For USA Triathlon (USAT), the national governing body of triathlon in the United States, every event is a logistical puzzle. Unlike stadium-based sports, triathlon has no fixed venue. Each race weekend requires building an entire playing field from the ground up – spanning roads, trails, and bodies of water.
Their flagship events, such as the USA Triathlon Nationals in Milwaukee, welcome more than 7,000 athletes and feature multiple race formats running in parallel, from youth and junior divisions to elite competitions and additional disciplines like aquabike or 5K runs. Each format demands its own dedicated footprint, spread across different areas of a host city.
As USAT Event Manager Brad put it, “We’re not just going to an iconic venue. We’re creating the iconic venue ourselves. With triathlon, you build the playing field from scratch across roads, trails, and water – and that requires a lot of detail.”
The Challenge of Multi-Site, Multi-Race Planning
Delivering events of this scale requires meticulous planning years in advance. USAT must evaluate potential host cities, consider community impact, and design multiple courses that can run simultaneously without conflict. Transition zones, swim exits, staging areas, and expo spaces all have to fit seamlessly together while still leaving room for safe pedestrian flow and emergency access.
Every decision carries weight: whether a trail can withstand thousands of runners, how a 25-mile bike course will affect traffic patterns, or where to position key infrastructure to reduce disruption for local residents. With such high stakes, USAT needed a planning platform that could manage not just one venue, but many, and bring every moving piece together with precision.
Why OnePlan Became Essential
OnePlan offered USAT exactly what they were missing: a way to design and compare multiple potential venues with complete accuracy. When new cities are proposed as hosts, the team can load the area into OnePlan and immediately test different configurations. Swim starts, transition zones, registration areas, and access points can be visualized on screen, giving the team a realistic sense of whether a site will work – before they even step foot on location.
This accuracy continues once a venue is chosen. As Margie, USAT Events Coordinator, explained, “When a site is recommended, we load it into OnePlan to see where registration, transitions, or access points might go. It gives us a full overview before we ever visit.”
"I place all our tents, label everything, and calculate how many feet of fencing or barriers we need. OnePlan gives me real numbers, not just estimates. That’s saved us time and money."
Margie Gronke
Event Coordinator, USAT
From City Selection to On-Site Execution
The flexibility of OnePlan means USAT can prepare every layer of a championship long before the first barricade is delivered. Multiple race formats are designed side by side, with layouts adapted to the specific needs of elite athletes, youth divisions, and age-group competitors. Transition areas, athlete lounges, and even swim exit ramps are plotted down to the last detail, ensuring smooth flow across venues.
Infrastructure is another crucial piece. Margie relies on OnePlan to calculate the exact quantities of fencing, bike racks, tents, and barriers required. “I place all our tents, label everything, and calculate how many feet of fencing we need,” she said. “OnePlan gives me real numbers, not estimates. That’s saved us time and money.”
When we scout a location and then return to plan in OnePlan, the mapping is up to date, detailed, and reflects what we actually saw on site. That saves us a lot of time
Brad Hildebrant
Event Manager, USAT
That precision carries over to the vendors and contractors who bring these plans to life. Instead of exchanging screenshots or PDF layouts, USAT now shares live, view-only access to its OnePlan maps. Vendors can log in, zoom into their specific area, and see precisely what size tent or length of fencing is required and where it should go. “It’s something they really appreciate,” Margie noted. “They can look at it while they’re setting up and follow the paths exactly.”
By the time the team arrives on-site a week before race day, the plan is already so accurate that there is little need to move things around. Even the placement of semi-trucks in the compound is pre-scaled in OnePlan. “We’ve really been able to eliminate touchpoints,” Brad explained. “With OnePlan’s accuracy, we move fewer things on-site. It saves time, reduces physical strain, and ultimately helps us produce a better event.”
Collaboration Made Easy
For events of this scale, clear communication with stakeholders is just as important as the site layouts themselves. USA Triathlon works with dozens of external partners – vendors, contractors, and international governing bodies – each with their own requirements. OnePlan’s sharing features transformed how these groups collaborate.
Instead of sending endless screenshots or PDFs back and forth, USAT now gives partners view-only access to their live event plans. Vendors can log in and see exactly what size tent they need to install, where it should be placed, and how the surrounding infrastructure fits together. “Instead of sending screenshots or PDFs, I give vendors view-only access,” Margie explained. “They can see exactly where to place the tent, what size it is, and follow the plan while setting up.”
That same clarity extends to global partners like World Triathlon, who enforce strict layout standards at elite events. “They were very particular about bike rack spacing,” Brad recalled. “Using OnePlan’s bike rack icon, we could place everything exactly and hand it over to the person running the transition.”
This real-time collaboration not only eliminated confusion but also built confidence across stakeholders that every detail was accurate and aligned. Whether it was a fencing contractor, a tent provider, or an international partner, everyone was working from the same precise plan.
Organisation-Wide Impact
The success of OnePlan within the events team quickly caught the attention of other departments at USA Triathlon. The Partnerships team began using it to map out expo zones and activations, and graphic designers relied on the plans to create highly detailed course maps. Even race directors outside of the national championships started experimenting with new formats directly in OnePlan, using it to visualize and adjust layouts with ease.
What began as a tool for operations has grown into a shared platform for the entire organisation – one that improves collaboration, enhances accuracy, and ultimately raises the quality of every event USAT delivers.
A Strategic Tool for Multi-Site Planning
For USA Triathlon, OnePlan has become far more than a mapping tool. It is a strategic enabler that allows them to evaluate new host cities with confidence, design multiple race formats in harmony, and coordinate weeks of complex logistics with accuracy and ease.
As Brad concluded, “With fewer touchpoints, more accuracy, and better coordination, OnePlan has become essential to how we plan and deliver national triathlon championships.”
Start planning your multi-site events more efficiently today with OnePlan, with up to 50 objects per event included in your free plan!