ITU is now World Triathlon

ITU has rebranded as World Triathlon as of 1st October with new website, logos etc.

I knew it was coming, just wasn’t sure when

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Do Ironman still have any link to the name ‘World Triathlon Corporation’?

not sure

this looks like a power play against corporate WTC. We are running this sport not you, you are just race organisers.

can of worms here.

Pretty sure WTC own the rights to Ironman…

Don’t WTC lease the rights to the Ironman name off Marvel?

Yeah! n
It was in the annual accounts, it’s only $50k, IIRC.
Not massive.

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I’m sure WT will have done due diligence on the rebranding and the name. They have been using the World Triathlon moniker for some time, but always under the guise of the ITU - they’ve now gone the next step and rebranded the whole organisation as WT.

Ironman as a brand has never had anything to do with the ITU and that has become clear in their event descriptions - you’ll always see Middle and Long distance as event descriptions, never IM distance. that prevents WTC getting arsey about the IM brand use which they do from time to time. Also why WT/ITU use Standard distance as “Olympic” is a brand name of the IOC.

If I’m honest, whilst I would like to think it’s a case of ITU/WT 'sticking it to the money grabbing Ironman Corporation’ …I have to remember that in this case, the World Governing Body is a group of bureaucrats who in this case, milk AGers with sub-par events to fund the sport at the professional level, and keep them in blazers?

Am I being unfair?

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I got a warning and had to pull a training plan off training peaks as i used “Iron Distance” in one of my descriptions. Apparently i can only do that if I am a certified Ironman ™ coach with a graduation from “IM University” massive lolz and pay my annual dollars.

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I believe they got a bit shirty about some events in Ireland being branded as Ireman events.

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yes.

and bureaucrats - hmmmm. all the Exec Board members come from sports backgrounds with the majority having been involved with triathlon for many years as competitors and then in governance roles. ime, they aren’t “blazers” that you find in many sports, but people who act.

as for milking age groupers - that’s personal choice. you can decide if you want to race for your country or not (qualification notwithstanding) - if you’re happy to accept the layout, that’s the person’s call. sure - it helps the pro coffers alongside sponsor money - but if you’re happy to accept that, then fine.

Does that mean new GBR kites required if there is a new logo? There was chat somewhere that the current design was supposed to expire this year.

I would expect that the BTF/WT will allow continued use of existing logo’d kit for a couple of seasons as they have done in the past when the brand sponsor changes

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Not in Australia, they licence the name from Kellogs/ Iron Man. I think there is a licence fee from Mistral as well

I remember the original spat between NAS and and ITU over 20 years ago. It wasn’t pretty then and won’t be now.

I think WTC (who tookover NAS many years ago) have a reasonable relationship with ITU/WT these days as they have been cooperating on a set of harmonised rules for a few years now.

Think it’s been extended to 2021…

… I chuffing hope so anyway!

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The AG kit has a usual overlap year to run - therefore into 2021…

I am sure the rebranding has been planned for a while, but I tend to get the impression that it is only ‘governing bodies’ that still have the dosh for this kind of thing when pretty much every other industry is struggling…

There was a time when if you raced in a non sanctioned event in the UK you risked losing your licence…

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