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Happy FriYAY Team!
Kona’s New Rules: Is Age-Group Qualification Fair?”
Those who know me, know how deeply passionate I am about World Championship Event age group standards and the qualifications system over recent years with the split with Nice & Kona. Talk about going from one extreme to another with the implementation of the 2026 Age Group Qualifications. And whilst I do applaud Ironman for making the changes to keep the World Championship Events at a World Class Level, I am now absolutely confused on how the new system is fair to age group women.
IRONMAN has overhauled its World Championship qualification system for 2026, shifting from placement-based slots to a performance-driven model. Age-group winners still earn automatic slots. If this slot is not taken, it will roll down only to 2nd or 3rd place only. All remaining spots are now awarded based on age-graded performance against global benchmarks—the “Kona Standard” for full-distance and “70.3 Standard” for half-distance events. This system compares athletes across ages and genders using historical top 20% finish times, aiming to reward the strongest performances rather than just large or competitive age groups.
While high-performing athletes from smaller age groups now have a path to qualification, the new model raises the bar across the board. Securing a slot via the performance pool requires times close to world-standard results, making Kona and other IRONMAN World Championship events tougher to reach than ever. The change has sparked debate: some praise its fairness and data-driven approach, while most warn it is far to complex!
The system has also drawn criticism for its impact on age-group women in full IRONMAN races, who now share the same performance pool as men after automatic slots are distributed. Even with age-grading, top male times still dominate the rankings, making it harder for women to qualify through the performance pool. Critics argue this disproportionately affects smaller female age groups, reducing opportunities for strong women who might have qualified under a separate, gender-specific allocation.
There has been 14 qualification races for Kona under the new 2026 system. Of the Performance slots, only 5% have been awarded to women, with a whopping 95% to men. In Ironman California last weekend, the was only 1 performance slot awarded to women. Nearly all the females who placed 2nd in their age groups did not qualify for Kona. There was 17 slots awarded to the males 50-59 age category alone.
As you can imagine, this new system has sparked immense discussions in the triathlon community about equality and what drastic adjustments are needed to ensure fair representation for women in Kona qualification.
YOU are stronger than YOU think,
Alli |
