Will Race Refunds and Transfers Become the New Norm in Triathlon?

In November, the Michigan-based Tris4Health event company, known for the Grand Rapids Tri and the iron-distance Michigan Titanium, announced its “risk-free racing” policy. That means that for any of its 23 multisport and endurance events on the 2025 calendar, registered athletes can get a full refund if they cancel 60 or more days from their race. If it’s within 60 days of the race, the athlete can defer their entry and receive a voucher for the full amount paid (minus registration platform fees) to use on other Tris4Health races or merchandise.

The robust refund policy stemmed from the two owners’ experiences as triathletes before they took over the company in 2019. “We really approached the events with some fresh eyes, fresh perspectives on trying to enhance what the athlete experience was,” says Jon Conkling, Tris4Health president and co-owner. “We looked at everything through the lens of what would we like to see had we been participants at these events?”

While many races state that registration fees are non-refundable because the money is used for long-lead items like medals, shirts, and sanctioning fees, in Tris4Health’s case, most of the money isn’t spent until within 60 days of the race. Previously, the company had allowed both deferrals and transfers, and now Tris4Health believes that offering a full, no-questions-asked refund 60 days out is the first of its kind for the industry – and something that athletes will appreciate.

“We have definitely heard from other race directors that they’re not in support of what we’re doing,” Conkling says, “but we really believe that if we are as transparent with our participant base, as athlete-friendly as we possibly can be, it’s going to keep people racing with us.”

The shifting triathlon refund policy landscape

When COVID-19 forced race directors to cancel races, it spotlighted the flexibility – or inflexibility – of every race’s published refund, transfer, and deferral policy. The cancellations were unprecedented and challenging to navigate – were race directors expected to refund 100% of registration fees? Do they defer the athletes’ registration to the following year’s race? Do they send the already purchased medals and T-shirts with a partial refund? On top of that, job losses and the economic downturn had athletes looking to recover cash as much as possible.

Since 2020, Tris4Health hasn’t been the only organization providing more flexibility to triathletes after they register: In 2023, Ironman announced its Flex90 program, and in 2021, USA Triathlon temporarily allowed for one-day licenses to be deferred or transferred to other races before overhauling its athlete annual membership structure in 2024.

Climate change has thrown another variable into how race directors approach their refund policies. In fact, Cal Tri Events just announced a Divine Intervention Refund Policy for 2025. If an “act of God” (i.e., natural disaster, accident or other incident outside of human control) causes the race organizers or a municipal authority to cancel the race, athletes will be refunded their registration fee in full. To create this policy, Cal Tri takes out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London, which they build into the budget, in case of natural disaster. They had to learn the hard way in 2024 – their San Antonio, Texas, event was canceled due to lightning, and their Charlotte, North Carolina, race was canceled because of Hurricane Helene.

The divine intervention policy follows a 2022 Cal Tri policy for fee-free deferrals, race transfers, and bib swaps, a policy that Cal Tri’s CEO, Thom Richmond, says “no doubt” has drawn more people to register for his events since it was rolled out. Combine that with already low-cost registration fees, and he says his registration numbers grew 25% last year.

“We’re a nonprofit, so we’re not really trying to optimize the financials there,” Richmond says. “We’re just trying to make something that’s safe, affordable, accessible.” When it comes to refunds and transfers, “we’ve got to do better than the airline industry,” he says.

Why most triathlon races don’t offer refunds

Not all race directors have the same ability to offer refunds, deferrals, and transfers like Tris4Health and Cal Tri Events. For the Arctic Triathlon Series, a series of three summer races in the Fairbanks, Alaska, area, their no-refund policy has always had to be firm.

“We don’t charge a lot anyway,” says Amber Barlow, who’s in the series’ race director group. She’s not kidding – their early bird entry fee for their Olympic-distance race is $50, and their half-iron-distance is $60. “So if we were to do refunds, we would never be able to afford to race. … We’ve already spent that money on swag or food or the permits. Our race budget is set to where we just break even.”

In addition to the tight finances, Arctic Triathlon Series doesn’t have the administrative resources to handle deferrals or transfers. “This isn’t our full-time job,” she says. “We don’t have the bandwidth.”

For other race directors, the no-refund policy is a bit more philosophical. “This problem has been around since the dawn of man with event planning,” says Sean Ryan, race director of the Door County Triathlon in Wisconsin. He views a purchased race registration as a pact between athlete and race director: The athlete agrees to show up, trained and ready. The race director agrees to do all the preparation, permits, and planning to safely put on the event. “Then at the 11th hour, the email comes in from the participant saying they can’t participate,” he says.

When he took over race organizing more than 20 years ago for a marathon in Green Bay, he witnessed how a seasoned marathon staff dealt with the “appeals” to the race’s published no-refund, no-deferral policy. He soon learned that many races publish a policy, only to quickly bend on that policy when something goes awry for participants.

He listened to his staff discuss one woman who had breast cancer deemed worthy to receive a refund while a man who lost his job possibly merited the termination and wouldn’t receive a refund. “As the new race director in charge, it dawned on me as we were doing this that I don’t think there’s a fair way to adjudicate all of those appeals,” Ryan says. “It just seems to me that unless someone wrote, ‘I just don’t feel like training – can I have a refund?’ we should grant every single one.”

He and the staff agreed that it needed to be all of them or none of them, which is why he still runs his races with a strict no-refund policy, which causes some athletes to call him unaccommodating. “It’s not that I’m unaccommodating,” he says. “It’s that I refuse to play the role of Solomon and decide whose excuses are worthy and whose are not. I refuse to say this person gets a refund and that one does not – to me, that’s unfair.”

On top of that, he points to the typical no-show rate of 10% at races. “If you took 10% of the registration fee revenue and knocked it out of the picture, most races would lose money,” he says. “Most of these races live and die on a razor-thin profit margin.”

Making race refunds work in triathlon

While finances are tight, many race organizers do their best to help athletes and choose to offer third-party insurance to participants. For the Arctic Triathlon Series, athletes can choose to purchase Active Refund, an insurance program offered by the Active.com registration platform, when they register for the race. The program allows athletes to get a refund on the race registration for multiple reasons, including injury, illness, pregnancy, military deployment, work relocation, and vehicle breakdown or theft. If athletes choose to use it, Active.com pays the refund, though the race organizers do have to absorb the cost of the registration platform fee. It’s a lower-risk approach that gives athletes an out if needed, and the race organizers aren’t burdened with the administrative load.

 

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For Door County Triathlon, while Ryan doesn’t offer refunds, he does encourage – and even facilitate – race transfers. He views requests for refunds like purchasing concert tickets – would you purchase a concert ticket, realize you can’t make it, and then try to email the concert venue or the band to get a 100% refund days before the show? Obviously not, so he encourages athletes to find another buyer for their registration. Three months out from the race, he pins a post to the top of his Facebook page for buying, selling, and transferring registrations to help buyers and sellers find each other, which is especially likely in his sold-out races. He also specifically seeks out registration platforms that can accommodate participant-to-participant transfers – that way, his staff doesn’t have to manage the administrative or financial aspects of bib transfers.

While not every race or race series is able to offer full refunds and fee-free transfers – and maybe never will – triathlon race directors work hard to provide the best race experience and value for athletes while also doing their best to accommodate athlete requests. “I get that a lot of [event organizers] are probably operating on shoestring budgets,” says Conkling of Tris4Health. “But I hope that other event companies, other race directors, really look at this model and really see where their risk is, and try to be a little bit more athlete friendly with their policies because life does happen.”

A snapshot of triathlon race refund policies around the U.S.