The Life Time Triathlon Series is a set of Olympic Distance

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

races held annually in the United States and organized by

Life Time Fitness Life Time, Inc. is a chain of health clubs in the United States and Canada. History The company was founded by chairman and chief executive officer, Bahram Akradi. The company was incorporated in 1990 as FCA, Ltd., a Minnesota corporation, and ...

. The series began as a single race, the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon, in 2002 in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. It gained immediate recognition from national and international competitors due to its professional prize purse, initially offering a $50,000 prize for the winner. The following year the prize was increased to a $500,000 total purse, with $50,000 each going to the male and female winner and a $200,000 prize to the overall winner in a gender handicapped elite category. By 2007 Life Time expanded the race into an Olympic-distance triathlon series, which originally began with race partnerships in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas offering a professional prize purse at each of these races. Life Time furthered the professional experience in 2013 by partnering with Toyota to create a three race Toyota Triple Crown series using a similar gender equalizer component to award a single male/female champion. In 2015 the triathlon series and the Life Time brand saw changes. In January, Life Time partnered with the

World Triathlon Corporation The World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) is a sports event promotion company owned by conglomerate Advance Publications, that produces the Ironman Triathlon, Ironman 70.3, the 5150 series of triathlon races, and other sports events. History In D ...

(WTC), owners of the Ironman triathlon brand. As part of their agreement, some Life Time races would be rebranded under the Ironman banner, and WTC's Boulder Peak Triathlon would now fall under Life Time Fitness. Life Time also agreed to sponsor 34

Ironman 70.3 An Ironman 70.3, also known as a Half Ironman, is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). The "70.3" refers to the total distance in miles (113.0 km) covered in the race, consisting ...

and

Ironman Triathlon An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), consisting of a swim, a bicycle ride and a marathon run completed in that order, a total of . It is widely consid ...

races. On March 6, Life Time announced that they would be cutting professional prize purses from all of its races, with exception to the New York City Triathlon, in order to focus on amateur participation in triathlon. This move followed similar moves in the sport of triathlon over the previous 12 months where brands such as Ironman, Rev3, Challenge Family, and the

Hy-Vee Triathlon The Hy-Vee Triathlon (now known as the Des Moines Triathlon) was an Olympic-distance triathlon race held in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. From 2011 to 2014, the race served as the World Triathlon Corporation's 5150 Series U.S. Championships. Previously, i ...

all reduced, redistributed, or eliminated professional prize money from their races. These changes came ahead of a March announcement that Life Time Fitness was to be acquired by private equity firms

TPG Capital TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm in ...

and

Leonard Green & Partners Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. (LGP) is an American private equity investment firm founded in 1989 and based in Los Angeles. The firm specializes in private equity investments. LGP has invested in over 95 companies since its inception, including ...

in a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...

Series

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.lifetimetri.com/ Triathlon competitions