Often, as age-group athletes, we want to race alongside the sport’s top pros. And we may wonder where our favourite athletes are most likely to show up!

While of course no one can predict with certainty which races will attract the strongest fields, we’ve looked back at 2026’s strongest fields to see where the most top athletes toed the start line.

Strength of Field Explained

For our rankings, we used Pro Tri News‘ strength-of-field (SOF) scores where available and PTO scores for races without a Pro Tri News score. Both average the ranking scores of the five highest-ranked athletes on the start list, providing a measure of strength among the leading athletes.

More specifically, the calculation is based on the average Open Rank score. For example, five athletes with scores of 94, 92, 90, 88 and 86 would produce an SOF score of 90. The higher the score, the stronger the competition at the front of the field.

Looking Back at 2026

For our retrospective analysis of 2026, see the tables below. Of note, we intentionally excluded the Ironman 70.3 and Ironman World Championship races because, of course, their SOF scores are high.

Men’s Strongest Fields (2026)

Women’s Strongest Fields (2026)

Stronger Than Kona?

Interestingly, one race spectators and media tagged as an early-season Kona equivalent this year was Ironman Texas. And SOF scores support this: the men’s SOF score in Texas was 88.9, compared with 87.2 for the Ironman World Championship. The French Riviera T100 also exceeded the men’s Ironman World Championship score with an SOF of 88.2.

For the women, only the 70.3 Ironman World Championship, with an SOF score of 91.3, exceeded the Ironman World Championship’s score of 90.9.

Will the Strongest Fields Return in 2027?

Before extrapolating this year’s scores to plan next year’s race calendar of must-see live events, there are several considerations.

Ironman Pro Series races attract strong professional fields; therefore, we surmise that where the strongest professional men and women are spotted next year will change, aligned with the changes to the Pro Series calendar for 2027.

More specifically, Hamburg, Kalmar, Elsinore, Swansea, and Zell am See-Kaprun remain on the 2027 professional race calendar but are no longer part of the Pro Series. Without the incentives of a larger prize purse or series points, the SOF is likely to be will be weaker. Meanwhile, Aix-en-Provence and Boise are neither part of the Pro Series nor currently confirmed as a professional race for the 2027 season.

And changes extend beyond Ironman-brand events. Select Challenge Family events are now part of the Triathlon World Tour as T100 Challenger races in 2027. Among those events, Šamorín and Forte Village recorded the highest men’s SOF scores in 2026. For the women, Samarkand had the highest score followed by Šamorín.

For consistently strong professional fields, the T100 World Championship Tour recorded an SOF score above 80 at every event. However, this reflects a selective, invitation-only system, with three of the four regular-season races now counting toward overall series points, encouraging top athletes to compete in nearly every event.