ITU News Update: 8 January 2004

TSUNAMI AFFECTED ALL OF US: The past weeks and the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Asia has impacted all of us and changed our world forever. Our first concern was to ensure the safety of our Triathlon family in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia. One of the hardest hit areas has a lot of history with ITU - Chennai, India which has hosted Asian Championship events, an Olympic Solidarity Training Camp and many Indian National Triathlons. Rami Ramachandran (photo-right), President of the Indian Triathlon Federation and former ITU Executive Board member, reported that all of their family and members of their federation are safe.

Vijitr Sattinawin, President of the Thailand Triathlon Federation, was out of the country at the time the tsunami hit, but was, of course, devasted by the impact on the people of his country. Phuket, a popular triathlon venue, was one of the hardest hit areas.

The outpouring of support from around the world has been a testiment to how this natural disaster has affected all of us. In Canada, where hundreds of thousands of families have relatives in the affected region, the support has now reached 100 million dollars with the government pledging to match dollar for dollar the amount the Canadian people donate.

In the long term, ITU Sport Development, the new branch of ITU being established as an outcome of the Road to Bejing Strategic Plan, will work with ITU Regional Representative Tom Carassco and the coaches in Asia, such as Brett Mace in India (photo-right), to support the re-development of the sport in those areas most affected.

Exclusive Interview with WADA President, Dick Pound: Charley Pelkey, the news editor of Velonews, recently travelled to Montreal and spent almost 2 hours with WADA President Dick Pound. While the article is driven by the doping issues in cycling, there is a lot of interesting information in the interview which is of interest to multi-sports. Take the time to read the entire interview - you will find it at: URL: http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/7332.0.html

ITU was one of the original signatories of the WADA Agreement, and continues in the forefront of testing and of educating our athletes on cheating in sport by using banned substances, plus the dangers to their health.

Re-Launch of ITU Website: ITU's website www.triathlon.org is undergoing a complete overhaul and will be re-launched in early February. As discussed at the recent "Road to Beijing" Multisport Leadership Conference in Vancouver, National Federations, ITU events and athletes will soon be able to manage their own section of the site. In preparation for the launch National Federation and event needs to identify the person within their organisation who will be responsible for inputing information, photos and links. Within the next week, ITU Media will be contacting each one of you to begin the process of issuing passwords and inservicing on procedures.
Vancouver 2004: Congress and Road To Beijing Multisport Leadership Conference: Over 70 National Federations made the long journey to Vancouver in early December for the "Road to Beijing" Multisport Leadership Conference and ITU Congress. In the past the ITU Congress has attracted an average of 47 countries, so it speaks well for the future of the sport with such a high number in attendance (bearing in mind that 7 NFs were unable to obtain visas on time to travel to Vancouver.) During the 3 days of meetings, new friendships and partnerships were established among the many national federation officers, event organisers, coaches and athletes. A clear four-year strategic plan for the sport was the strongest outcome. Click here to download the English and Spanish version of the ITU Strategic Plan

There were over 300 multisport leaders who attended the ITU Road to Beijing Multisport Leadership Conference - which is undoubtedly the largest-ever gathering of multisport leaders. While the focus was on four key areas of multisport leadership, i.e., sport development, event production, media and television, and marketing and sponsorship, several keynote speakers intensified the focus. It was a real pleasure to have so many reknowned sport leaders at our conference such as:

  • Bob Fasulo, Secretary General of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), Lausanne
  • Rob Koehler, Deputy Director, WADA Standards and Harmonisation, Montreal
  • Norm O'Reilly, Assistant Professor of Marketing, School of Business, Ryerson University (photo-right - Norm walking in with the Canadian Olympic Team in Athens as part of the Mission Staff)
  • Steve Podborski, Vancouver 2010 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (VANOC) and member of the "Crazy Canucks" World Cup and Olympic ski team. (Photo-right of Steve in 1988 World Cup Downhill.)
  • John Furlong, President VANOC, Organising Committee for the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympic Games.

We would also like to thank Dragana Pavlovich from the IOC Sport Department (former President of the Yugoslav Triathlon Federation) who joined in several of the panel discussions, as well as Marion Lay from Vancouver 2010 Olympic Legacy, and Bill Hallett, President of Triathlon Canada.

There are also many people behind the scenes to thank:

The Vancouver Advisory Group who counselled us along the way:

  • Bill Hallett, President Triathlon Canada
  • Steven Holmes, Vice President Triathlon Canada
  • Kristine Chambers (photo-right), Coach, Sport Science Doctoral Student and Kids of Steel Director
  • Lisa Ogilvie, TVNW Media Group
  • Liz Graham, former President, Triathlon BC

ITU's Presentation Team:

  • Sheila O'Kelly, ITU Events (photo-right)
  • Enrique Quesada, ITU Rankings Manager
  • Gergely Markus, ETU Secretary General,
  • Ed Rice, ITU Media
  • Brian Mahony, ITU Media
  • Leslie Buchanan, Sports Development, with Jackie Fairweather-Gallagher

The Behind the Scenes ITU Staff and Volunteer Team at the Host Hotel:

  • Adrienne Proseilo, Financial Manager
  • Brian and Leonie Hinton, Australia (photo-right)- ITU EBoard and Oceania Regional Rep
  • Roberta Daly, Edmonton World Cup
  • Joyce Donaldson-Payne, ITU International Official
  • Steven Boudreau, Edmonton World Cup Event Organiser
  • Jasmine Flatters, President British Triathlon Association (photo-right)

The ITU staff who conceived the plan, produced the material and technology, and met our dream of hosting the largest-ever conference of multi-sport leaders:

  • Loreen Barnett, Executive Director
  • Leslie Buchanan, Technical Director (photo-left)
  • Adrienne Proseilo, Financial Manager

Special thanks also to:

  • Barrie Shepley and Christine Brown, ITU's voice of triathlon who hosted the "ITU Gala"
  • The Vancouver Renaissance Harbourside Hotel, and particularly Carolyn Gerum, head of Convention Services
  • Vancouver Tourism and particularly Matthew Coyne who supported us in many ways and then provided all of the airport transportation for each NF
ITU's Evening of Championships: A big thank-you to our current World Championships Host Cities and Bid Cities for the wonderful evening that they staged on the first evening of the conference in the Vistas revolving restaurant on the top of the host hotel. The evening was so successful that we'd like to make it a feature of all future Congress gatherings - starting with the 2005 Congress in Honolulu.

The evening featurered:
  • Mini hamburgers from Hamburg (GER)
  • Seafood from Corner Brook (CAN),
  • Australian beef from Newcastle (AUS)
  • Tamales-Corona beer from Mazatlan (MEX),
  • Raclette from Lausanne (SUI)
  • Chicken-macadamian nuts from Honolulu (USA)
  • Sushi from Gamagori (JPN).

ITU Gala: The next evening, the ITU hosted the Evening of Champions which honoured our 2004 Olympic Champions, World Cup Series Winners and World Champions.

What a thrill it was to see ITU's pipe major Milton Cameron (photo-left) pipe in our World Cup Champions Anja Dittmer (GER) and Dimitri Gaag (KAZ), the World Champions Sheila Taormina (USA) and Bevan Docherty (NZL), and the Kate Allen, the Olympic Champion. A huge thank you to the athletes who travelled so far to be with us for the ITU Gala - making the evening a very special occasion.

Although Hamish Carter (NZL), the Olympic Champion, was not able to be with us on the occasion of ITU's first Gala, he did, through the magic of cyberspace, send us a greeting, which was very well received.

The Gala was a celebration that we need to hold more often - to recognise the heros of our sport.

We also recognised one of the original heroes of our sport, Al Fisher (CAN) who inspired the pioneers of our sport to take a path of "pure sport" and avoid the corruption that comes from those hungry for profit and power. Al was awarded the first ever "Michel Gignoux Award" for his contributions to ITU and the sport of Triathlon.

ITU Congress: As mentioned above, a record number of National Federations attended the 2004 ITU Congress.   A number of resolutions were passed and elections took place. This Congress was distinctly different from the last one, as delegates left with a common pledge to work to further the sport worldwide and on all regions.

The minutes, reports and election results are available by clicking here.   Congratulations to all those who were elected to the various positions - we're looking to you to provide the sport leadership required to move our sport forward over the next four years.

Job Opportunities at ITU: The applications for the ITU jobs have now closed, and we will be processing all of the applications shortly. After announcing the ITU Strategic Plan for 2005-2008, ITU identified the jobs required to achieve the Goals and Objectives of the Strategic Plan to help reach our goals.
New Offices for ITU - ITU has secured some new office space on the harbour in beautiful North Vancouver, Canada. These offices will be available early in the new year. Stay tuned to update your address books in the near future.
Congratulations to Laura Reback (USA) and Olympian Greg Bennett (AUS) on their recent wedding. Laura and Greg have been at the top of the World Cup Rankings for many years - we hope to see them back in action in the coming years. Click the photo for full-size version. Thank you to ITU Photographers Frank Weschel and Silke Insel for the photographs of the happy couple.
New International Standard for Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs)
The new International Standard for Therapeutic Use Exemptions is now available - click here for the entire document. This Standard includes changes approved by WADA's Executive Committee at its meeting 20 November, 2004 and will come into effect on 1 January, 2005.

  
Canada to Host Two ITU Americas Cups Triathlons in 2005: Canada will be well represented on the international triathlon scene in 2005 with the two ITU Americas Cup triathlon events plus two ITU World Cup events. These events provide invaluable athlete development opportunities as athletes are able to compete against an international field in or near their own country and earn ITU points towards eligibility to compete on the ITU World Cup circuit.

ITU confirmed this week that the July 30th ITU Caledon Triathlon and the August 21st ITU Kelowna Triathlon will both be ITU Americas Cup events.  An ITU Americas Cup event allows athletes the opportunity to earn valuable ITU ranking points and prize money. The 2004 Caledon Americas Cup Triathlon saw many of Canada's best U23 athletes compete against an international field - two Americas Cups in different regions of the country will also assist in reducing travel costs of developing athletes. The prize purse for the Americas Cup events will be a minimum of US $10,000. The two long standing Canadian World Cup events; Corner Brook and Edmonton will take place July 17th and July 23rd respectively. It is anticipated that the events will be nationally televised on TSN.
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