PTO World Ranking System 2023 Explainer

The PTO endeavours to provide PTO WRS scores as quickly as possible after a race once race results have been confirmed. This is typically within 24 hours of the race finish provided there are no extenuating circumstances to consider such as reduced distances or cancelled disciplines in an event. However, the overall PTO World Rankings won’t be updated until its regular update slot, which is typically on a Wednesday.

With the 2023 PTO World Rankings System being an ‘open maths’ system, scores can be theoretically calculated as soon as final results are in and confirmed. However, because scores are tied to the overall PTO World Rankings, which are updated on a Tuesday – and because it would be confusing to have scores for athletes’ results that aren’t referenced in the overall rankings – points for races will be published alongside the new PTO World Rankings each Tuesday.

The PTO WRS was overhauled in January 2023 for several reasons. Firstly, the previous system was a starting point developed to reward fast performances around the world regardless of other athletes racing. While this helped establish the system during the global pandemic, as triathlon racing becomes ever more competitive and fans clamour to see the best athletes racing together more regularly, a new system that encourages and rewards this was required.

The PTO also listened to the feedback on the previous ‘closed’ system, which made it hard for athletes and fans alike to work out how and why a particular performance was scored as it was. The new system is more transparent, with the maths available on this page showing exactly how each aspect of the system is calculated.

Finally, the inclusion of Race Tiers makes it easier for athletes to plan their seasons – both in terms of point scoring and prize money – and, by extension, the higher-quality fields likely to congregate at these events.

The 2023 PTO World Ranking System was developed by an Athlete Rankings Committee made up of a group of five current professional athletes – Ruth Astle, Antony Costes, Renee Kiley, Jackson Laundry and Danielle Lewis. PTO Membership Secretary, Dylan McNeice, and the PTO’s Rankings and Race Data lead, Thorsten Radde also acted as consultants in the process.

The PTO Rankings Committee started with just tiers and positions but this didn’t yield a system that achieved the core principles of it being simple, transparent, objective and fair. Any two athletes who won three races in the same tiers would also end up on exactly the same points.

SOF was then introduced to indicate the level of competition at each event, which directly impacts the race dynamics and outcomes. This improved the system but there were still outlying results, while exceptional performances weren’t fairly rewarded.

Finally, the time element was added, which gave a comparison within each race result of relative performance – highlighting outstanding performances of the athletes.

The PTO also listened to the feedback on the previous ‘closed’ system, which made it hard for athletes and fans alike to work out how and why a particular performance was scored as it was. The new system is more transparent, with the maths available on this page showing exactly how each aspect of the system is calculated.

Finally, the inclusion of Race Tiers makes it easier for athletes to plan their seasons – both in terms of point scoring and prize money – and, by extension, the higher-quality fields likely to congregate at these events.

The 2023 PTO World Ranking System was developed by an Athlete Rankings Committee made up of a group of five current professional athletes – Ruth Astle, Antony Costes, Renee Kiley, Jackson Laundry and Danielle Lewis. PTO Membership Secretary, Dylan McNeice, and the PTO’s Rankings and Race Data lead, Thorsten Radde also acted as consultants in the process.

Many different iterations of weightings for position, strength of field and time were considered by the Athlete Rankings Committee. The scores that resulted via a split of 40%/30%/30% gave fair weighting to all three elements, taking into account feedback on the previous PTO WRS that races should be tiered, race positions should count and that strength of field matters without removing the element of race finish time completely.

How race organisers support professional triathletes is one of the biggest factors in selecting a race tier. Sometimes, this isn’t simply the prize money available on the day, but expenses for travel, providing accommodation, offering appearance fees or end-of-season bonus payouts. The PTO also considers the impact a race might have on the profile of the professional athletes racing including media exposure, live broadcast/coverage or the overall commitment to lifting athletes and the overall profile of the sport. 

The PTO encourages race organisers to increase professional prize purses in order to ensure a higher tier allocation in the PTO World Ranking System. Races that do not automatically fall into a tier based on athlete remuneration will be assessed by the PTO with final tier allocations made at the discretion of the PTO Commercial board.

The drop-offs are different for each tier so athletes’ performances are scored fairly based on the tier in which they’re racing. So, coming 2nd in a Diamond Tier race requires a relatively stronger performance than coming 2nd in a Silver Tier race. The drop-offs were formulated and tested by the athletes on the Athlete Rankings Committee to help ensure scores would be comparable across the tiers, hence placing 1st in a Silver Tier race would equate to a relative placing of 12th in a Diamond Tier race.

Race Time Score is scaled to the number of athletes racing to help ensure fair points by referencing a representative example of the field. If the number of racing athletes wasn’t considered, the baseline points for races with smaller finishing fields could be unfairly weighted.

The Athlete Rankings Committee tested a variety of different percentage and points configurations to determine how points should be increased or decreased based on an athlete’s finishing time. Six points for every 1% increase or decrease resulted in points that balance the reward for exceptional performances while also recognising slower performances without unfairly weighting either way.

In short, it doesn’t. Athletes who are offered a wildcard invitation to PTO or other organisers’ events are treated the same as any other PTO professional, regardless of their palmares. That means that even a multiple World Champion or Olympian would need a PTO WRS score within the top-five athletes who start the race to affect the event’s SOF score.

The most common reason for an athlete suddenly dropping several positions in the rankings is due to an event ‘ageing out’ by no longer falling within the rolling 52-week period. In such a situation, the aged-out race might be replaced either by a lower-scoring result or no result at all – dropping the athlete’s average substantially.