Today, the Professional Triathletes Organization (PTO) announced four-time Ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington and two-time Ironman world champion Normann Stadler as the Team Europe Captains for next year’s Collins Cup, an event loosely modeled after golf’s Ryder Cup.
The event will take place next June, and organizers are slowly revealing the details. So far, we know it will will be a long-distance team competition among USA, Europe and “International” teams. Each team will consist of 12 professional triathletes, six men and six women. The first eight athletes on each team will be chosen based on standings in the PTO’s own ranking system, with the team captains choosing the final four. Tri legends Dave Scott and Karen Smyers will be USA’s team captains, and Wellington and Stadler will lead Europe’s team. The Internationals’ captains haven’t been announced yet.
“I am thrilled to have been selected as one of the European Team Captains for the inaugural Collins Cup,” Wellington said in the press release. “Triathlon is such an amazing sport—innovative, forward thinking and truly open to all. The Collins Cup marks a hugely exciting and important new addition to the race calendar, with the best male and female athletes in the world racing head-to-head in a fantastic new format. Not only that, there’s the opportunity to be involved in a whole weekend of tri-related activities, enabling us to celebrate everything that’s great about our sport. Together with Normann, I can’t wait to captain the European Team in this unique debut event!”
