The PTO (The Professional Triathletes Organisation) and the x-bionic^® sphere management has announced, that under the current circumstances, The Collins Cup scheduled for May 30, 2020, will now be postponed and rescheduled for 2021, the venue remains the x-bionic^® sphere in Šamorín, Slovakia

Inaugural Collins Cup 2020: The inaugural Collins Cup in 2020 will take place at the x-bionic® sphere, a world-class purpose-built sporting complex in Samorin, Slovakia on 30th May. The weekend will be an all-inclusive festival-like celebration of the sport of triathlon.

The Collins Cup: A global annual competition in which teams of professional triathletes from the USA, Europe and the rest of the World (the “Internationals”) will compete to determine which region dominates the sport of Triathlon.

Modelled after golf’s Ryder Cup, The Collins Cup will be held annually with a rotating location. Team USA, Europe and the Internationals will each consist of 12 professional triathletes, six men and six women.

The Collins Cup brings together the world’s greatest athletes in Triathlon and has the largest Prize Purse in the sport’s history – $2,000,000. The 36 athletes, 18 men and 18 women, who qualify to do battle in the Collins Cup will be paid based on their relative PTO World Rankings™ compared to the other Collins Cup qualifiers.

Team Selection: Eight athletes, four men and four women, will earn a place on their respective Team by way of the PTO World RankingsTM System, and the remaining four athletes, two men and two women, will be designated as “Captains’ Picks”, and will selected by a committee of non-athlete members of the PTO Board, in consultation with the Team Captains.

Race Matches: An athlete from each of Team USA, Europe and the Internationals will battle against one another in an individual race of three, so there will be 12 separate race matches, each staggered 10 minutes apart.

Match Selection: The day before the race the Team Captains will select their individual race match-ups by way of a draft mechanism. For Match No 1, USA will first designate an athlete, then Europe will name an athlete and finally The Internationals will name an athlete. For Match No 2 Europe will select first, then the Internationals, then the USA. For Match No 3, The Internationals will select first, then USA, then Europe. This process will be repeated until all twelve Race Matches are set. .

Captains’ Tactics: There is no criteria for match selection, it is down to pure tactics and strategic plans of the Team Captains.

Communications: During the bike and run portions of the event, each athlete will be mic’ed and in contact with their respective Team Captains, and their communications will be broadcast to the TV audience. All Team Captains and the viewing audience will have access to various live metrics (pace, power watts etc.) of all competitors and Team Captains will be permitted to communicate this information to their athletes throughout the race.

Team Captains: Each Team will have men and women Team Captains, who will be former greats in the sport. Team Captains will be selected by the PTO Board. For The Collins Cup in 2020, the Team Captains will be:

Team USA
Mark Allen / Karen Smyers

Team EUROPE
Normann Stadler / Chrissie Wellington

Team INTERNATIONALS
Craig Alexander, Simon Whitfield / Erin Baker, Lisa Bentley