Bidding opens for World Triathlon Series 2019

International Triathlon Union

Press Release • December 15, 2017

The International Triathlon Union has opened the bidding process for the 2019 World Triathlon Series. Cities interested in hosting the sport’s most prestigious races must submit their candidacy by February 20, 2018. The successful cities will be announced by April 29.

"Every season, the World Triathlon Series brings the world’s best triathletes to the world’s greatest cities, offering them global exposure and a worldwide audience, as well as the thrill and live atmosphere of elite-level racing," said ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado. "Each year, the WTS attracts thousands of triathletes and spectators to our events, and by hosting one of these exciting races, we offer your city the perfect way to promote the enormous positive benefits of sport and to bring comprehensive international attention to your city".

"The 2019 season will see a particularly amazing series of races as the athletes also compete to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, both as individuals and as teams. As such, we want to produce the very best stages on which these remarkable men and women can show their talents to the world. The interest from cities wishing to host our top-tier events has never been greater. Over the past five years, we have consistently grown and expanded and we consider it a huge honour to see more and more venues, National Federations and local governments willing to work in close cooperation with us to deliver these world-class events", said Kris Gemmell, Manager of the ITU World Triathlon Series.

The ITU World Triathlon Series (WTS) is the sport’s premier triathlon series and features the best triathletes on the planet racing head-to-head in up to ten events every year, held all around the world and including the Grand Final. In addition to competing for the title of World Champion, athletes vie for the sport’s highest cumulative prize-money purse.

The WTS comprises Olympic Distance events (1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run), sprint distance events (750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run), two-day semi-final/final formats, and Mixed Relay events. For the second time, 2019 will see ITU hold the Mixed Relay Series, giving cities the chance to host an event with both the individual and team races, or one or the other.

Hosting a WTS event offers the opportunity to showcase your city to an audience of millions via our live international television broadcast, in addition to attracting thousands of international visitors and race participants. The annual on-site spectator numbers across a Series are in excess of 1.5 million people.

In addition to live TV, ITU produces an hour-long TV-magazine show from each event, offer live internet coverage, extensive social media exposure and worldwide news distribution. In 2017, 22 television and broadcast partners covered the WTS season, including the BBC, NBC, NHK, ARD and Fox Australia.

Host cities also have a unique opportunity to host a World Triathlon Series event on an ongoing, multi-year basis. This long-term approach offers many major benefits, including greater appeal to major sponsors, raising the overall number of mass participants, improving the organisational structure, raising media profile, engaging the community and creating parallel local and national health initiatives for the general public, and the positive affiliation with one of the world’s most highly respected and fastest-growing sports.

Click here to download the World Triathlon Series 2019 bid document.

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About the International Triathlon Union (ITU):

The International Triathlon Union is the world governing body for the Olympic sport of Triathlon and all related MultiSport disciplines including Duathlon, Aquathlon, Cross Triathlon and Winter Triathlon. ITU was founded in 1989 at the first ITU Congress in Avignon, France. It has maintained its headquarters in Vancouver, Canada since then and also has offices in Lausanne, Switzerland and Madrid, Spain. It now has 169 affiliated National Federations on five continents and is the youngest International Federation in the Olympic Games. Triathlon was awarded Olympic Games status in 1994 and made its Olympic debut in Sydney 2000. Triathlon is also featured in the Asian Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games. Paratriathlon was accepted into the Paralympic Games in 2010 and will make its Paralympic debut in Rio 2016. ITU is proudly committed to supporting the development of the sport worldwide through strong relationships with continental and national federations, working with its partners to offer a balanced sport development programme from grassroots to a high-performance level. For more information, visit: https://triathlon.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=00aa527d930b75ed31d447d44&id=2b9dd42f1f&e=ae92277121

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