Triathlon event coming to Milwaukee will feature some of the world's best athletes, including Olympic medalists and world champions
The best in the world are joining the Milwaukee triathlon scene.
The PTO US Open will now join the USA Triathlon National Championships in Milwaukee in August.
The USA National Triathlon Championships will take place Aug. 4-6, with the PTO triathletes racing on Aug. 4 and 5.
It's a pretty big deal for multisport, and for our city. Here’s why.
The Professional Triathletes Organization (PTO) will put forward the world’s top female and male professional triathletes. Athletes will include Olympic medalists and world champions.
The PTO is a new organization, co-owned by the professional athletes, seeking to elevate and grow the sport of Triathlon. It debuted in 2021 with its first race.
The PTO US has a specially designed course of a 2km swim, a 80km bike and a 18km run.
In its first full season in 2022 with about 7 months of international racing, the PTO US Open was part of a three-race Tour with the goal of broadening the tri sports audience. It said it had a TV and streaming audience of 23.1 million with 29 million social media video views.
Milwaukee will expect 7,000 participants and 20,000 spectators to attend. That will make it one of the largest ever weekends of triathlon in North America.
The USA Nationals Olympics championships have enjoyed several successful runs in Milwaukee, so much that the national event keeps returning. Milwaukee has hosted several times, and this will be the third year for the Olympic and Sprint distance competition in Brew City.
For all of the triathletes, the course will be challenging because of the swim in Lake Michigan, which always has cool water temperatures and a breakwater in Milwaukee’s bay that can make the wave a little more forgiving.
The race revolves around the Milwaukee Art Museum, Henry Maier Festival Park and Discovery World along the shore of Lake Michigan.
The bike course traverses down Lincoln Memorial Dr. The run course travels out along Lake Michigan on paved trails through the scenic Veterans Park, returning on Lincoln Memorial Drive.
“With three days of all-day racing we are able to host three distinctly different events – sprint and Olympic-distance national championships, Zone3 Youth and Junior Nationals, and the PTO US Open,” said USA Triathlon Chief Sport Development Officer Tim Yount in a statement. “This triathlon festival will showcase one of the things that makes our sport both unique and great – athletes ages 7 to 87, age group and professional, from all over the U.S. and around the globe, racing at the same venue over the same weekend.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: PTO US Open joins USA Triathlon National Championships in Milwaukee
