In 2024, a total of 1,178 aquabike races took place across 34 countries worldwide – an impressive 10% increase compared to 2023. Following the significant growth of previous years, this continued expansion is a highly encouraging development.

As expected, the majority of races were held in the United States, with a total of 651 events. This represents a slight decrease of two races compared to the previous year, largely due to event cancellations or conversions into bike-only races (which are not counted as aquabike events). Many of these changes were caused by hurricanes and their aftermath, particularly toward the end of the year. In Canada, the number of races also saw a minor decline, dropping from 76 to 75.

Across the Atlantic, however, aquabike experienced remarkable growth. In the United Kingdom, the number of aquabike races increased from 124 in 2023 to 165 in 2024—a remarkable 33% growth. This surge is particularly impressive given that aquabike has been well-established in England for some time. Surprisingly, the growth rate in the UK even surpassed that of mainland Europe, where aquabike is only beginning to gain traction in certain countries. Europe saw a 25% increase, rising from 84 events in 2023 to 105 in 2024. Germany stood out as the leader in this growth, with the number of events doubling within just 12 months.

The most significant increase in event numbers, however, was observed in Australia. With a total of 106 races in 2024, the country experienced a staggering 42% growth compared to 2023. The success of the Long Distance World Championships held last year, along with the anticipation for the upcoming Standard Distance World Championships in 2025, has undoubtedly fueled interest in this emerging multisport discipline. Aquabike, which only held its first official race in Australia six years ago, continues to grow rapidly in popularity.

With 5642 men and 4295 women a total number of 9938 athletes finished an aquabike race last year. That´s 9,8% more than in 2023 after we already had a remarkable growth in the number of athletes over the last view years.

In 2024 athletes from 53 different countries finished an aquabike race. Despite the number of countries to host at least one aquabike race was growing from 31 to 34 this means that there were athletes from 19 countries competing which have no chance to do so in their home country.

The biggest number of athletes obviously again came from the United States with 3971 aquabikers – slight decrease compared to 2023 due to the same reason as the slight decrease in events. If we count in the competitors of the long course national championships at CLASH Daytona – where the swim was cancelled – we would have a slight increase. Leave alone all the other events in Florida which had to be either cancelled completely or carried out as a bike only race.

Just as in the number of events, also the number of athletes was growing significantly in the UK (1639 athletes) as well as in Australia (964 athletes), and also in Spain which is now #4 in this ranking with 543 aquabike athletes, passing Canada where the number of athletes went down by 27 to 536 aquabikers in 2024. Nevertheless, Canada remains the only country where the majority of aquabike athletes is female.

Fun Fact: The number of aquabike athletes from Belgium grew significantly in 2024, despite the European Championships – an event that usually attracts additional participants – having been held there the previous year. In Portugal, however, it was the opposite: the number of aquabike athletes slightly decreased, even though the European Championships took place in Coimbra last June.

Overall, we had no less than 13,716 race finishes. That´s a plus of 11,3% compared to 2023, showing that not only more athletes competed in aquabike races, but also the number of athletes who compete in more than one race is still growing.

The standard distance races remain the most popular with a total of 5719 race finishes, followed by sprint (3940) and middle distance (3412). With 645 race finishes in long distance aquabike races that category is still the fastest growing with a plus of 14% compared to 2023.

In the third part of our 2024 season review we will take a closer look at the most active and most successful athletes of the past aquabike racing season. Stay tuned!