70.3 Qualifying Slots
September 18, 2018
At 20 races worldwide, an additional 25 female athletes will be provided with additional bonus qualifying slots to the pinnacle event of the IRONMAN 70.3 Series
Ironman 70.3 Qualifying Slots
TAMPA, Fla. – Women For Tri®, a program of the IRONMAN Foundation®, today announced that a total of 500 additional women will earn an invitation to race in the 2019 IRONMAN® 70.3® World Championship taking place in Nice, France on September 7-8, 2019. Slots will be awarded to top finishing female athletes at 20 select races worldwide. The additional slots will be utilized by Women For Tri, which was launched in 2015 by IRONMAN, to welcome and empower new female triathletes to be a part of the sport’s continued growth in high-level competition.
There will now be a total of 75 qualifying slots available for age group athletes looking to qualify for the 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Port Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. The allocation follows the cancellation of IRONMAN 70.3 Budapest and the second event to also receive 25 qualifying slots, in addition to IRONMAN. Each qualifying Ironman or Ironman 70.3 event will have at a minimum one men’s and one women’s professional slot. For the global 2019 Ironman professional calendar, the number of Ironman World Championship slots is expected to be approximately 100, similar to the current total allocation.
“With the introduction of our two-day world championship format, there is an opportunity for more high achieving female triathletes to earn a spot to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship,” said Andrew Messick, President and Chief Executive Officer of IRONMAN. “The athletes that represent the Women For Tri team will help continue to grow the sport.”
Following the standard IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship rolldown ceremony at the 20 select races, 25 additional slots will be awarded to the next most qualified women, proportional by age group creating a deeper field of female athletes while maintaining the integrity and prestige of an IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship event. The program launches in France at IRONMAN 70.3 Nice on September 16.
| Event | Date | Country |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Nice | 9/16/2018 | France |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Atlantic City | 9/23/2018 | United States |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Middle East Championship Bahrain | 12/8/2018 | Bahrain |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Taupo | 12/8/2018 | New Zealand |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Indian Wells | 12/9/2018 | United States |
| IRONMAN 70.3 South Africa | 1/27/2019 | South Africa |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Dubai | TBD | United Arab Emirates |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong | 2/17/2019 | Australia |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Colombo | 2/24/2019 | Sri Lanka |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Oman | 3/1/2019 | Oman |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Puerto Rico | 3/17/2019 | Puerto Rico |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Texas | 4/7/2019 | United States |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Peru | 4/14/2019 | Peru |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Gulf Coast | 5/11/2019 | United States |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Pays D’Aix | 5/12/2019 | France |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona | 5/19/2019 | Spain |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Victoria | 6/2/2019 | Canada |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne | 6/9/2019 | France |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Wisconsin | 6/9/2019 | United States |
| IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire | 6/9/2019 | United Kingdom |
All net proceeds from the registration revenue of the 500 additional slots will go towards supporting Women For Tri’s TriClub grant program. To date, nearly $250,000 has been awarded by this program to TriClubs around the world to support women’s engagement initiatives, including bringing first-timers into the sport. Since its inception in 2015, Women For Tri has seen an 18% increase in female participation in IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 events, totaling more than 66,000 female athletes globally.
The IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship is the pinnacle event in the global IRONMAN 70.3 series. The 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship race will be a two-day event with the professional and age-group women racing on Saturday, September 7 and the professional and age-group men racing on Sunday, September 8. Throughout the 2019 IRONMAN 70.3 qualifying season nearly 5,000 athletes will qualify to race in the 2019 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship from among over 100 IRONMAN 70.3 races around the world.
For questions about Women For Tri programming, please contact [email protected]. For media related inquiries, please contact [email protected].
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About Women For Tri
Women For Tri®, a program of The IRONMAN Foundation launched by IRONMAN in 2015, works to increase female participation at all levels of triathlon. The program seeks to identify and diminish primary barriers to entry and mobilize triathlon advocates to encourage and engage female athletes across all race distances and representing all athletic abilities. Since inception, over $248,000 in grants have been awarded to triathlon clubs supporting female participation initiatives. Women For Tri embodies the heart and soul of what makes the sport so rewarding: testing your ability, overcoming challenges, and realizing the full depth of your potential in the most widely recognized test of endurance – triathlon. Learn more at www.womenfortri.com and join the Women For Tri online community of 40,000+ female triathletes at www.facebook.com/groups/WomenForTri.
About The IRONMAN Foundation
The IRONMAN Foundation® creates positive, tangible change in IRONMAN race communities by engaging athletes and volunteers to participate in programs that demonstrate service through sport and commitment to community. Since 2003, over $50,000,000 has been provided through IRONMAN charitable giveback programs including the IRONMAN Foundation to more than 6,300 local, regional, national and global nonprofit initiatives. Through these partnerships, IRONMAN athletes are powerfully linked to the community and together we leave the IRONMAN legacy behind in our race communities long after event day. For more information on IRONMAN Foundation programs, including Team IMF, Community Fund, Your Journey Your Cause, and Women For Tri, visit www.ironmanfoundation.org.
About IRONMAN
As part of Wanda Sports Holdings, the IRONMAN Group operates a global portfolio of events that includes the IRONMAN® Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN® 70.3® Triathlon Series, 5150™ Triathlon Series, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series®, Iron Girl®, IRONKIDS®, International Triathlon Union World Triathlon Series races, road cycling events including the UCI Velothon® Series, mountain bike races including the Absa Cape Epic®, premier marathons including the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, trail running like Ultra-Trail Australia™, and other multisport races. IRONMAN’s events, together with all other Wanda Sports Holdings events, provide more than a million participants annually the benefits of endurance sports through the company’s vast offerings. The iconic IRONMAN® Series of events is the largest participation sports platform in the world. Since the inception of the IRONMAN® brand in 1978, athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE® by crossing finish lines at the world’s most challenging endurance races. Beginning as a single race, IRONMAN has grown to become a global sensation with more than 230 events across 53 countries. For more information, visit www.ironman.com.
Ironman 70.3 Qualifying Slots
About Wanda Sports Holdings
Wanda Sports Holdings is the world’s leading sports business entity, founded to capture the opportunities in the global sports industry and to contribute to the prosperous international sports landscape – in three key areas: 1) Spectator Sports (media & marketing business), 2) Participation Sports (active lifestyle business), 3) Services (digital, production and service business). Wanda Sports Holding incorporates the international sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media, the iconic endurance brand IRONMAN, and Wanda Sports China. The headquarters are in Guangzhou, China.