Sam Renouf: From athlete to CEO and City AM Triathlon Team Challenge
The CEO of the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), Sam Renouf, on his journey from athlete to founder and launching the City AM Triathlon Team Challenge.
Sam Renouf knows exactly when he realised he had to give up on his dream of becoming an Olympic champion. A rising star in the British triathlon set-up, the 21-year-old Renouf had just completed the 2007 Ironman British Championships at Sherborne in Dorset, where he placed eighth. His prize money? $700 — at the time, less than £400.
“I vividly remember shaking hands with my coach who said, ‘Sam, you’ve shown you’ve got the ability here. Give me a few years, I’ll get you at the top of the podium’,” Renouf tells City AM.
“And I remember saying to him, ‘Well, I’ve earned $700, it’s £5,000 for first. I can’t wait four years to make that prize money.’ I was finishing university within a year and thought: it’s time for me to go and make a real living.” It didn’t help Renouf’s prospects either that ascending the British ranks were a certain Alistair and Jonny Brownlee.
Triathlon’s loss has been, well, triathlon’s gain. Renouf is now CEO of the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), where he has helped to attract unprecedented levels of investment into the sport he loves.
The PTO established the T100 Triathlon World Tour, which features many of the world’s top male and female long-distance racers – including Julie Derron, Marten Van Riel and Lucy Charles-Barclay – competing in locations from London and Las Vegas to Singapore and San Francisco for more than $8m in prize money.
Renouf, now 39, is motivated by creating opportunities for triathletes to make a living out of the sport – opportunities that weren’t there for him.
“I’m genuinely doing this now as much for that, because I went through that experience. I know what it’s like to be training 25-30 hours a week, plus travelling around the world, all on their own risk. It’s not like a team sport, where things are paid for and you’re getting a salary. These are all individual entrepreneurs.”
C-suite demographic
When the penny dropped for the young Renouf that life as a triathlete wasn’t going to pay the bills, he knuckled down to complete his Politics with Management degree at Loughborough University and set his sights on a career in business.
He landed at The Active Network – “a sort of Ticketmaster for participation sports” – where he rose from sales rep to running the division and, after the sale of Active earned Renouf and other partners a lucrative exit, he took an MBA.
While studying at the London Business School he wrote a case study on how to launch a professional triathlon league. “I was fascinated to find that all of these massive professional sports – NBA, NFL, the rest – are relatively young. And the common theme was, something happened and the athletes took a greater role.”
That blueprint sowed the seed for the PTO to seek investment. The tour launched in 2020 and – after a Covid-induced delay – has gone from strength to strength.
Founding backer Sir Michael Moritz, the British billionaire hailed for his Midas touch, was soon joined in investing by Warner Bros Discovery, which shows T100 races on its network of TV channels, including TNT Sports in the UK. Through the PTO, the athletes have equity too, while more new investors are in the pipeline.
Now aligned with governing body World Triathlon, the season has expanded to eight races, culminating in Qatar as part of a five-year partnership with the country’s tourist board.
The business case for triathlon is that its disciples tend to have spending power and therefore brands want to reach them. Each T100 weekend has shoulder mass-participation events for the weekend warriors, 44 per cent of whom are financial decision makers in their workplace, according to the PTO. “The demographic of the sport is C-suite,” says Renouf.
Calling all corporates!
With that in mind, the PTO and City AM have joined forces to stage a corporate triathlon relay as part of the London T100 event on 9 and 10 August. The City AM Triathlon Team Challenge, a short-course relay for teams of three, is designed to settle the question: who is the fittest firm in the famously competitive Square Mile?
“Many triathletes and business leaders will do it too, but this is to make it more accessible,” says Renouf, who hopes it will inspire City workers to “encourage colleagues to join them in the experience, and to create a challenge around it.”
Renouf might even dust off his own tri suit. That triathlon gold medal may have eluded him but the hard grind of his youth has still served him well; he credits the discipline he learned as an athlete with a large role in his business success.
“Triathlon taught me a work ethic, to push harder and follow every angle you can legally for performance, and if you take that approach consistently every day then you will succeed.” He has also leaned on coach-like mentors, such as PTO chair Chris Kermode, who previously ran the ATP Tour in men’s tennis.
Operating among elite triathletes, Renouf admits he sometimes wonders what might have been but has long since made his peace with fitting in occasional runs while masterminding the future of the sport.
“I think any current or former competitive athlete can’t look at racing and not get excited by it and think, ‘Oh, maybe that could be me’. But at exactly the same time, I recognise how incredibly talented these athletes are, and now I wouldn’t be anywhere near so I’m in a far better position helping put on the race.”
Enter the City AM Triathlon Team Challenge, a sprint distance relay of 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run, before enjoying premium hospitality while the world’s best triathletes compete around the capital. Visit https://t100triathlon.com/london/participate/#corporate to sign up.