How To Qualify For 2025 USA Triathlon National Championships

TCMTriSquad's Patrick Flanagan finishes the Olympic Distance National Championships after qualifying the previous year at the Morro Bay Triathlon.

For many triathletes who are new to the sport, the words "National Championships" may be intimidating. Many athletes I've coached don't realize that they would even have a chance to qualify, so they don't consider racing. In reality, for the majority of athletes it's not hard to qualify, as long as you do a bit of training and apply a little strategy to your race selection, as I detail below. The 2025 National Championships will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 8-10. Read my race review of the 2021 Nationals which was also held in Milwaukee. The event was professionally run, properly measured, competitive and fair. It's a great goal to compete with your age group in one of the biggest Sprint/Olympic distance races of the year. How high can you place at Nationals?

TCMTriSquad team mates celebrate in Atlantic City at the 2024 USA Triathlon National Championships

How to qualify:

There are various ways to qualify for Nationals but the one to focus on is this: athletes must place in the top 2 or top 15% of their age group (whichever is greater) in a USAT sanctioned age group triathlon of any distance during the period June 1, 2024 to July 30, 2025. You must first find out if the events you're targeting are USAT sanctioned. Most used to be but I've noticed a trend of more and more events becoming non-sanctioned. We've put together a list of NorCal triathlons and only handful on there (that I know of) are unsanctioned. So the real key to getting into Nationals (which have both Olympic and Sprint distances) is to find a race that isn't very competitive and/or doesn't have many athletes in your age group and try and place in the Top 2. The best way to figure this out is to go through old race results and look at how many athletes were in your age group. Looking for races that are 1) new, 2) in regional areas, and 3) don't have big marketing budgets or belong to a big series tend to be your best bet. Another trick is finding events that host both an Olympic and a Sprint, or Super-Sprint event on the same day or weekend as it will dilute the talent pool. Enter the shorter distance as the better athletes tend to go longer and this will dilute the competition for the shorter event. Then, as the next selection priority you can look at the profile of the race and make sure it suits you (ie. if you're a strong cyclist, choose a tough, hilly bike course.)

Connor Spencer won the 2024 Sprint Distance National Title in the Clydesdale division

There are some other ways people qualify, such being a previous participant in Nationals or Worlds event. Another way is to finish in the top 35% or top 5% of your age group in State Championships. As State Championships are relatively new and unknown, and not necessarily any more competitive than a regular race, this could be another good strategy to netting a qualification. A list of State Championships are found here.

How it works:

The qualification period for 2025 Age Group Nationals has already begun. We don't know yet where it will be held but the 2025 version was out to bid. You can check official results for the triathlons you've completed here by typing in your name. You should get an email about 15 days after your race if you qualify. Another source of confusion is that some events recognize overall winners and pull them out of the age group awards. USAT doesn't recognize overall awards, so the event might award you 1st in your age group when in fact two athletes in your category finished Top 3 overall and hence bumped you out of qualification. Some events also only give award in 10 year age groups (30-39 for example) but if you are the 2nd of the participants in the 35-39 age group you will qualify regardless of where you placed in the 30-39 group.

One of the attractions of competing at Nationals is that it is qualifying for the age-group World Championship which will be held in Pontevedra, Spain. Details for qualifying for Team USA found here.

Have questions on a personalized qualifying strategy or details you can't find on the USAT website? Schedule a triathlon consultation with TCMTriSquad head coach Martin or join our team to travel to Nationals with others and share the experience.