Media

The Executive Board of ITU has met during two days in Luxor, Egypt, at the same time than Congress of the African Triathlon Union and the Francophonie annual meeting, as well as the African Duathlon Championships. The ancient Egyptian city saw a few days of intense and productive debate on the competition structure and rules for the next years, the road to Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the governance of the International Federation.

“These have been a few days of intensive work planning and defining the direction of our organization to succeed and excel in the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games. We made some adaptations to the competition rules, approved the Paralympic Qualification ranking and calendar, as well as defining the competition structure for the next years”, said ITU President and IOC Member, Marisol Casado. “I feel really confident that with the work that we have been doing during last year, and the commitment from all the Board members and the ITU staff, we will continue to push our organization even further so that we can continue to inspire more people, to attract new generations of athletes and face the next Olympic cycle in the strongest possible position”.

One of the main topics of the Executive Board meeting was the review of the Strategic Plan 2018-2021, including a revision of the Constitution to adapt it to the new times, as well as approving some provisions in the 2019 budget for a redesign of the TriathlonLive platform, paratriathlon projects, anti-doping and development of our sport.

ITU’s staff has been working for the whole year to put in place the action plan that will ensure the growth of triathlon worldwide and to ensure the standards of excellence and good governance of ITU.

During the board meeting, it was presented the new rankings and the qualification criteria for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, a period that will start in June 2019 and will extend until June 2020, and that will guarantee that the best paratriathletes compete at the Paralympic Games, and will allow paratriathletes of non-selected standing classes to class-up and compete at the Paralympic Games if qualified.

The Board voted to launch a process from now and until August 2019 to review the competition structure for the period of 2021 to 2024, with the aim to keep on growing the presence of our sport in the Paris 2024 Games.

The Executive Board also addressed some changes in the rules, and addressed the latest reports of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games, as well as reviewed the Buenos Aires YOG outcome, and appointed Technical Delegates for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Two recently re-elected members of the Athletes Committee, Lisa Norden (SWE) and Tamas Toth (HUN), joined the meeting, also using the Laurent Vidal seat for the second time during this year. Next meeting of the Board will be on 6th and 7th of April 2019, in Madrid.

There will be further detailed announcements to follow in the coming days regarding the Paralympic qualification, the rule changes and an update on Tokyo 2020.