Updated 10/5: The 2022 Kona Ironman World Championship Pro Start List

With the final races of the 2022 Kona qualifying period completed at the August, we now have a good look at who will likely be on the start line in October. For both the men’s and the women’s events, it’s likely that some pros will decline their slots (as we’ve already seen with Jan Frodeno, due to injury, and Sam Long), so the actual Ironman world championship pro start list will likely continue to evolve as we get close to race weekend in Kona.

But aside from a couple of withdrawals to come, both races have an interesting mixture of former winners, longtime veterans, Kona rookies, and more. Keep reading for the full, updated qualification list for men and women, in order of PTO ranking up to top 50 as of  August 22, along with a quick analysis of who’s racing, and some stats to help develop the picture of what this fall’s Ironman World Championship event could look like on race day.

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Pro Men Kona Qualifiers: 2022

With a quick look of the list of men’s qualifiers (far below), we see all of the top 15 PTO ranked ranked pros, with only a few of the top 40 ranked pros not on the original list. The latest list includes former Ironman world champions like Patrick Lange, Kristian Blummenfelt, and Sebastian Kienle, as well as longtime IMWC veterans like Tim O’Donnell, Ben Hoffman, and Michael Weiss. There are also 14 Ironman world champion rookies on the original list, who will all be swimming away from the pier for the first time ever.

In terms of countries represented by the pro men, the breakdown of the original list is below, with the U.S. and Australia leading the way, and traditional tri powerhouses like Germany, France, and Denmark close behind.

U.S. – 7

Australia – 7

Germany – 6

France – 5

Denmark – 4

Brazil, South Africa, United Kingdom – 3

Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden – 2

Switzerland, Slovakia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Finland, Austria, Argentina – 1

Pro Women Kona Qualifiers: 2022

Unlike the men’s list, the women’s list (far below) is missing quite a few of the top PTO-ranked pros—only six of the top 10 and 11 of the top 20 have qualified. As a result of many of the top-ranked women focusing solely on the 70.3 (or PTO) events, the way it could play out is a little more of a question mark than the men’s. In fact, only 27 of the top 50 PTO-ranked women are on this qualifier list, while 37 of the top 50 men are on their list. With more unranked or low-ranked women than men, there’s more opportunities for surprises.

There are returning Ironman world champions, of course, like Daniela Ryf and Anne Haug—as well as longtime veterans like American Heather Jackson. The big note on the women’s side, however, is the amount of IMWC first timers (18) and pros who have raced IMWC only once (16) on the original start list. Meanwhile, the men had 14 on the original list who had started only one Ironman world championship.

On the women’s side, the country of origin was more concentrated than the men’s—with the U.S. leading the way with 11 female pros, followed by the U.K. (9), Germany (8), and Australia (7) in the original list. The full country breakdown of the original list, below:

United States – 11

United Kingdom – 9

Germany – 8

Australia – 7

Switzerland – 4

South Africa – 3

France, Sweden, Brazil – 2

Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand – 1