Since a few months, different actors from national federations talk about the possibility that the next Olympic Games triathlon might change its distances. The distance as known as “Olympic” (1500 m of swim, 40 km of run and 10 km of run) would turn into a sprint, which means divided in two.
Every time we mentioned this rumour with ITU employees, they denied. However, last week, none other than the president of the International Triathlon Union dragged up the topic back. Marisol Casado just admitted that she would like to see the appearance of the sprint course at the OG because this would allow triathlon to be more telegenic and spectacular, but most of all, this would help the entrance in the OG of the Mixed Relay (source: The Times).
Unfortunately, media took the info saying that the Olympic race would become a sprint, but in facts, Marisol Casado is talking about adding a sprint and not switching with Olympic distance. This decision won’t be taken by ITU but with the Olympic Committee. It’s the role of the international federation to come up with new ideas. If disciplines as athletics or swimming can hold on many races, why not triathlon?
For now, priority remains inclusion of the Mixed Relay for Tokyo 2020. The decision must be known in early 2017. This adding was initially rejected for Rio Olympics. The project of holding three races in the OG (Olympic, Sprint and Relay) is either for OG 2024 in Paris, Los Angeles or Budapest.