Super League's Return Delivers Future Of Triathlon %

Column by Super League Triathlon CEO Michael D’hulst

Super League Triathlon is back and it feels great to be getting ready to deliver two more races in a format that I firmly believe is integral to the future of the sport.

The SLT Arena Games Powered by Zwift, to be held in London on March 27 and Rotterdam on April 18, comes amid the unfortunate backdrop of so many others having to cancel or postpone events and so we will be the only significant professional race in the first part of the year.

SLT Arena Games Powered by Zwift announcement

We enjoyed great success at the first SLT Arena Games last year, we earned recognition via PwC’s sports review, a Leader’s report on Facebook and even the NBA producing a case study on it. That has given us even more confidence to grow this style of racing.

It is important for me to be clear that this is not only a COVID related event, but a format that we feel is significant for triathlon going forward.

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Simply, Super League is doing this again because we see it becoming part of our and the sport’s identity. Part of our DNA is to make triathlon a spectator sport.

The Championship Series is well set up to do that, and the Arena Games arguably even more so as it delivers a spectacle, which in turn delivers a wider audience.

It’s also crucial for us to bring the SLT Arena Games to London, one of the biggest triathlon markets in the world, and to have the best athletes racing.

Our commitment for 2020 was to move into our key markets, of which the UK is an important one. This is now our commitment for 2021.

London is also the big one. Super League’s offices are based here, our whole team is here, triathlon is strong here and we have an iconic venue.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a fantastic place and it’s the first move – and not the last – in announcing a series of iconic venues that will be impactful.

Heading back to Rotterdam is also fantastic. We have enjoyed a great collaboration with Rotterdam Topsport and Sportbedrijf Rotterdam and we are delighted they are welcoming us back and being very supportive of the event again.

We obviously know the Rotterdam venue well and we are already looking at adding some inspirational and aspirational events beyond what we will do with pros, and there will be more announcements on that front.

One very pleasing aspect of the last year has been our partnership with Zwift.

We are expanding on that and it’s exciting as one of the benefits is that we can now give age groupers access to what we are doing.

In association with the British Triathlon Federation, Zwift and Tri247, we are promoting our Club Championships in the UK.

It is the next step of a further journey, and I firmly believe the SLT Arena Games has a lot more potential than we have seen so far.

Super League’s aspiration is to elevate the sport of triathlon. With the first SLT Arena Games we achieved that.

Broadcasters also loved the format and as a result we will shortly announce a very exciting broadcast network, both in key territories and pan European and pan global, including highlight shows on big sports channels.
We are elevating the whole delivery of the product and also the production, and I am very confident they will be noticeably improved.

Super League is back and we will be striving to be better than ever.