The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and USA Triathlon have announced that the PTO US Open will take place in the city of Milwaukee on August 4-5, 2023, alongside USA Triathlon’s National Championships event.
Partnering with Sports Milwaukee, and with over 7,000 participants and 20,000 spectators expected to attend, PTO notes that the combined event promises to be one of the largest ever weekends of triathlon in North America.
The Milwaukee announcement builds on last week’s confirmation that the 2023 PTO Tour will go to Asia for the first time, when the PTO Asian Open is staged in the Marina Bay Financial District in Singapore on August 19-20.
A specially designed course around Milwaukee, which is adjacent to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Henry Maier Festival Park and Discovery World along the shore of Lake Michigan, will host the world’s top female and male professional triathletes as they battle it out for the PTO US Open title.
Elite athletes will contest a race over the 100km PTO Tour distance (2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run).
Athletes will swim in Lake Michigan, which provides cool water temperatures and a breakwater in Milwaukee’s bay. The bike course traverses down Lincoln Memorial Drive with a flow through transition that aims to provide a picturesque and spectator friendly venue. The run course travels out along Lake Michigan on paved trails through Veterans Park, returning on the shaded Lincoln Memorial Drive.
PTO CEO Sam Renouf said “Partnering with USA Triathlon at their National Championships in Milwaukee will give our professionals a fantastic backdrop to this year’s PTO US Open as well as vociferous support.
“Having worked with USAT last year, we’re building a great understanding and have a very clear vision for this year’s races.”
In its first season, the PTO US Open was last year held in Dallas, as part of a three-race PTO Tour. This had a goal to take longer distance triathlon to a broader audience.
PTO reported that this included… ‘a global dedicated TV and streaming audience of 23.1 million through multiple top-tier broadcast partnerships; 125 million impressions and 29 million social media video views of its award-winning, internally produced shoulder content.’
USA Triathlon Chief Sport Development Officer Tim Yount said “With three days of all-day racing we are able to host three distinctly different events – sprint and Olympic-distance national championships, Zone3 Youth and Junior Nationals, and the PTO US Open – and give every competing athlete their well-deserved time in the spotlight.
“This triathlon festival will showcase one of the things that makes our sport both unique and great – athletes ages 7 to 87, age group and professional, from all over the US and around the globe, racing at the same venue over the same weekend; and we look forward to celebrating our multisport community with so many.”
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