World Triathlon

The early months of 2022 have been packed with World Triathlon Development and Education programmes and initiatives, delivered across the continents. The World Triathlon Development and Education mentee application (as part of the Mentoring Programme) and selection for the new mentoring cycle was completed in February. A total of 29 mentors completed the accreditation process and 33 mentors are still in the process of obtaining the accreditation. A New Mentoring Cycle will start to roll out from March.

The continental distribution of World Triathlon mentor pool are as follows:
29 mentors completed the accreditation process
Africa | 2
America |5
Asia | 8
Europe | 10
Oceania | 4
33 mentors in accreditation progress
Africa | 6
America | 11
Asia | 11
Europe | 4
Oceania | 1

World Triathlon has launched the Mentoring for Safeguarding in Sport Pilot programme in cooperation with Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and International Safeguards for Children in Sport. Five individuals with existing experience of safeguarding in sport and sport for development contexts will be trained in mentoring using the World Triathlon Mentoring Program.

Technical Officials and Coaches courses start to move back to being delivered onsite

15 - 16 Jan 2022 Harare World Triathlon Technical Officials (TOs) Level 1 Seminar in Zimbabwe

The seminar is in preparation for the upcoming event 2022 Africa Triathlon Junior Cup Troutbeck at the beginning of April.

9-10 Feb 2022 Vina del Mar World Triathlon Technical Officials Level 1 Seminar in Chile
Getting Ready for the 2022 World Triathlon Cup Vina del Mar in November this year and the Pan American Games 2023. The course was delivered by Gustavo Svane (ARG),  the general manager of Federacion Chilena de Triatlón.

25 - 26 Feb 2022 Windhoek World Triathlon Technical Officials Level 1 Seminar in Namibia

25-27 Feb 2022 Tunis World Triathlon Technical Officials and Event Organizers Level 2 Seminar in Tunisia
The course was initially postponed and finally took place onsite in February to furnish the TO’s and Event Organiser’s capacity to host World Triathlon sanctioned events in Africa.

Ahmed Allouch, who coordinated and hosted the seminar in Tunis on behalf of their National Federation, was also a participant of the seminar. 
“The 2022 Tunis World Triathlon Technical Officials and Event Organizers Level 2 Seminar was a great opportunity for all participants to develop their practical and organizational competencies and skills through the theoretical and practical sessions.”

“All participants admitted that it was a very successful seminar thanks to Mr. Rick as he was a wonderful facilitator; his expertise, energy and enthusiasm made the seminar a great success. Participants agreed to try to participate as much as possible in future in African and International events as SFTO and to exchange TOs between respective NFs for more practices and leaning. In this context, Tunisian Federation invited all participants (non-Tunisian) to apply as SFTO for the 2022 Africa Triathlon Cup Yasmine Hammamet in June and the Tunisian Federation will take charge of their full accommodation and local transport.”

An overview from Rick Fulton, African Triathlon Development Coordinator
“I was very pleased to be able to deliver the seminar in Tunis as it had been postponed owing to the pandemic. It was at last an opportunity to be able to advance our Technical Officials in North Africa where it is critical that they steer the North African events in the future. This level of officiating has been lacking in North Africa but their event organisation and the number of events hosted in this region require a good team of Level 2 TOs to lead these events in the immediate future.
I had a group of 10 Officials from Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal and Lebanon and they combined and interacted very well in their groups. They were a great pleasure to facilitate and I sincerely hope they meet their exam requirements and will be certified accordingly.”

06 - 10 Mar 2022 Al-Khobar World Triathlon Coaches Level 1 Course in Saudi Arabia

Common feedback from all the participants: “This seminar dives into details in a very deep yet simplified manner, and the facilitators did a great role in delivering the targeted tasks”.

One of the participants who was on the activator seminar in December 2021: “This is the real deal! I really enjoyed learning so many new things which I had no clue about and they are basically the essentials to become a coach!”

The participant from Oman: “I had the opportunity last December to attend a Development Camp. I had no clue about how triathlon coaching and development works, yet I learned a lot! But this seminar gave me the opportunity to understand the basic science behind how the path of development & coaching works and how adaptive it is! Am looking forward for future seminars”.

10 Mar - 10 Apr 2022 World Triathlon Coaches Level 1 Bridging Course for English-speaking Caribbean Coaches
“The Mexico University of Triathlon has recently confirmed that they are not developing their coaching courses further in English at this stage and will focus on Spanish-speaking audiences of the Americas. World Triathlon would like to fill in this gap and make sure that progress opportunities are provided for English-speaking coaches initially certified by the Mexico University of Triathlon. We already mapped out the education structure of the Mexico University of Triathlon and identified the topics that Level 1 coaches would need to get familiar with in order to gain World Triathlon Level 1 recognition.”

Coaches E-learning activities to keep our talent pool updated and to reach out to more talents.
01 Feb - 31 Mar 2022 World Triathlon Coaches Level 1 and Level 2 Revalidation E-Course
Similar to last year, the 2022 revalidation period will completely roll out prior to the main competition season, so coaches can freshly reflect on their past year and have time for learning. Other than anti-doping and rule updates, which are always in the focus, this year’s tasks also include an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion learning module, which has become integral part of our coaching education after last year’s modularisation. Successful participants of the revalidation process will be able to access a 2022 certified coach revalidation badge and a new coaching certificate if their 4-year revalidation period is about to end in 2022. The deadline to complete the revalidation course is March 31.

“Coaching Female Triathletes” E-Course in English and Spanish
This course provides essential and valuable practical sports science information that provides coaches working with female triathletes with scientific-based information to successfully develop their sport potential while minimising the risk of injury, overtraining and lowering the dropout rate in triathlon. Furthermore, the course aims to improve participants’ knowledge of key aspects relevant to healthy female triathlete participation and promote safe participation for female athletes in triathlon.

Vicent Beltran, who initiates the program said,” The level of interest that this course has generated among our community and coaches has pleasantly surprised me. It has been one of the online courses delivered so far with the highest level of interaction and participation. This course has taught a lot about the need of tailoring training for female athletes. Training male triathletes is clearly not the same as training female triathletes.  We discovered that there is a lot of interest in specific topics like exercises for menopausal women, exercise in puberty, and menstrual cycle and training. Furthermore, I would like to highlight the engagement of all the participants had during the sessions. They offered many actions and proposals to reduce the dropout rate and create a more gender-balanced sport, not only among athletes but also among coaches.”

The annual National Federation survey has been sent out, the deadline for submission is March 311. Please note that this is part of the annual membership obligations as per the World Triathlon Constitution.

For more information visit the World Triathlon Development and Education HUB.