(cheering and horns blowing)
- You know what Fraser, I do actually
really need that I'm referring to.
- Yeah, okay.
Now when we're thinking about the life
of a professional triathlete,
it is all to easy to conjure up images
of globetrotting from one sun-kissed
race or training location to another
and those athletes getting paid
a small fortune for the privilege, right?
- Well, that may be the case for
a very select few athletes out there,
but for the vast majority, professional triathletes
in reality, that really isn't the case, I'm afraid.
- No, although they do of course
chose to live that lifestyle,
so we won't be feeling too sorry for them
because they are getting to do something they love
or at least we hope they do.
- Exactly, well we thought it'd be very interesting
to take a look into the intricacies
of how these athletes earn a living
and more importantly, what they actually
get paid to do what they love, to swim, bike and run.
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Keep on moving ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Do your courage now ♪
- Okay, first things first, when an athlete
wants to race as an elite and earn some prize money,
broadly speaking, there are two ways they can do this.
They can do short course ITU draft-legal racing
where athletes race their national federation
and country colors, effectively.
Or they can do non-drafting long course racing,
such as Ironman or other branded types of events,
where they actually need to as an athlete
apply to that same federation to get a license
to prove essentially that they are
good enough to race as a pro,
'cause you can't just have anybody
turning up and calling themselves
a professional athlete after all.
There are actually some other avenues
for racing and earning money too
such as XTERRA off-road racing and many other
very well funded independent races around the globe.
But we will drill down into the specifics
of that prize money on offer shortly.
- Yeah, well coming back to the ITU side of things
because after all, this is the pathway
that a lot of younger athletes take
when they're starting out in the sport,
Fraser and myself included.
What happens is well, you're probably
striving to go to the world championships
and maybe even the Olympic games
and you want to be part of that
national team or your federation squad.
If you make it on to that then,
well you're open to varying levels of support
and that can differ from country to country.
Some are more generous then others.
Now, take the UK for example,
if you were to find yourself on the federation squad,
on their world class support program,
then you're open to a whole raft of support services,
medicals, physio, massage, travel expenses
and, well crucial this could evolve
into some sort of financial support.
So you could receive a salary,
which would come in monthly into your bank account
which could help massively.
And as you progress as an athlete,
hit the criteria for the world class squads
and hitting those results that they're requiring.
Then that can actually evolve
into quite a comfortable and livable salary
which, I was kind of on in the past
before I went into long distance racing
but, I would say I haven't quite
made it to that level of salary.
- Just enough for the sweet shop was it?
- Well yeah, yeah, pretty much.
No, but it was quite generous
but yeah, I mean I never quite made it that far.
- Yeah I mean but, either way, for athletes,
once they potentially have a bad season
or they don't hit those selection targets
Mark was talking about, all of a sudden
that monthly income can vanish
almost as quickly as it has arrived
which unfortunately just demonstrates
the cutthroat nature of elite sport.
So that is where, if that comfort
blanket of the monthly income disappears,
the bonus of prize money comes in
and becomes really important for our athletes.
- So, coming back to that all important prize money.
What exactly is on offer for triathletes racing today?
Well, the short course athletes
that we've just been discussing,
who focus on the ITU racing series,
the pinnacle of racing for them
is the Olympic games and for them to gain
selection for their national Olympic team,
they need to be racing the world triathlon series
or the WTS which is the series
of ITU events around the world.
- [Fraser] Yeah now, these WTS events are
extremely competitive affairs
and winning at this level is very difficult indeed.
But should an athlete win and grab a WTS title
they will walk away with 18,000 US dollars
and paying down to 20th place still gives $1,000
for an athletes efforts on race day.
- Yeah, now this WTS series comprises of nine events
culminating with a grand final
which offers a bigger payout of around $30,000
for the male and the female winner.
On top of that we also have a series winner
and now that's kind of like a bonus pool.
They take into account the athlete's top six races
throughout that series and actually
payout to the top 35 within that ranking.
So also, another great incentive
to keep athletes locked into the series.
- Yeah, and all and all the ITU are offering
these short course athletes multiple
levels of earning capabilities.
There are continental cups and world cups
for the younger and more inexperienced
athletes to get stuck into and in total
the prize purse that the ITU payout
over a year is 3.3 million US dollars,
which does sound a lot, doesn't it?
- It does, but what are we talking about
in terms of earning potential well,
for the 2018 season, if we take a look at
the highest earners from the ITU series
we have Mario Mola on the male side
and Katie Zaferes on the female side.
Now Mario Mola, earned $199,000 from racing alone.
Katie Zaferes, 177,000 US dollars
and that's just taking into account
the racing and the majority of that
comes from the ITU series, but obviously
will be padded out a little bit with other racing too.
- Yeah so, it's safe to say that
at the very top of the racing tree
on the ITU level, there is some really good
cash on offer plus obviously, these federation
supplementary incomes that we're talking about.
So, there is good amounts of income
earning potential for these athletes.
(upbeat music)
Now although we have talked extensively
about short course racing so far,
it is actually long course athletes
who are earning the bulk of the prize money
on offer in triathlon and they're doing so
specifically in Ironman, Ironman 70.3,
Chance Family Events or others such as XTERRA, et cetera.
And although the dream of the Olympics
burns strong for many athletes,
the unfortunate stark reality
is that they are just not ever going to be selected.
But that is not to say that they
can't sustain a living from the sport indeed, far from it.
- Yeah, and that is where long course racing
fills the void for these professional triathletes
and I've actually dug out some stats to go over right now.
In 2018 globally, there were 35 Ironman races
with a total prize purse of 2.6 million US dollars.
71 Ironman 70.3 races, with a total
prize purse of $2.2 million.
29 Challenge Family races, across
both distances, totaling $1.1 million.
And 12 other events such as XTERRA,
worlds, escape from Alcatraz and such, $1.2 million.
- Now, clearly there are plenty of opportunities
for athletes to earn some prize money.
And indeed, from those nearly 150 races
that Mark's just talked about,
there's a total prize purse of nearly $7 million on offer.
Sounds good but, when you actually start
drilling down into the specifics of the prize purses
it can actually start to get a little bit depressing
for the athletes who are trying to earn that money.
Now you might say, why is that?
Well, let us explain.
- Yeah well, for the vast majority
of those 71 Ironman 70.3 events
the winner will take home just 3,000 US dollars.
Fifth place will take home a mere $500
and then even when we go over
to the full distance Ironman side,
the winner will take home maybe $8,000.
Sixth place $1,000 and at a glance
that maybe sounds quite nice,
but when you take into account
the demands of this sport and the fact that
you can't race every weekend,
it's not quite as good as you think.
- So, putting that into perspective,
these races are always fairly competitive affairs
so, actually getting into that
top five or six requires a fairly good level
of racing, in fact, a very good level of racing.
And once you factor in things like
your travel costs to get to that event,
your accommodation, all the other
intricacies of going to a race,
there isn't really much left over
and well, suddenly the glamour
of being a professional athlete has worn pretty thin.
- Yeah, none the less, the rewards for
long course racing and for the athletes
at the top end of that can be reasonably lucrative
'cause, for the Ironman World Championships,
the winner for both male and female
takes home 120,000 US dollars.
And actually, if we take a look at
the 2018 season highest paid male and female athletes
well, they took home a fair amount.
We had Daniela Ryf, who won the Ironman World Championship.
She took home a total of $201,000
in prize money for the whole season.
And Patrick Lange also, Ironman World Campion,
took home 135,000 US dollars
in prize money for the whole season.
But on the flip side of that,
if we take a look at the 20th
highest paid athlete of the 2018 season,
they took home just 73,000 US dollars
which, don't get me wrong, is still a lot of money
but actually, for an athlete of that caliber,
it's not as much as you'd expect.
- No, it really isn't and I suppose
what we're driving at here is, in the grand spectrum
of global sports, triathlon's earning capacity
comes in as a pretty low affair, doesn't it?
Now, according to Forbes, and although
I don't like for like comparisons, but I'll go on anyway,
an average salary of an NFL player is $2.1 million.
Take major league baseball well,
we're up to a cool $4.4 million.
Now I know that is exceptionally high sums of money
but, let's take a sport like tennis
and currently mid-season, the 20th ranked
male tennis player, already has
amassed earnings of over 600,000 US dollars.
So, to compare back to our 20th placed triathlete
really, there's never a race that
a triathlete's gonna win is it?
(upbeat music)
Now it isn't all doom and gloom however.
There is light at the end of the tunnel
for professional athletes, 'cause they can
supplement their income from prize money
with sponsorship endorsements,
where they can hopefully get some extra
base-salary payments and bonus payments too.
- Yeah, and this is where it gets
quite good for triathlon because actually,
athletes can build relationships
with brands within the industry
and we've got a lot to choose from in triathlon
because you can go wetsuit, swimwear,
eyewear, bikes, wheels, group sets,
running shoes, running kit, nutrition and so on.
And also we've got non-endemic sponsors
that have no direct involvement in the sport,
but would might help financially.
- Yeah but, don't get us wrong,
it is by no means easy for athletes
to secure contracts with these brands
and more often then not, athletes are actually
only offered say, an equipment only deal
which, although sounds lovely,
cash is always something that
they're trying to get back from those sponsors
because, as I was often told,
unfortunately, you can't pay your bills
and you can't go get your grocery shopping
with some nice spare running shoes
or an extra bike frame so-- - You might do it
really quickly though. - Yeah well, the morale
of that story being that cash
is always preferable if you're
trying to be a professional athlete.
- Yeah, and in addition to that
we've also seen an emergence of triathlon teams
so, in the likes of BMC-Vfit professional triathlon team,
very similar to the cycling professional
triathlon teams where athletes
can secure places onto the teams
and they're essentially given a salary.
They'll be given all the kit that they need.
They'll be given travel expenses and whatnot.
Now obviously this does lock them down
in terms of how much sponsorship
they can get out of that but, they have
the financial security which is massive
as an athlete potentially with injuries
along the way and whatnot.
So, that's fantastic and I'd actually,
I'd love to see more of this 'cause
I really think this is great for
the progression of the sport.
- Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
Okay then, now we have done our very best
to try and open the lid on the world
of professional triathlon and explain to you
just how those athletes attempt to make a living.
Now I'm sure you'll agree, it is by no means
an easy way for athletes to try and earn that living
but, for the vast majority of those athletes
it isn't really about the money.
In fact, it's more a way of lifestyle
I suppose, if you will, and that
I suppose is what I like the most
about a sport like triathlon.
- Exactly Fraser, that's why I made
very little money from my triathlon career
'cause it was all about the lifestyle.
I'll stick to this fake money here.
Now, if you like today's video
please do it that thumbs up button
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And if you'd like to see one of those pro athletes
we were talking about today, David McNamee,
doing his aero testing on the velodrome,
you can see that by clicking down here.
- Yeah, and if you want to see a video
I did about top tips from the pro triathletes,
you can get that just here.