London: The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has announced its four wildcards for the PTO US Open men’s race in Milwaukee on Friday 4 August.

The inclusion of German triathlon great Jan Frodeno ensures there will be a repeat of the PTO European Open clash which saw all three of the Olympic gold medallists in the sport since 2008 – Frodeno, Brownlee and Blummenfelt – go head-to-head in Ibiza. Jan missed out on an automatic place due to his ranking position at the second qualification cut off on 26 June, but has been returning to form this season and his win at Ironman 70.3 Andorra on 2 July saw him reach #19 in the PTO World Rankings. 

Marten Van Riel will race his first PTO Tour event. The Belgian brings even more Olympic pedigree to proceedings, having competed in two Olympic Games. He missed out on a medal in Rio by only twenty seconds and then got within 30 seconds of one in Tokyo. 

Third up in Milwaukee is American Marc Dubrick, who grew up a swimmer and runner in the neighbouring state of Illinois, so is sure to be a firm favourite with the local crowd. Especially given his fantastic win at the iconic Escape From Alcatraz race in San Francisco last month, which he described as ‘definitely the biggest win of my career’ and how he hoped it would ‘lead to bigger opportunities down the road’. Well, he’s not had to wait long. 

Fourth is Timothy O’Donnell, who already this year won Ironman 70.3 Peru and also finished fourth in Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast. The long-standing PTO Athlete Board member, who suffered a widowmaker heart attack in the middle of a half-distance race in 2021 but has since returned to racing, will take part in his first PTO Tour race. He appeared recently on The Rich Roll podcast talking about the ‘state of the union’ in professional triathlon and the importance of packaging professional races as ‘a product and entertainment’. 

The wildcards for the women’s race will be added in due course, once athletes have been confirmed, and announced via the PTO social media channels. 

Both the men’s and women’s 100km races in Milwaukee will take place on a specially designed course, which is adjacent to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Henry Maier Festival Park and Discovery World along the shore of Lake Michigan. For further course details, please visit: https://protriathletes.org/events/pto-tour/us-open/pro/

The men’s race takes place on Friday 4 August, starting at 1615 local time (2315 CET), and will be broadcast live around the world to 195+ territories, courtesy of the PTO Tour’s partnerships with Warner Bros. Discovery. It will live on Eurosport 1 from 2300 CET as well as featured on a range of other international, regional and local broadcasters including CNBC in the US, DAZN, beIN Sports and SPOTV. The prize fund for the PTO Opens in 2023 is $600,000 USD per event – with $100,000 for the winner, $50,000 for second and $35,000 for third – making each event the most lucrative in the sport over this distance. 

This year, the PTO US Open is being staged alongside USA Triathlon’s National Championships, which are in partnership with Sports Milwaukee. With the USAT Age Group National Championships and Youth & Junior Nationals being staged together for the first time, it promises to be the biggest weekend of triathlon racing in the US, with more than 7,000 participants and 20,000 spectators expected to attend.  

The full 2023 PTO US Open women’s and men’s start lists are here. 

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For Further Information

Anthony Scammell E: [email protected]

About the Professional Triathletes Organisation

The PTO is a new body, co-owned by the professional athletes, seeking to elevate and grow the sport of Triathlon and take it to the next level. Each PTO Open is raced over 100km (2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run). The PTO European Open on 6 May kicked off the 2023 PTO Tour and is followed by the PTO US Open in Milwaukee on 4-5 August and then the PTO Asian Open in Singapore on 19-20 August. The season is underpinned by the new PTO World Rankings, helping to create a compelling season-long narrative in the sport for the first time.

About 2023 PTO Tour Qualification 

For PTO US Open:

• The top 10 Automatic Qualifying positions were confirmed on Monday 29 May
• The remaining 16 Automatic Qualifying positions were confirmed on Monday 26 June
• Automatic Qualifiers were required to confirm their attendance no later than 5- days after the AQ Confirmation Date (Friday).
• Roll-downs will continue to athletes ranked within the Top-50 in the PTO World Rankings.