IRONMAN Releases 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series RaceRanger Data, Highlighted by More Than 25% Reduction in Average Illegal Drafting Time from Prior Year; IRONMAN To Expand RaceRanger[...]

TAMPA, Fla. (December 4, 2025) - IRONMAN, the global leader in triathlon, in conjunction with RaceRanger, the revolutionary drafting detection system, have released the 2025 IRONMAN® Pro Series RaceRanger event data to provide insights into the state of professional racing at IRONMAN events, and demonstrate how the integration of the technology has helped lead to safer and fairer competitive racing. In less than two years since RaceRanger was introduced to professional IRONMAN racing, it is already demonstrating a significant reduction in drafting with both women and men reducing their average illegal time by more than 25% from 2024 to 2025.

The release of data comes after IRONMAN advised its professional field of athletes at the respective 2025 IRONMAN World Championship® and IRONMAN® 70.3® World Championship Pro Race Briefings in Nice, France, Kona, Hawai`i, and Marbella, Spain of the intent to make aggregated and anonymized RaceRanger data publicly available at the end of the year. IRONMAN also informed athletes that they would each receive a personalized year-end report containing their respective RaceRanger data from every IRONMAN Pro Series event that they competed in. In all, IRONMAN will be producing and distributing over 600 personalized reports to professional athletes over the coming weeks.

In parallel to the release of year-end data and insights, and based upon the successful integration of RaceRanger since the 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series season, IRONMAN is pleased to announce that RaceRanger technology will be expanded in 2026 to more than 40 professional IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 events, inclusive of all 16 events that are part of the 2026 Experience Oman IRONMAN Pro Series. The expanded use of RaceRanger will also see IRONMAN establish and build a "drafting profile" for each professional athlete aimed to improve overall event officiating strategy as data continues to cumulate throughout the year.

2025 IRONMAN Pro Series RaceRanger Data
For the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series season, IRONMAN has worked with RaceRanger to compile and aggregate data for every IRONMAN Pro Series race for both female and male professional athlete fields, containing information on average illegal time spent in the draft zone, the average number of times athletes moved in and out of the draft zone without completing a pass during competition (represented as Yo-Yo's), and the average for longest single illegal time spent in the draft zone of another athlete. In an effort to be comprehensive and provide an unfiltered account of each IRONMAN Pro Series race, this data is fully inclusive of the entire bike course, meaning it includes any illegal time registered during aid stations, climbs, no-pass zones, and turns sharper than 90 degrees. This necessarily includes areas of the course during which drafting is scrutinized to a lesser degree to allow safe access to aid stations and turns sharper than 90 degrees.

Results and Insights from the 2025 Data
Given the nuances of each of the bike courses, variations with the data was expected, especially with courses that have longer narrow sections or courses that have a higher amount of technical sections. However, while these types of course features require a higher degree of balancing enforcement with safety, the average illegal time for any given event was less than four and a half minutes for the men and three minutes for women. Overall, when compared to 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series RaceRanger data, there has been an overall reduction in drafting at the races with women reducing their overall average illegal time by 28.8% (from 00:01:37 to 00:01:09), while men reduced theirs by 25.5% (from 00:03:08 to 00:02:20). Additionally, both men and women had a reduction in the average single longest follow from the 2024 to the 2025 season, with women reducing that time by 15.7% and men reducing their time by 8%.

At full-distance IRONMAN events, the women clocked the least amount of average illegal time and lowest average number of Yo-Yo's during the 2025 ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship, while the men clocked the least amount of average illegal time and lowest average number of YoYo's during the 2025 Athletic Brewing IRONMAN Lake Placid event. For the middle-distance IRONMAN 70.3 events, the men and women both clocked the least amount of average illegal time as well as the lowest average number of Yo-Yo's at the 2025 Intermountain Health IRONMAN 70.3 St. George North American Championship. Additionally, the data also suggests that for both men and women, the size of the field did not directly correspond to the amount of illegal time incurred.

The data above reflects both the average illegal time accrued by the athletes, as well as the average number of Yo-Yos accrued for athletes competing in that respective event. Here are some definitions to assist with understanding the data:
• Starters: The number of professional athletes who started the bike section of the race
• Illegal time: Time greater than the allowed 25 seconds to complete a pass or to drop back after being overtaken, and any time accrued when entering the draft zone of an athlete and backing out without completing a pass (Yo-Yo)
• Yo-Yo: A count of each instance for which an athlete enters the draft zone and backs out without completing a pass
• Single Longest Follow: The longest single illegal time spent in the draft zone of another athlete

Moving Forward
Since 2024, IRONMAN has implemented RaceRanger technology at IRONMAN Pro Series events as a tool to assist referees with enforcement of drafting rules, and aimed to maintain a safe, clean, and fair racing environment. Based on the encouraging aggregated data from 2025 and positive impact to athlete drafting behavior for events that utilized RaceRanger technology, IRONMAN will be expanding its use of RaceRanger to events beyond the Experience Oman IRONMAN Pro Series in 2026. IRONMAN will be implementing RaceRanger for the professional field at more than 40 IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 events globally, including all 16 events that are part of the 2026 Experience Oman IRONMAN Pro Series. The expansion of RaceRanger continues to emphasize IRONMAN's goal of fair and safe racing, as well as prioritizing enforcement of competition rules. It also builds on the long relationship between RaceRanger and IRONMAN, which began in 2018 and saw various prototypes of the product being tested at select IRONMAN events since that time.

In conjunction with this expansion, IRONMAN will be establishing a "drafting profile" for each professional athlete, which will improve overall event officiating strategy. IRONMAN will also be initiating communication with athletes that have been identified with having the most illegal time in the draft zone as well as the most Yo-Yo's in competition and discussing an individual improvement plan. As the "drafting profiles" continue to be developed throughout the season, IRONMAN will use this data strategically to ensure a more efficient selection process for future IRONMAN Professional events, as well as provide the ability for Race Officials to be more proactive in the monitoring of drafting at events. IRONMAN will continue to not only look into further uses of technology but also review other elements of the competition rules in an effort to reduce illegal drafting for age group and professional athletes.

"From the beginning, our goal in working with RaceRanger has been to utilize their technology and the data collected to assist athletes and officials in support of a safe and fair racing environment," said Scott DeRue, Chief Executive Officer for The IRONMAN Group. "Based on what we have seen at the races and in evaluating the data, we are incredibly encouraged by the commitment of our athletes to fair racing and the improvements we are seeing from one season to the next. The system is clearly helping, and we thank James and the RaceRanger team for their collaboration and continued partnership as we look to expand the use of RaceRanger to more races in 2026."

"The RaceRanger Team has been proud to serve the IRONMAN Pro Series since its inception at the start of 2024, and are more than excited to expand the relationship through the increased number of races in 2026," said James Elvery, Co-founder and CEO of RaceRanger. "We'd like to thank IRONMAN, but also all of the pro athletes, and the officials that have used RaceRanger in the last two years for their feedback and support along the way. We look forward to continuing this trend of improving the fairness of racing with you, while also building out and releasing the next versions and features of the system in the coming year."

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About RaceRanger
RaceRanger is a world first triathlon specific technology, addressing the problem of drafting on the bike section of non-drafting triathlons. Developed in New Zealand by two former pro athletes, James Elvery and Dylan McNeice, the system accurately measures athlete drafting distances. A following rider is shown a series of coloured lights from the rear of the bike in front, to indicate how closely they are following that rider. In draft zone 0-12m = red flashing light, last warning zone 12-14m = solid blue light, first warning zone 14-17m = solid orange light.

RaceRanger ensures a fairer standard of competition and officiating by allowing both athletes and referees to accurately view the draft distance. Beyond the indicator lights, drafting data is recorded as athletes progress around the course and can be shared with officials to help inform their activity and decisions. Referees still make all penalty decisions. RaceRanger simply provides information to remove the subjectivity around the following distance, which was previously a naked eye judgement. For more information visit www.RaceRanger.com.

About The IRONMAN Group
The IRONMAN Group is the world's largest operator of participation sports with a portfolio of brands, events, media, partners, merchandise, and digital platforms operating in over 50 countries worldwide. A global portfolio consisting of hundreds of events includes the IRONMAN® Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN® 70.3® Triathlon Series, 5150® Triathlon Series, IRONKIDS®, premier running events including the Rock 'n' Roll® Running Series, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon™ and City2Surf®, the UTMB® World Series of trail running, the Epic Series™ of mountain biking including the Absa Cape Epic®, and a collection of road cycling and other multisport races. Since the inception of the iconic IRONMAN® brand and its first event in 1978, millions of athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE® by crossing finish lines around the world. From its beginnings as a single race among friends in Hawai'i, The IRONMAN Group has become a global sensation and collection of high-growth lifestyle brands that inspire people to unlock their potential in life. For more information, visit www.ironman.com/about-ironman-group.