World Triathlon

ITU CONGRESS MINUTES: The minutes of the ITU Vancouver 2004 Congress
have been posted and are available in the “downloads” section.



LAUSANNE MEETINGS: Several of ITU’s leaders met at the Olympic
Museum on Sunday, 23 January. Present at the meetings were:

Les McDonald, President
  Bill Walker, Sec-General
  Marisol Casado, Treasurer, ETU President
  Ria Damgren, Executive Board
  Dr. Klaus Mueller-Ott, Executive Board
  Patrice Brunet, ITU Legal Advisor and Chair of the Constitution Committee
  Loreen Barnett, Executive Director Clive Faine, Chair Duathlon Committee
  Bernard Saint-Jean, FFTri, ITU Council
  Gergely Markus, ETU Secretary General, Head of ITU Sport Development
  Jasmine Flatters, Credentials Committee, BTA President
  Sheila O’Kelly, Head of ITU Events
  Ed Rice, Head of ITU Media and Television
  Enrique Quesada, Sport Development and ITU Rankings Officer.
  Rolf Ebeling, ITU Coaches Commission
 
  While in Lausanne the ITU team also met with:

 
• Dr. Jacques Rogge, IOC President. Les McDonald, Sheila   O’Kelly, Rolf Ebeling, Patrice Brunet and Loreen Barnett met with the IOC   President on Friday 21 January at Chateau de Vidy. During the meeting, which   covered many aspects of the Olympic Movement, we made the request to increase   the number of athletes in the triathlon to 75 x 75 for the Beijing Olympic   Games 2008. Dr. Rogge is committed to holding the total number of athletes   to 10,500 and many IFs have asked for either more athletes or more medals.   He did not say “No”, but did say that we will have to convince the   Programme Commission.
    Lausanne 2006 LOC: The members of Team ITU present in Lausanne enjoyed a splendid   evening with Claude Thomas, chair of the Lausanne 2006 World Championship   Organising Committee and Sabrina Tramparulo, his charming assistant. Final   details for the elite, junior, U/23, age group and AWAD courses are near completion.   All of the events will take place in d’Ouchy beside the port and we will try   to include a run course through the garden of the Olympic Museum.
   
 
• Pamela Vipond, Olympic Solidarity (OS): Pamela was a gracious   host and patiently walked us through the 20 global and continental programmes   that Olympic Solidarity offers. The new programmes for the Beijing Olympiad   will be available shortly and the ITU Sport Development will create a template   to assist NFs applying for funding. The Sport Development Team will also work   to enhance funding for ITU projects with OS funds. She also suggested that   the Sport Development Team copy her on all NF project applications so she   can assist with the process. Pamela also granted permission for ITU to use   the Olympic Solidarity logo on our letterhead and as part of our event branding   at ITU events.
    Tom Dielen, WADA: Tom emphasised the “education” focus of WADA in   the future, which was very consistent with the future work of ITU Sport Development.   He did caution us that given we are made up of 3 sports that already have   doping problems, i.e., swimming, cycling and track, we have to stay on top   of doping because of the potential for cheating in our sport. He also stated   that “out-of-competition” testing is of paramount importance. We   discussed various methods of ensuring that the athlete location data is current   and agreed that the NFs should be responsible for online updates of athletes   locations. Tom Dielen also stated that Regional Doping Agencies will also   make testing more streamlined and will be easier for us to ensure that both   in-competition and out-of-competition testing are conducted in the appropriate   way. NF Rules have to be compliant with the ITU Doping Rules. All NFs will   be instructed to ensure that their rules are in-line with ITU Rules. Tom advised   ITU that our technical delegates must become more proactive in guaranteeing   that arrangements are made for “in competition” testing. It is not   enough to write it in the contract and then not follow-up to make sure it   happens. Sheila O’Kelly will make sure that this is a strong responsibility   in the TD Checklist.
   
 
• Kelly Fairweather, IOC Sport Director: We spent a delightful   time with Kelly Fairweather at the IOC Headquarters. We discussed many aspects   of the success of Athens and our Road to Beijing Strategic Plan.
   
    Increasing the Quota for Triathlon: On the topic   of increasing the triathlon quota to 75 x 75, Kelly was cautiously optimistic.   He stated that he would be working with the Programme Commission in March   to finalise the quota for all sports. ITU will prepare a document of rationale   for a major submission to increase the number of triathletes in the Olympic   Games. We have to make our rationale distinct and unique so it stands out   against the submissions from the other IFs.
   
    Beijing Venue: We discussed the need to finalise the venue.   The location close to the Ming Tombs is too far from Beijing, i.e., 1.5 hours   by car. An ITU Team will visit BOCOG in the coming weeks. We are prepared   to look at a less challenging bike course to have the event in the city.
    Beijing Competition Manager: We discussed the need to ensure that the most   talented person from our team be appointed to this position. We will build   partnership plan to fast track the development of national technical officials   in China. We will work closely with our good friend Lou da Peng, Vice President   of IAAF and former President of the Asian Triathlon Confederation.
    Olympic Qualification Criteria: Kelly informed us that he needs to get the   qualification criteria to the NOC by the end of 2005 for their approval. We   stated that we would have a 2 year qualification period and that we’d get   our proposal to him by June 2005.
   
    Winter Triathlon: We raised the question of having   Winter Triathlon on the programme of the Winter Olympic Games, which was met   with support. We need to increase the number of countries that participate   and the number of continents at the World Championships. ITU will ask Canada,   USA and Japan to send athletes to the Winter World Championships in Slovakia.
   
    Sport Development Funding: The IF money that used   to be distributed by Olympic Solidarity is now under Kelly Fairweather and   the IOC Sport Department. We discussed our new Sport Development department   and plans to put $1,000,000us of our Olympic television money back into sport   development. Kelly seemed very impressed with this effort and with our 4 year   strategic plan. We will be eligible for sport development funds from the IOC.   The submission of our plan must be in to the IOC by March.
   
    Official Opening of ITU Office In Vancouver: Kelly   will be in Vancouver 5 - 7 April at which time he has agreed to attend a formal   opening of the new ITU office.
   
   
 
• Bob Fasulo, Director ASOIF: We met with Bob in the ASOIF   office and reviewed our progress since the Vancouver Congress.