Battle at Marina Bay as professional triathletes eye Asian Open crown
Triathlon can be a mainstream sport with the right storytelling and compelling content, says PTO executive chair Chris Kermode
Lee U-Wen
MORE than 6,000 people will cycle, swim and run around the Marina Bay area this weekend at the Professional Triathletes Organisation’s (PTO) first Asian Open.
Kristian Blummenfelt, a 29-year-old from Norway and the reigning Olympic triathlon champion, leads a star-studded field that will compete on a gruelling 100 kilometre course that begins with a freshwater swim in Marina Bay and ends near the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort.
They will have to complete a two km swim, 80 km on the bicycle, and an 18 km run – with the scenic route taking them past landmarks such as the Merlion, Singapore Flyer, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Barrage and the Benjamin Sheares Bridge. A prize purse of US$600,000 is up for grabs.
Singapore’s Olympic gold medal swimmer Joseph Schooling has also signed up for the 100 km “experienced amateur” race in a relay team together with current and former Team Singapore athletes.
It’s been a busy week for the PTO in the build-up to the big race, the first event as part of a multi-year agreement to stage the Asian Open in Singapore. The second edition will be held here from Apr 12-14 next year.
On Wednesday (Aug 16), the sport’s governing body World Triathlon announced that it has recognised the PTO Tour as the official long-distance triathlon world championship, using the 100 km distance. This deal will see a world long-distance champion crowned in 2024, at the end of six events held around the globe.
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BT Weekend had a chat with the PTO’s executive chairman Chris Kermode on what to expect from the Asian Open, and why he’s confident that triathlon has so much potential to become a global mainstream sport.
Kermode, a 58-year-old retired English tennis player, was previously the executive chairman and president of the Association of Tennis Professionals – the world governing body for men’s tennis. He took up his current role at the PTO in October 2022, having served on its board of directors since July 2020.
Why did you decide to join the PTO? I was involved in mainstream sports that have been around a long time with a very defined structure. Coming to something new like the PTO with almost a blank piece of paper, and having the energy of what’s effectively a startup, has been incredible and very inspiring. The team has the passion and enthusiasm to start something from basically scratch. We’ve made enormous headway since our formation in 2016.
What’s the thinking behind picking Singapore for the inaugural Asian Open? We will unveil our new strategy at the end of October. Essentially, we are going to create a global tour with events in Asia, Europe and the US. When we were looking in Asia, Singapore was the obvious choice. It’s an iconic city that’s world-famous, and we can hold our event in the heart of the city. The fact that people are going to be swimming in Marina Bay for the first time is amazing. That sort of storytelling is part of our strategy. Where we go is just as important as the athletes and the sport.
Is the weather and humidity in Singapore a concern at all? When we were setting up our strategy, what was clear is that we needed iconic cities, and courses that look visually incredible on TV for a worldwide audience. The courses need to be different geographically – whether it’s a flat terrain or high mountains – and there should be different weather conditions too.
It’s about getting the balance. Of course, the extremes either end of the weather spectrum can become a concern. But we do want a variety of courses and weather conditions because that produces jeopardy in sport. You won’t get the same winners all the time if the courses are different and there is variance in weather.
What sort of potential do you see in terms of getting more people to watch triathlons? Team sports have a huge advantage because there is an almost tribal nature for people to go and watch them. In the UK, football is almost in everyone’s DNA. You will follow a team that your father or grandfather supported when they were young, and it goes through the generations.
For individual sports, there’s a simple formula. You have to make people care about who wins over someone else. That is done through storytelling and content, and creating an emotional engagement with the fans.
If you are watching an individual sport and you have no idea who are the two people competing, it’s very difficult to get anyone interested unless you are a super fan. Another key thing is to have rivalries, and it’s important to have a cast of characters. Everyone has a back story that’s interesting and relatable, and we want to bring those stories to life.
What’s your assessment of where the global triathlon market is today? While triathlon is an Olympic sport, it’s been under-commercialised for so long. Our job at the PTO is to commercialise this amazing sport with these superhuman athletes and bring them to a wider audience.
We have a huge opportunity and the market is massive. If you break down the three disciplines – running, cycling and swimming – these all have a huge following individually. You bring them all together, and we’re into very big numbers. We believe we can attract audiences from all three disciplines and bring them together to enjoy triathlons.
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