Published September 10, 2025 10:58AM
From Listening to Leading: Ironman CEO Scott DeRue on Revitalizing the Brand and Prioritizing Athletes
We sat down with DeRue in Nice, France, a few days before the 2025 Men’s Ironman World Championship to find out what he’s learned in his tenure to date, how he’ll (actually) put athletes first, and where they're looking to place new races.
(Photo: Brad Kaminski/Triathlete)
When Triathlete sat down with Ironman CEO Scott DeRue at last year’s world championship in Nice, the conversation mostly centered around lessons learned. At the time, DeRue – who had begun his job only nine months prior – was experiencing the brand’s pinnacle from the unique view of being both the guy in charge and the guy who had never been there.
It was an experience that demanded tremendous trust and humility. DeRue watched and listened as 2,000 staff and volunteers assembled the massive event. He met with government officials at the local and national levels to build on existing relationships and scout out new partnerships. But mostly, he went to practice swims, to pre-race gatherings, and seemingly everywhere on the race course to meet athletes.
It was a departure from his predecessor, Andrew Messick. Though the former CEO, who retired in 2023, could occasionally be seen participating in races alongside age-groupers and handing out finisher medals during his tenure, his approach to running the brand was that of a stern father: Daddy knows best.
DeRue, in contrast, came to the job with a collaborative approach. This was evident in his first-ever interview with triathlon media, when he told Triathlete his ethos was based on community-building. Before he made any changes to the Ironman experience, he first wanted to know what that community was like.
So what did he learn – and how is he putting that information into play? More importantly, is it working? We sat down with DeRue ahead of the men’s 2025 Ironman World Championship race in Nice, France, for his assessment on the health of the brand and what’s ahead.
Visit our Nice Central hub for news, analysis, history, photo galleries, and so much more – new stories added daily from our team on the ground at the men’s 2025 Ironman World Championship.
A year of listening and action
Since DeRue came on board, Ironman has hosted dozens of focus groups, solicited feedback from thousands of athletes via online surveys, and scrutinized data point after data point. These have informed some of the biggest decisions made in the past year – most notably, the 2026 return of the one-day, mixed gender Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, after three years of split championships in Kona and Nice. The race is also using a complex new age-graded slot distribution system for age-groupers, which rolled out in late summer of 2025.
But there are also other, smaller changes that have taken place as a result of DeRue’s listening tour. Athletes who have raced this year may have noticed an improvement in the quality of “swag bags” at races – that’s a result of the feedback the brand has received. So, too, is the investment in online technology for race registration and information distribution. A recent Bloomberg article includes an anecdote about DeRue noticing the way volunteers unwrapped energy bars at aid stations, which kicked off an investigation into athlete preferences on “bar distribution procedure.”
DeRue says all of this was done with the intent of optimizing the athlete experience. The unspoken part: Ironman is a business, and the CEO’s job is to reverse declining participation numbers and restore faith in the brand. But DeRue says from the first conversations he had with triathletes, it was clear the path to achieve this goal was by putting the athletes in the copilot seat.
“What I’ve learned about the world of triathlon is how passionate and engaged our athletes are,” DeRue says. “In many ways, Ironman is their brand. They feel a deep sense of ownership over the brand, and that’s what the community is about. That’s the heart and soul of any good consumer business.”
And it seems to be working: After slugging participation numbers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ironman and 70.3 events around the globe are seeing strong demand, with more races selling out and others quickly approaching capacity. Participation numbers lately have been on an upward trajectory after a marked decline from their peak in 2016, with the biggest increase in new athletes coming from the under-30 demographic. At the inaugural Ironman Ottawa this year, 1,100 out of 2,500 athletes were what DeRue calls “re-inspired” athletes, or triathletes who had decreased their participation in Ironman races prior to the announcement of the new Canadian race.
To put it more precisely, DeRue is leaning on a strategy to create new races in old places. Take, for example, a newly announced iron-distance event in Jacksonville: DeRue’s logic follows that people who have done (the highly successful) Ironman Florida a million times might be bored, but they also don’t want to drive seven-plus hours (or worse yet, fly with a bike) to Chattanooga, Tennessee, or The Woodlands, Texas, for another full-distance event. Especially when Jacksonville is a relatively short shot across Florida on the I-10 from Ironman Florida’s home in Panama City.
That said, DeRue emphasizes the work is just beginning. Now, Ironman says it’s doubling down on its commitment to athletes and the global growth of triathlon, focusing on an athlete-centric approach to event selection and design. DeRue says the core mission remains “to engage the community and continue to listen, because the needs of the community, the desires of the community, those will evolve.”
Strategic event locations: More than just a race
One of the biggest developments highlighted by DeRue is Ironman’s approach to event locations. With races across Europe consistently selling out, the demand for more events is clear. The strategy is to create “iconic experiences,” rather than just triathlons, he says. A prime example is a planned 70.3 in Versailles, France, set against the backdrop of the historic palace. Similarly, a new 70.3 near Dallas, Texas, is expected to be an immediate sell-out due to its prime placement in an area with high triathlon participation, thanks to Ironman Texas in The Woodlands, three hours away.
This philosophy extends to emerging markets, such as El Salvador. While some might raise an eyebrow at that location choice, DeRue says decisions are based not only on athlete feedback regarding desired travel destinations, but also on an investment in growing the sport in regions with less access to triathlon.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen rapid expansion from Ironman – in the past, the race series has come under fire for its approach to event consolidation, where it bought locally-owned races like Beach to Battleship and then shuttered them. When asked about the new events potentially cannibalizing local races, DeRue was quick to say this wasn’t a page out of Ironman’s old playbook.
“It would be short-sighted and foolish of us to cannibalize all the local races, because that’s our feeder system. When we think about where we put races, we’re trying to be mindful of what races already exist, when they exist, and what our impact would be if we came into their market,” DeRue says. “We want to construct a calendar where we can actually support the local races. We don’t want to compete by taking athletes from local races.”
The goal is to grow the sport as a whole, understanding that local grassroots races serve as a crucial “feeder system” for aspiring Ironman and 70.3 athletes. DeRue says this is why Ironman has not expanded its short-course race offerings unless it’s in an area where there’s a need to grow the sport, such as in Latin America.
Collaboration, not competition, with T100 and Supertri
DeRue’s view of the greater triathlon ecosystem isn’t limited to local races. In the past year, he’s been spotted at other race series, including T100 and Supertri. Such outings were in contrast with online rumors of a hostile relationship between the brands, which sometimes portray a bitter rivalry.
When asked about these rumors, DeRue laughs. “I think all of these brands are healthy for the sport. We’re all doing different things, and overall, a lot of the growth and momentum we’re seeing in the sport of triathlon is because of that. T100 came in and really invested in the pro side of the sport and the media product. Supertri is coming in and doing great stuff with shorter distances.
“Do we compete at some level? Sure. I mean, maybe someone chooses to do a T100 race and not an Ironman. But I know the narrative out there, and that’s just not how I think about it. All of these players, from T100 all the way to local event organizers, are healthy and needed for growing the sport.”
DeRue says he maintains relationships with Sam Renouf and Michael d’Hulst, CEOs of T100 and Supertri, respectively, about what they’re seeing in the broader market. “I think they’re all doing interesting things, and all I care about at the end of the day is growing the sport of triathlon,” he says.
The Kona-Nice chapter and beyond
Looking back at the two-day world championship format, particularly the partnership with Nice, DeRue expresses “a sense of gratitude.” The move to Nice was a necessity born from the challenges of hosting a two-day event in Kona, and the French city stepped up to welcome the world championship without hesitation. While acknowledging varying opinions on the split system, DeRue reiterates the decision to return to a one-day event in Kona was guided by “the voice of the athlete.”
Addressing the ongoing online discussion about the new age-graded world championship qualifying system, DeRue acknowledged the buzz and committed to transparency. While it’s too early for definitive conclusions from the first five races that have used the new system, DeRue says preliminary data align with expectations regarding roll-downs and gender/age group participation.
“Generally speaking, those first five Kona qualifying races [for 2026] have seen rolldowns in line with what we thought we’d see,” DeRue says. “18% of finishers have been women, which is in line with the demographic information we have, but 27% of slots offered have gone to women and 22% of women have taken those slots. When we go back to our modeling when we created that system, and what we expected out of these first handful of races, it’s generally going in that direction.”
Ironman plans to publicize data on finishers, slots offered, and slots accepted by age group and gender, he says. In reference to the gap between women who qualify for the world champs and women who accept, Ironman is talking with athletes who decline their spots to understand why. The hope is to understand the barriers athletes face as they move through their triathlon journeys so Ironman can address them.
“Our commitment is to our community. Gather that feedback, and understand what Ironman can do to meet the needs of our athletes,” he says. “So that’s what we’re doing.”
