26 Feb Exclusive Interview: Sam Renouf on Revolutionising Triathlon with the T100 Series
Triathlon is entering a bold new era, and at the forefront of this transformation is Sam Renouf, Founding CEO of the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO). With a mission to elevate the sport and bring it to the global stage, the PTO has launched the T100 Triathlon World Tour, a high-stakes, elite-level race series that is making waves across the endurance sports world.
In this exclusive interview, Sam shares his personal journey from elite triathlete to sports industry leader, the vision behind T100, and why Singapore is playing a key role in this evolution. He also discusses the challenges of building a professional triathlon series, the importance of mass participation, and what the future holds for the sport.
Whether you’re a seasoned triathlete, a weekend warrior, or just curious about the future of endurance sports, Sam’s insights provide a fascinating look into how the T100 is shaping the next generation of triathlon.
1. It would be great to learn about your journey into the triathlon event industry, how did it all start for you?
Great question – and actually most people won’t know that Singapore has played a big role in that journey over the years.
Rewinding 20 years, I was a member of the GB International Triathlon team and was lucky enough to earn a sports scholarship to Loughborough University. I had an enviable student experience, racing around the world – including my first trips to Asia, with camps in Thailand with TeamTBB (a group that perhaps a few readers might remember) and raced the Bintan Triathlon meeting Nathalie and Matthe, back when MetaSport was TriBob!
But despite finishing top 10 at Ironman UK while in my final year at uni, I had already seen the writing on the wall and knew that my future lay beyond being a professional triathlete, if I wanted to build a career that was economically sustainable.
So, collecting my prize money of just £700 GBP [for the Ironman UK race], I promptly shook the hand of my coach and told him it was time for a ‘proper job’.
Whilst I didn’t have the talent to succeed as a professional triathlete, what I undoubtedly took from my experiences was a fierce determination and resilience to succeed. Which is something that I think is in-bred in most triathletes – whether professional or amateur.
Fast forward to now, via postings around the world with The Active Network (including a return to Singapore, where I was based for 4 years), and then US based Motiv Sports, the owner and operator of mass participation events, and you could say that I’ve boomeranged back to triathlon.
2. Have you ever been a triathlete yourself? If so, has this helped to inspire you to push the T100 race series into new and exciting heights?
My experiences in triathlon have given me huge personal motivation to ensure the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and its mission – to elevate the sport and take it mainstream – succeeds. In many ways, it’s a passion play as much as it is a job!
3. What was the inspiration behind the T100 race series to begin with?
In answering that question, it’s worth looking at how and why the Professional Triathletes Organisation was created.
A good comparison would be the ATP or WTA in tennis or the PGA or LPGA in golf. These organisations were formed by groups of professional athletes who wanted to make their sport better. And that’s exactly what’s happened with the PTO and the professional triathletes who co-own it.
Professional triathletes have seen the rise of our sport but the growth at the pro end hasn’t necessarily tracked the participation growth. Football, the NFL and tennis have been multibillion-dollar sports for a long time. Triathlon has really been in the dark ages from a commercial and broadcast perspective, and that’s why the PTO was formed.
Triathlon appeals to the executive and the professional class – which is a very attractive group to market to. The whole point of the PTO is that although you’ve got this incredibly valuable market that’s global, it’s completely fragmented by the lack of a media product.
To create that media product we introduced a new distance triathlon of 100km (2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run), which fitted into a broadcast window of around three and a half hours – which was what we felt was the longest stretch we could get someone to sit down and watch a triathlon. We staged our first 100km races on TV during Covid in 2020 and then in 2022 as part of the PTO Tour, which people tuned into in their thousands and it proved what Silicon Valley folk would call a ‘product market fit’. Then it was about creating a more consumer facing brand [i.e. T100] and building out the races into a season-long schedule and narrative that had the best athletes competing head-to-head on a consistent basis and in iconic cities – like Singapore – around the world.
I think one of the things we’ve learnt over the last 12-18 months has been the importance of the mass participation element to our business. It’s something that not many professional sports have and is a unique selling point for triathlon. For example, if you watch the Singapore Grand Prix, you can’t then jump in a Formula 1 car and go around the circuit. You can with the Singapore T100!
4. How important is having Singapore as the opening race of the year? Where do you see Singapore in the future with T100?
Singapore has been a very important race for us. When we first came in 2023, it helped us establish the blueprint for the T100 multisport weekend in iconic locations which you see today.
As well as hosting the top 20 female and and top 20 male professional triathletes in the world competing ‘head to head’, the Singapore T100 also features a range of opportunities for amateur athletes of all levels to get involved. From experienced amateurs tackling the 100km distance on the same courses as the T100 professionals, to first-time swim, bike and run participants taking on single discipline, untimed events like The Music Run, which we’ve also included for the last two editions here in the Lion City.
5. What have been the biggest challenges in establishing and expanding the T100 series?
The funding from our lead investor, Sir Michael Moritz, landed three weeks before COVID struck in 2020, which was great timing in retrospect!
I think the greatest lesson that the COVID period taught us was to not be afraid to try things and in a funny way it brought the professional triathletes who co-own the PTO closer together and even more resilient.
A good example of this was staging our first ever race, the PTO Championships in Daytona in 2020, under COVID conditions. Whilst it wasn’t possible to have a crowd or do any of the mass participation events I’ve talked about, what it did show us was there was a vibrant and engaged audience who wanted to watch these kinds of races. We had more than a million people tune in and watch.
6. How do you balance catering to elite athletes while also engaging amateur triathletes and fans?
The triathlon community has always seen very close bonds between its professionals and amateur athletes. What we’ve seen with the T100 races in 2024 is that both elements make the other better.
For example, in London we had almost 5,000 amateur participants and their friends and family racking their bikes on the Saturday and then staying to cheer on the professional women who were racing. Which created an electric atmosphere and contributed to crowds over the weekend of almost 20,000.
Here in Singapore it’s been similar, with The Music Run also adding its own unique atmosphere and vibe on the Saturday night.
7. How does the T100 series aim to positively impact the local communities where events are held, to help inspire a new generation of triathletes?
Encouraging everyone to be more active is something that’s very important to the PTO and the professional triathletes who co-own the organisation. There’s a great quote that more tennis rackets get sold in Australia in January than the rest of the year combined (from the motivation of watching the Australian Open) – and we hope to see a similar catalyst for endurance sports from hosting a T100 in the community.
For example, in Singapore the pros have regularly visited different schools during the week before their races over the last few years. To share their stories and also introduce the sport to school children. Last year, Lucy Charles-Barclay and Magnus Ditlev visited Sembawang Primary School in the north of the city. You can read more about their visit here.
8. In a perfect world, what is the vision for T100 over the next 5 years?
Well, we recently announced a 12-year partnership with World Triathlon, the sport’s international governing body, who we originally collaborated with to create the T100 Triathlon World Tour as the official World Championship of long distance triathlon. The significance of this being that the winners of the T100 Triathlon World Tour can call themselves official World Champions. That’s huge for the pros.
As part of that 12-year partnership we’ve not only committed to developing further the T100 series – which we have grown from 7 legs in 2024 to 9 legs in 2025 – but we will also explore new opportunities to grow the sport together. All designed to grow deeper engagement with the sport’s committed fan, but also find a way to promote triathlon to the broader sports fan. A good example of this is the new T1 Indoor Triathlon World Cup event we’re piloting with the Lievin Triathlon Club in Northern France on 22 March. You can read more about that event here – perhaps we can see a stage hosted at the Singapore Indoor Stadium one day.
9. What legacy do you hope to leave through your work with the T100? How do you want to be remembered as a leader in the sport.
I think legacy is for someone else to determine or judge.
At the moment, myself and the team at the PTO are right at the start of our journey with the T100, so all our focus is on continuing the really encouraging momentum from last year and making the second season of the series really special. We have some huge ambitions to take triathlon ‘mainstream’ and having the ability to help do that is both an honour and a responsibility we don’t take lightly!
With that in mind, if you know of a company or brand in Singapore who might like to join us on this journey, please let us know. Sports industry experts have been saying for a while that triathlon is the new golf.
I hope you can all experience that in Singapore in a month’s time!
