Ironman Announces Enhanced Coverage At Select Races

Ironman has announced that it plans to provide advanced data tracking and video coverage for all professional athletes at October’s Ironman World Championship, September’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship and the five regional championships.

For each event Ironman will produce Ironman Live, a hosted online show with in-depth coverage of the professional race that will include live GPS tracking for every pro. Professional triathletes will also be given the option to transmit biometric and power data, with the data ultimately being integrated into the new tracking platform, IronFan.

“We believe this initiative will draw more attention to and improve engagement with our sport,” said Andrew Messick, Chief Executive Officer of Ironman in the press release. “We are taking a major step forward by leveraging technology to create a more colorful and comprehensive experience for fans and the media. Our hope is that we will be able to expand this innovation to all races and to age-group athletes in the future.”

After testing the program at the Ironman World Championship in 2014, Ironman will start to roll out the new technology for the live coverage in a beta test at the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship in Melbourne on March 22, 2015. Other regional championships include the Ironman North American Championship in Woodlands, Texas on May 16, the Ironman Latin American Championship in Florianopolis, Brasil on May 31, the Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt, Germany on July 5 and the Ironman African Championship in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa on March 29.

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