Is IRONMAN reconsidering Kona / Nice World Championship split as new survey drops fresh hint?

The future location and format of the IRONMAN World Championship would appear to be more up in the air than ever judging by the latest development from the M-Dot brand.

Rumours have been swirling around for much of the second part of this year as to whether the current rotation between the spiritual home of Kona and Nice will see out its four-year cycle.

The IMWC had always been held in Hawaii, with the men and women racing on the same day. That was until 2022 when they were each given their own day in Kona, with the pro women racing on the Thursday that year and the men on the Saturday.

From a pro racing perspective the hugely important benefit of that was that the women had their own day of racing and all the coverage that entailed.

However at that point it proved too much for the islanders, with the then mayor saying: “We learned that more than one race day during IRONMAN week is too many for the community to manage.”

But with a steadfast commitment now in place for separate race days for men and women, IRONMAN decided a dual location system was the next best solution – so for 2023 they announced that the women would race in Kona and the men in Nice around a month before, which would then rotate for the next four years through to 2026.

We’re only halfway through that process and it’s far to say it continues to split opinion more than virtually any other topic in triathlon – with huge implications for age-groupers and pros alike.

It’s a burning issue for Scott DeRue, who this year took over from long-term incumbent Andrew Messick as IRONMAN’s CEO and inherited the rotation format.

Another potentially significant recent change is a new mayor in Hawaii – so could two days in Kona now be back on the table?

‘Listening and learning’

Judging by a survey that IRONMAN have sent out to sections of the media (and plenty of others by the sounds of it, including the all-important athletes) it would appear that all options are again up for discussion.

The email introduction to the survey we received read as follows: “Respected Members of the Media – Two years ago, we split the IRONMAN World Championship, spanning both Kona and Nice, and we are incredibly proud of all that our athletes have achieved in both of these historic and beautiful locations.

“During these two years, we have sought and received feedback from diverse stakeholders to help us better understand the important role of the IRONMAN World Championship within our community. While the format and location of the IRONMAN World Championship has been a highly debated topic of interest with many opinions, one thing remains clear – the IRONMAN World Championship is the pinnacle of our sport, a celebration of human achievement, and a testament to the passion and commitment of our IRONMAN community.

“As we look to the long-term future of the IRONMAN World Championship, we are committed to listening to and learning from our community inclusive of a broad group of stakeholders. In this spirit, we would like your input as a valued member of our IRONMAN `ohana. Your feedback will form part of the ongoing inputs we will continue to collect as we envision the long-term future of the IRONMAN World Championship.

“As the survey has been created with an athlete first focus, please answer based upon what you as a media member believe is in the best interest of the sport and your involvement within it.”

What are the options?

The survey seeks to gauge opinion on various options, which include the following:

• Two days of IMWC racing in Kona, with a day of racing each for women and men
• A single day IMWC at a global destination that rotates annually, with fewer slots for both men and women (compared to 2024)
• Two days of IMWC racing together, but in globally rotating venues, similar to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship format, with a day of racing each for women and men
• A single day IMWC in Kona, with fewer slots for both men and women (compared to 2024)
• Two days of IMWC racing, in separate locations, one being Kona and the other Nice (i.e. the current format), with a day of racing each for women and men

Of course there are fundamental age-group issues within all this too, all the more so if anything changes for next year given qualification for Kona and Nice is already well underway.

Any lessons from 70.3 journey?

And all this comes just ahead of the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, which now appear to be nicely settled into a rotating format after also going through an up-and-down process to get to this point, though of course they’ve never been associated to Kona.

The first 70.3 Worlds were held in 2006 in Clearwater, Florida, before moving first to Henderson, Nevada in 2011, then to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec – its first stop on what was a new “global rotation”.

The event reached European soil for the first time in 2015 at Zell am See, Austria, and then a year later it moved from the mountains to the beaches of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

It was in 2017 that it became a two-day event for the first time when it returned to the United States, taking place in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In 2018, it visited the African continent for the first time and was hosted in Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa. Continuing the rotation, 2019 saw the French Riviera and Nice play host and then after a year in which the event was not able to take place due to the global Covid pandemic, the race returned in 2021 with over 3,500 athletes competing in St. George, Utah.

The event again took place in St. George, Utah, returning to a two-day format on October 28-29, 2022. After another two-day event in Lahti, Finland, the race has moved to Taupo, New Zealand this week and then heads to Spain for the first time in 2025 with Marbella the host.