Universal Sports Network, the year-round destination for Olympic, endurance and action sports programming, will air exclusive national television and online coverage of the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Chicago on 18-19 September live at 18:00 ET.
Chicago concludes the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series, the sport’s premier global series that allows the world’s best athletes to compete head-to-head throughout the year, and will crown world champions less than one year ahead of 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
The elite women’s race will air live on Friday 18 September at 18:00 ET, followed by the elite men’s event live on Saturday 19 September at 18:00 ET – both on air and online at universalsports.com to authenticated users. Following the live telecasts, Universal Sports will air encore presentations of both races — the women on Saturday at 02:00 and 12:00 ET, and the men on Saturday at 22:00 and Sunday at 02:00.
World championship events begin on Wednesday 16 September in Chicago and will feature 150 elite triathletes, 100 elite paratriathletes and 4,000 age-groupers competing along the shores of Lake Michigan and in front of some of city’s greatest landmarks before finishing at the iconic Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. In total, 12 races will be contested over four days of competition in Chicago.
The ITU World Triathlon Series current rankings and complete points breakdown are available at wts.triathlon.org/rankings. A total prize purse of US$280,000 will be awarded in Chicago, as well as an additional bonus pool for the world champions based on the final season standings.
Universal Sports Network is the exclusive, national US home to the ITU World Triathlon Series. Universal Sports Network and the International Triathlon Union (ITU) have a multi-year rights partnership to air global triathlon events in the United States which includes the ITU’s World Triathlon Series and its monthly magazine program.
Universal Sports Network is available nationwide across the US, and will be in free preview with many of its distribution partners in September for ITU’s final event – including DIRECTV, DISH, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS, CenturyLink Prism, and numerous regional cable and IPTV operators in markets across the country.
Universal Sports Network is a premier media destination for year-round Olympic, endurance and action sports programming in the USA. Offering more than 1,200 hours of original programming each year, Universal Sports holds exclusive rights to more than 25 World Championships and showcases the world’s best athletes competing in more than 40 sports annually including the upcoming ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Chicago and UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Richmond, Virginia.
The City of Chicago joined the ITU World Triathlon Series in 2014 and will host the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final and World Championships in September 2015. Chicago will welcome 150 of the world’s top Olympic-distance triathletes as they compete for a world championship title less than a year prior to the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.
In addition to the elite races, the event features top-flight sprint and Olympic-distance races for age-group athletes, paratriathletes, juniors and under-23s, as well as an aquathlon to kick off the action. In all, more than 8,000 of the world’s best triathletes will compete for world titles over five days of competition.
The ITU World Triathlon Grand Final and World Championships are hosted by USA Triathlon, the National Governing Body for the sport of triathlon in the United States, and Lagardère Unlimited Events North America. Launched in 2009, the ITU World Triathlon Series is televised in more than 160 countries.
