WORLD TRIATHLON PRESS RELEASE
In the light of the rapid spread worldwide of COVD-19, the Executive Board of the International Triathlon Union has decided to suspend all activities until the 30th April. The measure includes the suspension of all the competitions in the World Triathlon calendar, courses, camps and other activities, and therefore all the World Ranking, Olympic Qualification Ranking, Paratriathlon Ranking and Paralympic Qualification Rankings will be immediately frozen, from Monday 16th of March 2020.
World Triathlon President and IOC member, Marisol Casado, said: "This is a decision that is hard to take, and you can have my word that we are taking it with the health and safety of athletes, coaches, officials, facilitators, staff, volunteers and spectators, all the triathlon family, as the top priority. We are taking this decision convinced that we all have to take our part to prevent and stop the spread of the virus. It is our responsibility, as a society. And having our athletes, coaches, officials and staff travelling around the world at this challenging time is not something that we in World Triathlon are willing to risk".
All the events in the World Triathlon and Continental calendars will be immediately postponed until further notice. ITU strongly recommends all the affiliated National Federations to extend the measures as well in their territories, to avoid spreading the virus. All World Triathlon staff will be working from home during these weeks.
World Triathlon will continue working during this time to try to reallocate the events after the 30th 0f April when possible and will work with all stakeholders to undertake further actions if needed regarding the Olympic and Paralympic qualification rankings.
World Triathlon will continue evaluating the situation on a daily basis and will announce any further change in the situation as soon as possible to all stakeholders when this happens.
About ITU
The International Triathlon Union is the world governing body for the Olympic sport of Triathlon and all related MultiSport disciplines including Duathlon, Aquathlon, Cross Triathlon and Winter Triathlon. ITU was founded in 1989 at the first ITU Congress in Avignon, France. It has maintained its headquarters in Vancouver, Canada since then and also has offices in Lausanne, Switzerland and Madrid, Spain. It now has 172 affiliated National Federations on five continents and is the youngest International Federation in the Olympic Games. Triathlon was awarded Olympic Games status in 1994 and made its Olympic debut in Sydney 2000. Triathlon is also featured in the Asian Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games. Paratriathlon was accepted into the Paralympic Games in 2010 and made its Paralympic debut in Rio 2016. ITU is proudly committed to supporting the development of the sport worldwide through strong relationships with continental and national federations, working with its partners to offer a balanced sport development programme from grassroots to a high-performance level. For more information, visit: www.triathlon.org
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