Super League Triathlon

Being a closed league, only athletes who have a contract with the league for the current season may compete, most athletes that are considered to be the current best in the world are invited to sign contracts with additional contracts won in preseason qualifier events and others awarded to local athletes. The current split is the top ten from the previous season are awarded contracts with ten more split between the best placed at the two qualifying events and the final five being wild card invites currently favouring young or local athletes.[2] This gives a total of 25 athletes for both the men's and women's competitions.[3]

All athletes wear the same yellow jersey with the leagues sponsorship on it, however there is also space for personal or national sponsors. Each jersey is adorned with the athletes national flag for men on the left shoulder and for women on the side panelling under both arms. Special coloured jerseys are awarded to athletes to distinguish them, and each colour has a specific meaning:[4]

• blue-fastest swim split from the previous round
• green-fastest bike split from the previous round
• red-fastest run split from the previous round
• white-athletes under 21
• pink-overall points lead

A jersey of each colour is awarded to the relevant men and women before the start of the next round, except the white jersey which is awarded to all of the athletes under 21.

The women's jerseys are currently a more revealing design than that of the men. This continues to draw criticism from female triathlon participants across the sport with regards to objectification of female athletes and safety/health implications of a lack of breast tissue support and skin cancer risk, due to their open back design.

During every Round each race awards points towards an athlete's Round score then at the end of a Round athletes are ranked based on their total Round points and awarded League points based on placement, the athlete with the most League points at the end of the season is crowned the overall winner. Point distributions for Round and League points are the same using the following spread.[1]

Any athlete that gets pulled from a race due to a time cut will have Round points removed, if they are pulled in the first stage of a race the lose two points if they are pulled during the second stage they lose one point and if they are pulled in the third stage they are awarded 0 points for that race.

Before the 2021 season, it was announced that for the first time Super League Triathlon athletes would be competing as representatives of teams as well as individually. Each team would be picked and coached by a triathlon legend. Following the draft on 26th August 2021, the teams for the 2021 season were as follows:

Cheetahs, coached by Annie Emmerson: Sophie Coldwell, Maya Kingma, Léonie Périault, Anna Godoy, Jonny Brownlee, Tyler Mislawchuk, Tamas Toth, Aaron Royle

Rhinos, coached by Ronnie Schildknecht: Katie Zaferes, Rachel Klamer, Yuko Takahashi, Valerie Barthelemy, Marten Van Riel, Jacob Birtwhistle, Jannik Schaufler, Kenji Nener

Eagles, coached by Tim Don: Jess Learmonth, Taylor Spivey, Vicky Holland, Vittoria Lopes, Alex Yee, Jelle Geens, Max Studer, Marco van der Stel

Sharks, coached by Michelle Dillon: Beth Potter, Non Stanford, Carolina Routier, Simone Ackermann, Hayden Wilde, Jonas Schomburg, Vasco Vilaça, Tayler Reid

Scorpions, coached by Chris McCormack: Cassandre Beaugrand, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Ilaria Zane, Emilie Morier, Vincent Luis, Matthew Hauser, Mario Mola, Shachar Sagiv

Rank	Athlete	Team	Points
C	Alex Yee	Eagles	59
2	Hayden Wilde	Sharks	54
3	Jonny Brownlee	Cheetahs	50
4	Vasco Vilaça	Sharks	49
5	Vincent Luis	Scorpions	47
6	Marten Van Riel	Rhinos	39
7	Seth Rider	Eagles	26
8	Kenji Nener	Rhinos	21
9	Matthew Hauser	Scorpions	19
10	Tayler Reid	Sharks	17
11	Alessandro Fabian	Cheetahs	16
12	Shachar Sagiv	Scorpions	16
13	Aaron Royle	Cheetahs	15
14	Max Studer	Eagles	14
15	Kristian Blummenfelt	Rhinos	12
16	Jacob Birtwhistle	Rhinos	12
17	Gustav Iden	Eagles	7
18	Jannik Schaufler	Rhinos	5
19	Tamás Tóth	Cheetahs	4
20	Simon Henseleit	Rhinos	4
21	Gordon Benson	Rhinos	4
22	Jonas Schomburg	Sharks	3
23	Mario Mola	Scorpions	2
24	Oliver Turner	Sharks	0
25	Henri Schoeman	Sharks	0
26	Marco Van Der Stel	Eagles	0
27	Joshua Lewis	Eagles	0	As of 26 September 2021.[16]

  This athlete was the Run winner, meaning they accrued the most points during the Run legs across the season

  This athlete was the Swim winner, meaning they accrued the most points during the Swim legs across the season

  This athlete was the Bike winner, meaning they accrued the most points during the Bike legs across the season

  This athlete only competed in London, after being given a wildcard

  This athlete only competed in Munich, after being given a wildcard

  This athlete only competed in Jersey, after being given a wildcard

  This athlete only competed in Malibu, after being given a wildcard

Rank	Athlete	Team	Points
C	Georgia Taylor-Brown	Scorpions	60
2	Jess Learmonth	Eagles	59
3	Katie Zaferes	Rhinos	49
4	Beth Potter	Sharks	39
5	Vicky Holland	Eagles	38
6	Taylor Spivey	Eagles	37
7	Léonie Périault	Cheetahs	34
8	Cassandre Beaugrand	Scorpions	33
9	Sophie Coldwell	Cheetahs	30
10	Rachel Klamer	Rhinos	25
11	Non Stanford	Sharks	24
12	Flora Duffy	Cheetahs	20
13	Maya Kingma	Cheetahs	15
14	Emilie Morier	Scorpions	11
15	Yuko Takahashi	Rhinos	11
16	Anabel Knoll	Rhinos	3
17	Valerie Barthelemy	Rhinos	3
18	Lucy Charles-Barclay	Sharks	2
19	Vittoria Lopes	Eagles	19
20	Anna Godoy	Cheetahs	0
21	Ilaria Zane	Scorpions	0
22	Gillian Sanders	Sharks	0
23	Alice Betto	Scorpions	0
24	Simone Ackermann	Sharks	0
25	Carolina Routier	Sharks	0	As of 26 September 2021.[17]

  As well as the overall Champion, this athlete was the Run winner, meaning they accrued the most points during the Run legs across the season

  This athlete was the Bike winner, meaning they accrued the most points during the Bike legs across the season

  This athlete was the Swim winner, meaning they accrued the most points during the Swim legs across the season

  This athlete only competed in London, after being given a wildcard

  This athlete only competed in Munich, after being given a wildcard

  This athlete only competed in Malibu, after being given a wildcard

Although it had been a somewhat open secret in the triathlon media, on 10 February Super league triathlon was officially announced and its website launched.[31] During the announcement one of the founders Chris McCormack declared it to be the future of triathlon with 25 of the best professional men competing in action-packed, innovative race formats competing for 200,000 US dollars.[32] It was stated that although this was a test event there were already plans to include an equal woman's event as well as age group races and a total prize purse of 1.5 million US dollars. The series was to be broadcast on television locally by Australia's Fox Sports and in Europe by Eurosport the series also stated that the races would be available to stream live on their own website.[32]

[33][34]

Arena Games Triathlon* is a form of Super League Triathlon that blends real life racing and virtual racing. The swim portions of the race take place in an Olympic standard pool, while the bike and run sections take place on the pool deck or pool's surrounding area, utilizing static bikes and self propelled treadmills. The bike and run sections of the race are then brought to life by use of in-your-face cameras, capturing the athlete's reactions and emotions as the race unfolds, and through utilizing the training platform Zwift. This includes athletes each having their own race avatar (so that spectators can see the athlete's positions, in relation to each other, on the route selected on Zwift) and real time displays of power output and heartrate data.

At the Arena Games Triathlon, each swim is 200 m, each bike is 4 km, and each run is 1 km. AGT events are competed over heats and a final. Heats see two stages of swim-bike-run, which determine which athletes proceed to the final. 10 athletes qualify for each event final. The final in competed of a over AGT race format. This means 3 back to back stages of swim, bike, run with minimal rest between each stage. A pursuit style start is adopted for the final stage, and the second stage takes the form reversed triathlon (run, bike, swim).[38]

*Arena Games Triathlon not included as part of the Championship Series. As of 2022 Arena Games Triathlon events will form the Arena Games Triathlon World Championship Series powered by Zwift. Points from the series will also contribute points to the World Triathlon rankings.

The Super League Triathlon (SLT) Arena Games was developed as a way of blending virtual and real life racing to create the ultimate spectator experience.[39] The Arena Games debuted in 2020, and provided a way for live professional triathlon to continue, behind closed doors, throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic.[40] The inaugural Arena Games event was held in Rotterdam on 23 August 2020. The Men's event was won by Justus Nieschlag, while Jess Learmonth won the women's race.

Venue	First	Second	Third
Rotterdam	Justus Nieschlag (GER)	Vasco Vilaça (POR)	Javier Gomez (ESP)

[41]

Venue	First	Second	Third
Rotterdam	Jess Learmonth (GBR)	Rachel Klamer (NED)	Valerie Barthelemy (BEL)

[42]

In 2021 the SLT Arena Games saw further expansion, with a second event in Rotterdam, held 18 April 2021,[43] and an inaugural Arena Games London event, held 27 March 2021.[44] The 2021 SLT Arena Games season was the second season of Arena Games racing to be held behind closed doors. Belgium's Marten Van Riel won both of the Men's events,[45] while in the women's races Sophie Coldwell[46] and Beth Potter,[47] both of Great Britain, won the Rotterdam and London events respectively. The 2021 Arena Games season also featured paratriathlon racing.[48]

In November 2021, Super League Triathlon announced a new Championship Series, in partnership with World Triathlon.[49] This series, known as Arena Games Triathlon Powered by Zwift would go on to crown the world's first Esports Triathlon World Champion, at the series final, in Singapore.

The line up for the 2022 Arena Games Triathlon Powered by Zwift series is as follows:[50]

• April 9 2022: Munich, Germany at Olympia-Schwimmhalle
• April 23 2022: London, UK at London Aquatics Centre
• May 7 2022: Singapore Grand Final at venue tbc[50]

Arena Games Triathlon Powered by Zwift, Munich 2022 was held in Olympia-Schwimmhalle at Olympiapark, Munich, on 9th April 2022. The event consisted of heats and finals for both the male and the female athletes, with the top 3 athletes from each heat, plus the 2 fastest losers overall progressing to the final.[51]

In the Ladies Final, Beth Potter put on a dominant display, taking the win by over a minute after the disqualification of fellow frontrunner Petra Kurikova in the heats. German athletes Lena Meißner and Anabel Knoll completed the podium, in front of a home crowd.[52] France's Aurelien Raphael took the Men's overall win, in a shock victory over highly favoured Alex Yee and Belgium's Marten Van Riel. New comer Max Stapley of Australia finished in second, while 2020 Rotterdam Champion and 2021 London Runner up, Justus Nieschlag continued his strong tradition at Arena Games by completing the podium.[53]

Women Heat 1[54]

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Beth Potter (GBR)	Q
2	Lena Meißner (GER)	Q
3	Gina Sereno (USA)	Q
4	Ilaria Zane (ITA)	q
5	Luisa Iogna-Prat (ITA)	q
6	Barbara De Koning (NED)
7	Iria Rodriguez (ESP)

Women Heat 2[54]

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Zsanett Bragmayer (HUN)	Q
2	Anabel Knoll (GER)	Q
3	Anna Godoy (ESP)	Q
4	Romana Gajdošová (SVK)
5	Alissa Konig (CHE)
-	Petra Kurikova (CZE)	DQ

Men Heat 1[55]

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Aurelien Raphael (FRA)	Q
2	Marten Van Riel (BEL)	Q
3	Gianluca Pozzatti (ITA)	Q
4	Chase McQueen (USA)	q
5	Max Stapley (AUS)	q
6	Russell White (IRL)
7	Alois Knabl (AUT)
8	Simon Henseleit (GER)

Men Heat 2[55]

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Alex Yee (GBR)	Q
2	Gordon Benson (GBR)	Q
3	Justus Nieschlag (GER)	Q
4	Darr Smith (USA)
5	Joao Silva (POR)
6	Jannik Schaufler (GER)
7	Tjebbe Kaindl (AUT)
8	Donald Hillebregt (NED)	Reinstated Following DQ

Women Final[52]

Rank	Name
	Beth Potter (GBR)
	Lena Meißner (GER)
	Anabel Knoll (GER)
4	Anna Godoy (ESP)
5	Ilaria Zane (ITA)
6	Gina Sereno (USA)
7	Luisa Iogna - Prat (ITA)
8	Zsanett Bragmayer (HUN)

Men Final[53]

Rank	Name
	Aurelien Raphael (FRA)
	Max Stapley (AUS)
	Justus Nieschlag (GER)
4	Chase McQueen (USA)
5	Gianluca Pozzatti (ITA)
6	Alex Yee (GBR)
7	Gordon Benson (GBR)
8	Marten Van Riel (BEL)

Arena Games Triathlon Powered by Zwift, London 2022 was held at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London on 23rd April 2022. As with Munich, event consisted of heats and finals for both the male and the female athletes, this time with the top 4 athletes from each heat, plus the 2 fastest losers overall progressing to the final.[51] In a departure from previous Arena Games events, the drafting feature, on the Zwift platform, was deactivated for the event. Thus athletes could no longer gain an advantage by riding in a pack or with others within Zwift while racing.[56]

In the Ladies Final, France's Cassandre Beaugrand set an Arena Games run record of 2:45/km on route to victory ahead of favourites Georgia Taylor Brown, Jess Learmonth, and Munich victor Beth Potter.[57], German athlete Justus Nieschlag took the Men's overall win, in a shock victory over home favourite Alex Yee. Yee finished in second, while Arena Games debutant Nicolo Strada of Italy finished third.[58] The victory made Nieschlag the most successful athlete in Arena Games history, with four podium finishes to his name. He had previously won the inaugural Arena Games in Rotterdam 2020, finished second at Arena Games London 2021, and finished in 3rd at the opening event of the 2022 Arena Games Triathlon series in Munich.

Women Heat 1[59]

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Beth Potter (GBR)	Q
2	Cassanre Beaugrand (FRA)	Q
3	Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)	Q
4	Audrey Merle (FRA)	Q
5	Anabel Knoll (GER)	q
6	Sophia Green (GBR)
7	Holly Elliott (GBR)
8	Zuzana Michalickova (SVK)
9	Iona Miller (GBR)

Women Heat 2[54]

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Jess Learmonth (GBR)	Q
2	Sian Rainsley (GBR)	Q
3	Zsanett Bragmeyer (HUN)	Q
4	Kate Waugh (GBR)	Q
5	Petra Kurikova (CZE)	q
6	Anna Godoy (ESP)
7	Iria Rodriguez (ESP)
8	Barbara De Koning (NED)

Men Heat 1[60]

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Alex Yee (GBR)	Q
2	Justus Nieschlag (GER)	Q
3	Maxime Hueber - Moosbrugger (FRA)	Q
4	Jeremy Briand (CAN)	Q
5	Joao Silva (POR)
6	James Edgar (IRL)
7	Ricardo Batista (POR)
8	Antoine Duval (FRA)
9	Keller Norland (USA)
10	Philip Pertl (AUT)

Men Heat 2

Rank	Name	Notes
1	Max Stapley (AUS)	Q
2	Nicolo Strada (ITA)	Q
3	Takumi Hojo (JPN)	Q
4	Gordon Benson (GBR)	Q
5	Simon Henseleit (GER)	q
6	Harry Leleu (GBR)	q
7	Dries Matthys (BEL)
8	Darr Smith (USA)
9	Lukas Pertl (AUT)
10	Aurelien Raphael (FRA)

Women Final[61]

Rank	Name
	Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA)
	Beth Potter (GBR)
	Jess Learmonth(GBR)
4	Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)
5	Audrey Merle (FRA)
6	Sian Rainsley (GBR)
7	Petra Kurikova (CZE)
8	Kate Waugh(GBR)
9	Anabel Knoll (GER)
10	Zsanett Bragmayer (HUN)

Men Final[62]

Rank	Name
	Justus Nieschlag (GER)
	Alex Yee (GBR)
	Nicolo Strada (ITA)
4	Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger (FRA)
5	Simon Henseleit (GER)
6	Max Stapley (AUS)
7	Takumi Hojo (JPN)
8	Jeremy Briand (CAN)
9	Gordon Benson (GBR)
10	Harry Leleu (GBR)