USA Triathlon Cuts Funding to Elite National Team Athletes

USA Triathlon has withdrawn funding for its top-level professional athletes, Slowtwitch has learned, only providing financial support to these athletes at the final two World Triathlon Championship Series events for 2024. According to sources close to the team, support had originally been planned to run through the six remaining World Cup level events in 2024.

In documents released to Slowtwitch under the condition of anonymity, USA Triathlon High Performance General Manager Scott Schnitzspahn informed National Team athletes of the change earlier this week.

“We won’t be funding National Team athletes to World Cups,” wrote Schnitzspahn. Athletes would be allowed to reallocate funding budget that they had for flights and accommodation. Additionally, athletes would now be eligible for USA Triathlon’s so-called incentive plan. At the World Cup level, athletes would see a maximum potential reimbursement for travel and accommodations of $1,000 if they finished on the podium, down to $350 for a 10th place finish within 3% of the winners time.

The decision comes following a mixed result for Team USA at the 2024 Olympics. The individual races produced a single top 10 result for Taylor Spivey. However, the mixed relay team of Seth Rider, Spivey, Morgan Pearson, and Taylor Knibb earned a silver medal, matching the result of the mixed relay team from Tokyo.

The documents reviewed by Slowtwitch show continued funding for athletes of Project Podium, the long-tail development program that splits time between Tempe, AZ and Park City, UT. Those athletes receive backing for Continental Cup events, two tiers below the Championship Series and a tier below World Cup races.

When National Team athletes questioned why their funding was pulled for World Cups, versus the funding for Project Podium athletes at lower tier events, Schnitzspahn wrote that “National Team athletes should be racing WTCS. Of course, we have funded national team athletes to world cups if there was strategic reason to…Now that we are to the end of this season…there is no reason for USAT to fund National Team athletes to anything other than WTCS.”

By rule, National Federations are permitted to start a maximum of five athletes per WTCS race. USA Triathlon lists six women on the Elite team — Erika Ackerlund, Kristen Kasper, Taylor Knibb, Summer Rappaport, Spivey, and Katie Zafares. At least one of them will not make start lists for the final two supported events of the year. There are four men listed on the Elite squad. In addition, athletes earn qualification based on world rankings and often need to earn points at World Cup events to earn starts at the Championship Series level.

USA Triathlon’s website states that the U.S. Elite Triathlon National Team athletes “represent the U.S. at the highest levels of international World Triathlon competitions, including World Triathlon Championship Series and World Triathlon World Cup events.”