Oceania Triathlon

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) is in London at the Paralympic Games as an International Paralympic Sport Federation (IPSF) for the first time, learning and preparing for Paratriathlon’s debut in the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016.
 
ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado and ITU Vice-President Dr. Sarah Springman, met with Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to update him on ITU’s progress and planning to ensure Paratriathlon’s readiness for Rio 2016. He was delighted to hear of the sport’s worldwide growth and explained how he was eager to see Paratriathlon complement the sport programme in Rio.

“Witnessing the Paralympic Games up close and personal has been a wonderful experience and ITU is motivated more than ever to deliver a spectacular Paratriathon competition in Rio 2016,” said Casado.  “The meetings and sessions have been incredibly valuable as ITU prepares for a significant milestone in our sport when Paratriathlon takes its place in the Paralympic Games in 2016.”

ITU’s delegation in London also includes Paratriathlon coordinator Eric Angstadt Torres and Thanos Nikopoulos, Senior Manager of Technical Operations. Through the IPC’s Observers Programme, ITU has attended several roundtable sessions about transition planning and implementation and a sport overview. They have also been on two site visits for sport and venue operations as well as seeing village and training facilities, with more sessions to be completed before the end of the Games.

ITU has met with IPC Governing Board Members, as well as IPC Athletics, IPC Swimming and UCI technical staff and classifiers to discuss sport-specific aspects and relevant areas of operations.

To better understand the current status of Paratriathlon and its development, ITU also met with IPC sports managers, IPC classification committee members along with several National Paralympic Committees with particular focus on the development of the Paratriathlon Classification System and the work the research group has been conducting in the last month.

ITU has supported the development of Paratriathlon for over 15 years and has held ITU Paratriathlon World Championships every year since 1995. The sport was officially accepted into the Paralympic Games at the IPC Governing Board meeting in Guangzhou, China in December 2010 and will make its Paralympic Games debut in Rio 2016.

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