How to become a pro triathlete

Not the training part.

In general, “going pro” in triathlon simply refers to the process of obtaining an elite license from your country’s governing body. This is often called a “pro card.”

An elite license then allows you to enter elite and pro races, and to be eligible for prize money — but it does not mean you will automatically make money.

There continues to be a lot of confusion about the process and about the steps involved. In part this is because it varies from country to country. (There is no international standard.) And, in part, it’s because the only options for racing in triathlon are “age-group” or “pro” — and so it can be unclear where you fit in.

Qualifying for your elite triathlon license or “pro card”

To start, your license is determined and issued by your country (or national governing body).

While the elite criteria vary from country to country, they all tend to be variations on: a good enough performance (or performances) at a big enough race.

In the U.S.

The USAT elite athlete qualification criteria are laid out here. The are, generally speaking:

• Top 10 overall amateur at world champs or top 5 overall at national champs

• Top 3 overall amateur at a “qualifying race” — which is a race, essentially, with at least a $20,000 pro prize purse (ie. a big race)

• Three results within 8% of the winning elite time at races that had a $5,000 prize purse

There was one additional criteria established during the pandemic, because of the lack of big races, that allows you to get two scores over xxx points at races of 300 people or more. The idea being that the USAT score algorithm adjusts to accommodate for the level of performance regardless of the size of the race — but it’s definitely a slightly “easier” criteria and may not exist in future years.

Types of licenses: USAT (and most other countries) also offer different criteria for draft-legal and for juniors or development athletes — this includes specific draft-legal development races where you can qualify for a license — because if the focus is to grow U23 or U18 athletes into World Triathlon leaders or future Olympians, it requires a different pathway from adult long-course athletes.

USAT also offers a foreign license — which is for any non-U.S. athlete who is racing a USAT-sanctioned event and can choose to pay either for a one-day or for an annual. This would be how an athlete who is very clearly from another country (like Joe Skipper, who is fighting with Brit Tri) would end up running their elite license through USAT.

U.S. Details & renewal:

• U.S. elite licenses are good on the calendar year, so they expire Dec. 31 — no matter when you purchase it.

• From when you qualify, you have three years of annual renewal eligibility. (ie. If you qualify in Aug. 2024 and register for an elite license then, you have until Dec. 2027 to re-qualify)

• By the end of that period, you have to submit one result to extend your elite eligibility for three more years — extension requires a pro/elite finish within 8% of the winner’s time

• A *big* however: When your license expires annually on Dec. 31, you can also just choose instead not to renew it for the next year and downgrade to age-group racing.

In the U.S., once you have an elite license you then get a monthly email on upcoming races and anti-doping or education information.

In other countries:

• Brit Tri has similar criteria — though their level of required performance is higher (you need to be within 4% of the winner’s time at a race with a $30,000 prize purse or less, or within 7% twice)

• Australia, similarly, requires either a top 5 overall at the world championships or for you to win the overall amateur at an Ironman-brand race, etc

• Canada requires you to register through your province and then for an “Ironman pro license” or an “international competition card”

Registering with Ironman, World Triathlon, et al

Once you have an elite license from your governing body, you then have to register for races.

World Triathlon: Requires an additional process (with a medical exam and anti-doping courses) and you have to work your way up through the lowest level Continental Cups to earn points to World Cups and, ultimately, World Triathlon Championship Series; because the entry process for World Triathlon races is run through each country’s national governing body, some countries are notably known to exercise extensive discretion in who they enter

Ironman: Requires you to purchase a $1500 annual Ironman pro license (or a one-event license), and to fill out some information and agreements to register with them; any athlete registered as a pro with Ironman can then enter any Ironman pro race following their directions, including the Ironman Pro Series

Challenge, independent races: Generally have some kind of elite liaison who you can reach out to individually to register for a specific race

SuperTri or PTO’s T100: You gotta be on a contract or get invited to race one of those…

Making an actual living as a pro triathlete

This is really a different question and a more complicated one. There are, generally, four types of ways pro triathletes make money

• Prize money: You can see a breakdown of last year’s prize money across race types here. As a rule of thumb, there were 29 athletes in 2023 who made more than $100,000 in prize money.

• Race contracts: Kinda in the same bucket as prize money but kinda not (because it’s guaranteed regardless of how you do), there have been more contracts lately that pay athletes just for showing up. For example, the PTO T100 contracts are in the $70-100K range for the top athletes to commit to five T100 races for the year. Additionally, any individual race may pay an appearance fee to get a big name on the start line.

• Sponsorship: This is where the big-name athletes make most of their money. This includes bonuses for performance at certain races, for xx number of views or followers on Youtube channels or social platforms, as well as stipulations about what is expected of an athlete. A growing number of athletes are also including ownership or equity in the company as part of their contracts. A good rule of thumb used to be that what athletes made in sponsorship was roughly equal to what they made in prize money (give or take), but I’m not sure that’s true any more — I think it’s concentrating at the top.

• Other triathlon-related jobs: TriRating says 818 athletes made some amount of prize money in 2023, but only 29 of them cracked $100,000. For the other >700 athletes, many still rely on day jobs or support from family. But a lot (!) of them really make their income from other tri-related work, like coaching. Lots of coaching. Coaching and camps and maybe commentary or workshops or content production or merch. These are jobs where being a pro triathlete certainly helps with bringing the money in, but it may not be explicitly connected to the job.

Everyone always gets the most focused on this point and wants to know: How do they get sponsors. But the answer is always the same as it is for jobs or contracts or opportunities. You do the work, you get to know people and make connections, and eventually (sometimes) the money follows — and if it does enough, then you can find an agent or manager to help you with that.

Good resources: Cody Beals always releases his fantastically detailed yearly pro triathlete budgets, Ruth Astle also releases end of year videos to break down her costs and revenue

How many pro triathletes are there?

According to USA Triathlon, they have 462 athletes with a U.S. elite license — which covers all types of American-registered pros (short-course, development, non-drafting). They are also, notably, the largest governing body by far.

The Pro Triathletes Organization has 479 women and 992 men listed in their global rankings with at least one score of any kind in a pro race. However, the PTO only keeps scores for mid-distance and long-course races, so an athlete would have to do at least one mid- or long-distance race to earn a ranking. It’s also possible to race in the elite field and register no score or a zero; it’s also possible for athletes to still show up in the rankings who are no longer racing.

World Triathlon rankings — which, by, comparison only cover short-course World Triathlon races of all levels — have 874 elite women with a race score of any kind and 1311 elite men. (The reason this number is so much bigger is because the complete World Tri rankings also covers U23 champs, junior, development, continental races, etc.) Some of the senior short-course athletes are additionally captured in the PTO rankings, if they’ve also done a mid- or long-distance race.

If I was going to estimate out of those numbers, I’d guess there are probably ~500-600 women and ~1000-1200 men globally with elite licenses (*not* counting pure development or juniors athletes), all at very different levels and race distances.

Of note, like we said in the section above, only 818 athletes total across all distances made any amount of prize money in 2023.

Why would you want to race as a pro triathlete

There are pros and cons to racing with an elite license:

• Of course, if you want to actually do this as a profession or make any portion of a living out of racing triathlon, then you need to race as an elite. Same if you want to try to make the Olympics or any kind of World Triathlon elite-level championship.

• Now, if you’re more on the line between elite age-grouper or back/mid-pack pro, then it’s more of a decision:

  • Pros:

    • Pro races have some perks — ie. many of them don’t sell out (so you don’t always have to plan a year ahead of time), it can be cheaper in the long run from a registration perspective, you get your own port-a-potties and liaisons and rules meetings, etc. (Sometimes even the not-big-names also get hooked up with home stays or pro dinners or free hotel rooms.)

    • You can win prize money and have a shot at the IM Pro Series

    • You get to actually race head-to-head and challenge yourself — and, IMO, isn’t that the whole point of doing the sport anyway — and it’s kinda a tight community once you’re in it

  • Cons:

    • It’s 100% a different style of racing — especially for women, you’ll probably be pretty solo or just going back-and-forth with a couple of people, not in the midst of big packs or crowds (if that’s what you’re used to from age-group racing)

    • If you’re not a good swimmer, that can make the dynamics a lot tougher moving into the elite field

    • It’s harder (duh!) and it can feel like you gotta step up your game to hang (you don’t necessarily need to and that can backfire); if instead you want to just keep winning your age-group or qualifying for the IM World Champs every year, then the elite field may not be for you

There is, also, this perception that athletes who step up to the elite field are going to be judged for getting 14th place or something at Oceanside 70.3 — and that fear of judgement or looking stupid definitely holds some people (mostly women) back. And the right choice for you probably depends on your goals and what you get out of triathlon and your own life situation.

But, I think the judging is dumb. Someone has to get 14th in the pro field! Taylor Knibb needs people to beat! Maybe you’re still racing better than you were before anyway! And, personally, I’d rather the professional age-groupers stop sandbagging and at least try their hand at the real race, even if only for a few years!