[2] Originally named the Professional Triathletes Union (PTU), the organisation was first mooted by a group of athletes at the Challenge Bahrain event in 2014.
[3] The founding board included Ironman World Championship winners Mirinda Carfrae, Sebastian Kienle and Pete Jacobs with the full list also including Jodie Swallow, Rachel Joyce, Helle Frederiksen, Meredith Kessler, Mary Beth Ellis, Angela Naeth, Dirk Bockel, Dylan McNiece, Timothy O’Donnell, James Cunnama, Andreas Dreitz and Scott DeFilippis.
[5] With athletes being spread around the world and in the midst of their professional triathlon careers, development was slow, but a key group were committed to the cause, with Rachel Joyce, Scott DeFilippis, Mirinda Carfrae, Meredith Kessler, Dylan McNiece, Tim O’Donnell and Sarah Piampiano[4] continuing to work on the PTU behind the scenes.
The organisation was boosted with the help of Charles Adamo, who came aboard in 2016 as CEO after drafting a memo to PTU president Tim O'Donnell.
The PTO has repeatedly referenced the professionalisation of other sports including tennis and golf, with which triathlon shares a similar ABC1 high-end audience demographic.
Named after John and Judy Collins, founders of Ironman, the event would see teams from Europe, USA and International regions battle it out over 12 match races.
Meanwhile, Adamo continued to seek out investment, the search made more difficult by him setting his sights on investors who would in Rachel Joyce's words: "see the athletes as partners as opposed to pawns.
Renouf, a former British elite triathlete, former CEO of MOTIV Group and former part of ACTIVE Network's executive leadership team was tasked with leading the PTO's commercial endeavours.
[9] In January 2020, the PTO announced it had secured funding from Michael Moritz's Crankstart Investments,[10] a sympathetic partner aligned with the organisation's goals.
Recognised on multiple occasions by Forbes Magazine as the number one venture capitalist on its Midas List, Moritz has served on the Boards of Google, PayPal, Linkedin and Yahoo!
According to Triathlon Magazine Canada, Moritz and his team were won over by a picture of four-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington's legs.
[6] In 2020, following the news of this investment funding, the PTO announced that the first Collins Cup would feature a $2,000,000 prize purse (the largest in the sport's history) that would take place at x-bionic sphere in Šamorín, Slovakia in May 2020,[11] a date that would be forced into 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[15] Meanwhile, Tim Godfrey joined as Chief Marketing Officer in January 2021,[16] bringing more experience from other sports to the PTO, in this case Formula E and SailGP.
Another key appointment in January 2021 was confirming Martin Turner – former head of Formula 1 coverage for Sky Sports – as executive producer for the first Collins Cup event.
[18] With the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in a slew of cancelled races, impacting the ability of professional triathletes to make money, the PTO increased its Annual Bonus Programme to $2,500,000 and paid it out early in March 2020 with the additional funds going to athletes ranked 21 to 100.
The figure totalled over $220,000 with events in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Australia and South Africa benefiting from the funds.
In addition, the athlete also earns a portion of their Annual Bonus Programme amount at the point they begin maternity leave.
The PTO World Ranking System awards points based on athlete finishing times at eligible professional races.
Until 2023, the points were calculated based on proprietary analysis of historical data developed by and exclusively licensed from TriRating.com, taking into account the course and race conditions.
Races receive a tier (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze) based on the prize money on offer to professional athletes.
In April 2021, the PTO announced a three-year deal with IMG to assist in distributing global media rights for the Collins Cup.
[32] On the back of the partnership, Collins Cup was broadcast around the world in over 165 countries and 22 languages, courting an audience close to 7,000,000 viewers.
Discovery which would provide exclusive live coverage for PTO Tour events in 50 territories across Europe on its linear channels and through streaming via discovery+, the Eurosport App and GCN+.
The PTO US Open, held in Milwaukee on 4-5 August 2023 was won by Taylor Knibb and was the final professional victory for Jan Frodeno.
On the women's side, the Hot Shots were Tokyo Olympic Champion Flora Duffy, Taylor Spivey, Lucy Byram and Amelia Watkinson.