Inside: 2025 Ironman Pro Series - Breaking Down the Format

Triathlon has always tested the edge of human performance. But until recently, professional racing often felt scattered, hard to follow and even harder to explain to anyone outside the sport. And doubly harder for people like myself to get a grasp of the races, who is doing well and data.

Thankfully this changed in 2024 when Ironman introduced the Pro Series—a season-long, global race calendar that finally gave the sport a clear storyline. Instead of one-off wins, the Pro Series rewards consistent performance across a year of racing. Finish fast, race often, and you stay in the hunt. Every second counts—literally.

The format is simple to understand but brutal to master. Each race awards points based on how close you finish to the winner. The faster you are, the more you score. There’s no magic in place numbers—it's all about time. Get dropped early, and the gap grows. Every second you lose is a point lost. That single rule turns every race into a relentless chasing of the rabbit.

In 2025, the Pro Series spans 18 races across 17 cities. Six of them are full-distance triathlons. Eight are the half-distance format known as 70.3. The final four are the two World Championships—one for each distance and gender. All of them count. And the best part of all of us, they are streamed live to a global audience—for free.

Athletes can earn up to $200,000 in year-end bonuses. Add prize money from individual races and the top earners can take home over $350,000 in a single season. In total, more than $6 million is on the line in 2025—$2.5 million across the Pro Series races, $1.7 million in end-of-season bonuses and another $1.8 million from other events that still count for World Championship qualification.

More importantly, the series gives the pros something it’s long lacked: structure, momentum and a reason for fans to care from March to November. It also creates genuine rivalries. When Kat Matthews lined up in New Zealand last year, she knew that finishing within 35 minutes of the leader would win her the title. She did that and more, taking second on the day and locking up the 2024 crown with 20,761 points and five standout performances​.

That’s what the Pro Series is: a format that rewards bold racing, smart planning and consistency over luck or hype. It’s not perfect—but it’s a huge leap forward for a sport that needed one.

If you’ve never followed pro triathlon, now’s the time. The series is open. The points reset each year. The big names return. And a few new ones are ready to chase them down.

How It Works: Points, Prize Money and Every Damn Second

So, how does it actually work?

Each athlete can race as many Pro Series events as they want, but only their five best results count. That’s five races to build your entire season on. And no, you can’t stack them all with full-distance Ironman races. A maximum of three full-distance results can count toward your final score. The rest must come from 70.3 events or championship races.

The points system isn’t based on position. It’s based on time. That’s the game-changer. At each race, the winner scores maximum points—5,000 for a full-distance, 2,500 for a half. But every second behind the winner subtracts a point. Miss the winner by 30 seconds? That’s 30 points gone. Miss by 20 minutes? That’s 1,200 points burned.

World Championship races carry even more weight. Win Kona or Nice, and you earn 6,000 points. Win the 70.3 Worlds? That’s 3,000. These races can make or break a season. But only if you show up and race them well.

There’s no safety net. Once the points start falling, they fall fast. For example, at a full-distance Ironman, the points drop to zero once you're 1 hour, 23 minutes and 20 seconds behind the winner. At the 70.3 distance, you only get 41 minutes and 40 seconds of breathing room.

This system pushes athletes to fight for every second on the clock, not just for podium spots. It rewards fast racing even when you’re not winning. Take Jackie Hering, for instance. She didn’t win the overall in 2024, but her consistent top finishes—paired with a win at the Ironman European Championship—secured her second place in the standings and a $130,000 bonus on top of race earnings.

That brings us to the money. There are three ways to earn it:

1. Individual race prize purses – up to $175,000 per race.
2. The Pro Series year-end bonus pool – $1.7 million shared between the top 50 in each gender.
3. Additional non-series events – over 40 other pro races with $1.8 million in prize money and World Championship slots.

The top male and female at the end of the year take home $200,000 each, with payouts tiered down to $3,000 for 50th place. This setup makes it possible for a consistent performer—without a single win—to still walk away with a six-figure payday.