How much can athletes win at the Ironman World Championship in Nice?
Ironman has split its World Championships between Hawaii and the south of France, but how much can women professional triathletes win at the Ironman World Championship in Nice?
Lucy Charles-Barclay celebrates winning the women’s race of Ironman France
Following four dedicated decades in Hawaii, 2024 marks the second year that the men’s and women’s Ironman World Championships have taken place in different locations (you can read why here).
In 2023, the men kicked things off in Nice and the women competed in Hawaii, but it’s roles reversed for 2024, with the women lining up first on the Cote d’Azur followed by men a month later on the Big Island.
Racing an the Ironman World Championship comes at a cost for athletes. Not just physically, but also financially by the time flights, accommodation, food and drink and even support personnel are considered.
For the first time this year, some of those costs can be offset by the promise of points for the Ironman Pro Series where, as long as a triathlete finishes ranked in the top 50, they’ll earn a chunk of the $1.7million on offer.
But as well as the recognition of being crowned the new Ironman world champion and all the future sponsorship endorsements that follow, the other immediate incentive is the prize money for the race itself. Here we look at how much is on offer.
What is the pro prize purse at Nice?
The total pro prize purse for the women’s 2024 Ironman World Championship in Nice is $375,000, which will be shared out between the top 15 finishers.
With equal prize money on offer for both the professional men and women this means that the combined professional prize purse for the Ironman World Championship is $750,000, the same as in 2023.
How much can athletes win in Nice?
There’s a top prize of $125,000 up for grabs for first across the line on the Promenade des Anglais on Sunday, but the money drops to $65,000 for second place and then $45,000 for third.
The podium finishers in Nice also automatically qualify for next year’s Ironman World Championship when the women return to Hawaii.
The payouts continue until 15th place, which means that in a field of almost 50 professional women, around two-thirds will be leaving empty-handed.
You can see the breakdown in full below:
1st place $125,000
2nd place $65,000
3rd place $45,000
4th place $25,000
5th place $20,000
6th place $18,000
7th place $15,000
8th place $13,000
9th place $12,000
10th place $11,000
11th place $8,000
12th place $6,000
13th place $5,000
14th place $4,000
15th place $3,000
How does the Ironman World Championship prize purse compare to the PTO’s?
It’s difficult to draw a direct comparison between the Ironman World Championship and a PTO event because the two organisations operate different pay structures for the athletes.
At $750k (men and women combined), the Ironman World Championships in Nice and Kona are the single biggest one-off race purses, with the PTO choosing to pay $250k in prize money for each of its eight (now reduced to seven) events in its flagship T100 Series.
If this sounds as if the PTO are shortchanging athletes, it needs to be considered that there is $3million in athlete compensation awarded for T100-contracted triathletes. This is not performance related and is paid as long as the triathletes compete in an agreed minimum number of events.
It’s also worth factoring in both the Ironman Pro Series ($1.7m total prize money) and T100 bonus pool ($2m total prize money), which pay a top prize of $200k and $210k respectively to the individual who comes out top in the standings.
World championships aside, the overall payouts are comparable, with PTO forking out around $7million in total to athletes and Ironman parting with a touch under $6million.
Don’t miss a second of the action. Here’s how to watch the Ironman World Championship live.
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Tim Heming
Freelance triathlon journalist
About
Experienced sportswriter and journalist, Tim is a specialist in endurance sport and has been filing features for 220 for a decade. Since 2014 he has also written a monthly column tackling the divisive issues in swim, bike and run from doping to governance, Olympic selection to pro prize money and more. Over this time he has interviewed hundreds of paratriathletes and triathletes from those starting out in the sport with inspiring tales to share to multiple Olympic gold medal winners explaining how they achieved their success. As well as contributing to 220, Tim has written on triathlon for publications throughout the world, including The Times, The Telegraph and the tabloid press in the UK.
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