2023 scoring. In turn, Beaugrand would have extended her advantage over Lombardi from 618 points to 719 points.
The first athlete to benefit in terms of a change of position is Summer Rappaport. With the 2022 scoring, the American athlete returns to the top-10 even without finishing the WTCS Final.
Places 11 through to 20 also see some shifts with the adjusted scoring system. Leonie Periault is among the most prominent movers. She gained several places by rising from 18th to 14th. Nicole Van Der Kaay also gains a place while Annika Koch moves into the top-20.
Across the board, though, we do not see many changes when it comes to the alternative points structure.
The athletes that benefit, such as Periault and Rappaport, primarily do so as their strong Sprint distance performances are better rewarded under the 2022 model. Both Periault and Rappaport medalled at WTCS Montreal which helps to boost their points totals, as an example.
One benefit of the 2023 model we see is the tighter race for the overall championship as Potter and Beaugrand appear to have had a closer battle than otherwise would have been the case.
As an interesting aside, Potter’s 5175 points actually out-scores Flora Duffy’s 5106 points that earned her the 2022 world title. A case could therefore be made that Potter had a better season in 2023 than Duffy did in 2022.
When it comes to the scoring system in the WTCS, then, the changes implemented in 2023 brought about subtle shifts rather than anything radical.
