World Triathlon

On Friday, October 30 2009, a meeting was held in Lausanne, Switzerland between the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the International Triathlon Union (ITU). The participants of this meeting were Dr Peter van den Vliet, IPC Medical and Scientific Director, Dr Sarah Springman OBE, ITU Vice President, and Mr. Thanos Nikopoulos, ITU Event Operations Manager. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss ITU’s forthcoming submission of paratriathlon as a paralympic sport and to gain intelligence about requirements to succeed in this quest.

ITU’s delegation presented to Dr. van den Vliet, paratriathlon’s intention to be included in the Paralympics Program which was warmly accepted. Further discussion was carried out regarding the ITU paratriathlon classification system and how this can be transformed to a sport specific evidence-based assessment and classification system. The outcome of this meeting was very positive and relations were established for future cooperation.

We are days away from IPC’s deadline to the international federations for submitting their declaration of intent to apply for sport (discipline) inclusion in the Paralympic Games. ITU has collected all the necessary documentation and created a strong file which will be submitted today to the IPC headquarters.