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Can Pro Triathletes Get Rich? ...

Sunday, 13 August 2023 00:10

By Thorsten Radde (triathlete.com)

One way to determine the most successful athletes is to keep track of the prize money they earn. Of course, this is only part of the total money athletes can make, as there are no reliable figures on sponsorship or appearance money. Also the numbers shown are earnings before expenses, and there are a lot of things such as travel, camps, coaching, or physio that have to be paid from this same pot of cash—it’s not pure profit for a pro. And while the numbers look nice and have grown considerably since the Professional Triathletes Organization (PTO) has entered the scene, there is still a lot of headway before we reach “golf levels”—where Rory McIlroy, the top 2022 prize money earner, made more than $44 million. That’s nearly three times the amount of prize money available to all pros, of all genders, at all distances!

Let’s start with a look at the overall prize money in triathlon: Athletes earned about $15M in 2022 in 131 events we analyzed. (For more detail on the process, breakdowns, and comparisons, take a look at this deep dive.) All in all, 762 athletes earned money in 2022—337 women and 425 men.  READ MORE