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The
Sport:
-
Triathlon is a 'lifestyle' sport it exudes
vitality and charisma.
-
Triathlon is 'fresh', 'new' and 'exciting' as
well as 'tough', 'demanding' and 'gruelling'
-
Triathlon made its Olympic Debut in the Sydney
2000 summer games
-
No other sport has achieved Olympic programme
status in such a short timeframe.
- Triathlon encompasses three distinct sports
-swimming, cycling and running.
-
Each sport takes its distance from existing
events already on the Olympic programme (1500m
swim, 40km road cycling race & 10,000m run).
-
Triathlon was invented in the early 1970's by
the San Diego Track Club
-
At the end of 1998, 220 women from 39 countries
and 251 men from 43 countries had achieved an
ITU World Ranking
-
50 men and 50 women started in the Olympic Triathlon
The
International Federation:
-
ITU was founded in 1989 in Avignon, France
- In six short years (1994), ITU received official
Olympic programme status for the Sydney 2000
summer games faster than any other International
Federation in history
-
The president: ITU's current and founding president
is Les McDonald from Canada. Les was a competitive
age-group triathlete (securing many records
at the Ironman distance) as well as a mountain
climber, skier and semi-professional soccer
player.
-
The Executive Board of ITU has 4 table officers
and 7 board members
-
Each Region of ITU is represented on its Executive
Board
The
Fans:
-
Triathlon fans are active, well educated, evenly
split between genders and encompass all age
groups.
Some
statistics:
-
54% of triathlon fans are between the ages of
16 & 34
- 57% of triathlon households earn more than
$43,000 annually
-
47% of triathlon fans are university educated
-
63% of triathlon fans have no dependants and
a high disposable income
-
75% of triathlon fans are either white collar
workers or blue collar managers.
- 77% of triathlon fans are active sport participants
-
The majority own their own home & car
-
Most are computer & internet savvy
statistics
courtesy of 2000 Sydney World Cup organising
committee
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