Feisty Triathlon · Feisty Triathlon podcast

Trying to understand the PTO & World Triathlon merger

·1 hr 7 min·4 clips

World Triathlon and the PTO announced a partnership that could rebrand races as T50.

1. Feisty Triathlon uses its last episode of the year to mix holiday training updates with the World Triathlon–PTO merger announcement. 2. Joanne Murphy, Katie Zafaris, Kelly Ware, and Chelsea Burns lead the discussion, and Chelsea matters because she brings short-course expertise and long-course perspective. 3. The episode asks what the PTO and World Triathlon partnership actually means for race ownership, event branding, and athlete control. 4. Katie describes opening the email for Joanne’s “fit for Christmas” challenge but doing little else, while Kelly talks about making chocolate-covered pretzels. 5. Chelsea says she signed up for a 50K in February, Black Canyon net downhill, and also ran 5.01K during a 30-minute Trader Joe’s cart run. 6. Joanne and Katie frame the holiday challenges with names like “twinkle toes,” “tinsel trot,” and “Santa dash,” which turn December training into a game. 7. The hosts then discuss Kate Waugh winning the T100 in Qatar and vomiting at the finish line after a hot race. 8. They also focus on Georgia Taylor-Brown’s 2025 season, including a late start, a world-record effort, and a quick turnaround into Qatar. 9. The conversation expands to Jess Learmonth, who finished fifth in the T100 series after years away from racing because of a hip injury and a long run of uncertainty. 10. Chelsea and the others note that T100 Qatar showed athletes supporting each other after hardship, especially through visible gestures on the women’s side. 11. Kelly and Chelsea say the T100 and Supertri formats put athletes together in hotels and at community events, which makes friendships harder to miss. 12. Katie adds that World Triathlon and the PTO have very different structures, which is why the merger raises questions about refereeing, technical officials, and rule enforcement. 13. One speaker says the World Triathlon age-group events at WTCS and World Cups may now be commercially run by the PTO. 14. Another speaker asks how a governing body can hand off commercial operations to a private company and still keep clear decision-making lines. 15. The hosts say the future wording is already confusing, including whether the new races should be called T50, WTCS, or World Cups. 16. Katie argues that the only way the new structure works is if T100 eventually goes away, while others question what that would mean for the PTO’s original athlete-first identity. 17. The tone shifts between friendly banter, policy debate, and year-end reflection, with the group interrupting each other often. 18. The format is a roundtable with no single interviewer, and Chelsea is used as a balancing voice when the conversation moves from holiday chatter to governance. 19. Listeners who follow pro triathlon politics and race formats will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want only race results without governance debate may skip it.

As heard by us

A year-end triathlon recap that stays with a confusing PTO and World Triathlon setup.

Feisty Triathlon closes the year with the full panel, Chelsea Burns included, and uses the time well enough before the two-week break and January return.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you need the PTO slash T100 to T50 shakeup translated by triathlon voices, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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