How much can athletes win at the Ironman World Championship in Nice?

Following four dedicated decades in Hawaii, 2024 marks the second year that the men’s and women’s Ironman World Championships have taken place in different locations (you can read why here).

In 2023, the men kicked things off in Nice and the women competed in Hawaii, but it’s roles reversed for 2024, with the women lining up first on the Cote d’Azur followed by the men a month later on the Big Island in the Pacific.

Racing an the Ironman World Championship comes at a cost for athletes. Not just physically, but also financially by the time flights, accommodation, food and drink and sometimes even flying in a support team are considered.

For the first time this year, some of those expenses can be offset by the promise of points for the Ironman Pro Series where, as long as a triathlete finishes ranked in the top 50, they’ll earn a chunk of the $1.7million on offer.

But as well as the recognition of being crowned the new Ironman world champion and all the future sponsorship endorsements that will bring, the other more immediate incentive is the prize money for the race itself. Here we look at how much is on offer.

What is the pro prize purse at Nice?

The total pro prize purse for the women’s 2024 Ironman World Championship in Nice is $375,000, which will be shared out between the top 15 finishers.

With equal prize money on offer for both the professional men and women, this means that the combined professional prize purse for the Ironman World Championship is $750,000, the same as in 2023.

How much can athletes win in Nice?

There’s a top prize of $125,000 up for grabs for first across the line on the Promenade des Anglais on Sunday, but the money drops to $65,000 for second place and then $45,000 for third.

As a nice bonus, the podium finishers in Nice also automatically qualify for next year’s Ironman World Championship when the women return to Hawaii.

The payouts continue until 15th place, which means that in a field of almost 50 professional women, around two-thirds will be leaving empty-handed.

You can see the breakdown in full below:

• 1st place $125,000
• 2nd place $65,000
• 3rd place $45,000
• 4th place $25,000
• 5th place $20,000
• 6th place $18,000
• 7th place $15,000
• 8th place $13,000
• 9th place $12,000
• 10th place $11,000
• 11th place $8,000
• 12th place $6,000
• 13th place $5,000
• 14th place $4,000
• 15th place $3,000

How does the Ironman World Championship prize purse compare to the PTO’s?

It’s difficult to draw a direct comparison between the Ironman World Championship and a Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) event because the two organisations operate different pay structures for the athletes.

At $750k (men and women combined), the Ironman World Championships in Nice and Kona are the single biggest one-off race purses, with the PTO instead choosing to pay $250k in prize money for each of its eight (now reduced to seven) events in its flagship T100 Series.

If this sounds as if the PTO are shortchanging athletes, it should be considered that there is $3million in athlete compensation awarded for T100-contracted triathletes. This is not performance related and is paid as long as the triathletes compete in an agreed minimum number of events.

It’s also worth factoring in both the Ironman Pro Series ($1.7m total prize money) and T100 bonus pool ($2m total prize money), which pay a top prize of $200k and $210k respectively to the individual who comes out top in the standings.

World championships aside, the overall payouts are comparable, with PTO forking out around $7million in total to athletes and Ironman parting with a touch under $6million.

Don’t miss a second of the action. Here’s how to watch the Ironman World Championship live.