Tough Mudder cuts all prize money

The Tough Mudder Race Series will see no prize money for any of their 2019 events. An email went out last night to top OCR athletes outlining the decision. Below is a quote from the email from Mud Run Guide. 

“We’ve made the tough decision to remove prize money for Tough Mudder Race Series events in 2019. This includes Tougher Mudder, Toughest Mudder and World’s Toughest Mudder events. This decision is the result of a conscious effort on the part of TMHQ to focus and reinvest in the core business, which is delivering world-class mass participation events. These events will still honour and celebrate top finishers in each category.”

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The company acknowledges that this will likely hurt their entry numbers, but the decision was made in hopes of rebuilding their core business. Obstacle course racing, which is the sub-category of running that includes Tough Mudder events, has been on the decline for several years. In a 2016 Wall Street Journal article, authors said that what was once one of the fastest growing mass-participation sports saw a 30 per cent decline in 2015. According the Mud Run Guide, a similar trend continued into 2017 and 2018. 

Tough Mudder has two major announcement.
1: TMX is on hold
2: No prize money for 2019.

We will have more on this tommorow. pic.twitter.com/ITfekSof7n

— Mud Run Guide (@MudRunGuide) January 29, 2019

Could this be the end of obstacle course running? Possibly. According to Obstacle Racing Media, Tough Mudder didn’t renew their CBS media contract and they’re openly searching for new media partners. Without the media support, it appears that the company which used to hand out upwards of $10,000 in prizes can’t swing it any more.