Women: Kretz and Brault.
Men: Mislawchuk and Jones.

Mislawchuk looks to have a very promising future if TriCan doesn't screw it up.

Sweetland and Kretz and Jones and Yorke.

x2 on Mislawchuk. He's had some quality results this season, even though he seems to fade a bit in the late stages of the run. He's still really young and I hope he's part of the Olympic team. Hard to pick between Jones and Yorke as the other male on the mens side though.

You'd drop the guy with consistent top 12 results for people that run hot and cold and maybe won't finish?

For some reason I thought Canadian women got 3 athletes. Is this not correct? I thought Brault and Kretz were a given and Sweetland and Findlay for the final spot.

Julie Miller :)

i've been hard on trican over the years for squandering a lot of talent, especially on the women's draw, but i think this will have to be a building year. triathlon is definitely a sport where "anything can happen" on race day, but that's less the case as the sport gets more professionalized; at the moment canada's got nobody who's a medal threat.

in light of that, maybe it's wise to send some young athletes in hopes of shoring up their experience and confidence for next time. . .

-mike

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Well I guess we will find out soon enough what the exact country spot allocation is but when I count back it looks like Canada's women are the 8th country to get 3 spots. The part that I don't understand is if there is a possibility that fewer than 8 countries get 3 spots. I think there is a hard cap of 55 ladies on the starting line. There are 4 continental new flag spots and 2 tripartite commission spots for development athletes. That leaves 49 spots for ranked athletes (all the other automatic qualifiers are already ranked anyway). By my count there are 12 athletes in the top 63 who you can cross off because they are the 4th or higher in their respective country. That leaves Kretz as the 51st person on that list and 2 spots out of the money. :(

Women 3 slots
Men 2 slots

The only debate is Sweetland vs Findlay for 3rd women IMO. Otherwise Yorke & Tyler far higher ranking than Kyle on men's side, top 2 women a lock leaving Sweetland and Findlay to be decided. Should be Sweetland as higher ranked. There is no domestique debate on either side for medals.

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@rhyspencer

Would love to see Findlay get picked after her meltdown in London
Who is she coached by now? Siri ?

No. For whatever reason she left Siri last year (after what seemed a career-reviving experience). She is with Neal Henderson.
There are good reasons to cheer for both Sweetland and Findlay as they both have been at it with incredible stories for a while. I guess Sweetland is one spot ahead of Findlay so I assume she gets it.

Heartbreaking for Findlay but this is Sweetlands chance. Also it seems her run has been coming around a bit more than Paula's.

Just wondering why you would pick Kretz and Sweetland over Brault?

The only debate is Sweetland vs Findlay for 3rd women IMO. Otherwise Yorke & Tyler far higher ranking than Kyle on men's side, top 2 women a lock leaving Sweetland and Findlay to be decided. Should be Sweetland as higher ranked. There is no domestique debate on either side for medals.


Interesting times for ITU racing in Canada.

Clearly we are well into the post-Whitfield era. Although, Findlay, Sweetland, and Jones could be considered transitional. Others, in contention, really are the legacy, of inspiration from Simon Whitfield - Kretz, Mislachuk etc . . .

Tough call on what TriCan should do. With all due respect, none of this crowd will be contending for medals (I'd happily be proven wrong) - a top-10 place from a man and/or woman, would be considered a, "win"!

There is a good case to let the younger ones go, "for the experience". Or do you give a Kyle Jones, a one-last-time-round chance?

With all due respect, Findlay and Sweetland, have never been able to get back the the flashes of brilliance and true greatness they showed when they were younger. Might they come up big again?

I like what I see in the youngsters, Kretz and Mislachuk - they have the ability on a great day to be in the top-10 in a WC race - but so do 20 other triathletes in a given WC race.

It's interesting and ironic that while our ITU fortunes have waned to a significant degree, our Long-Course(Ironman & 70.3), athletes are crushing it right now!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Sweetland is higher ranked on the Olympic list. She also has finished ahead of Brault at some key events, mainly the Rio test event. Brault appears to be in better form currently. Bit of a toss up depending on what criteria they prioritize.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying in regards to us not having anyone that can podium. Also we do not have anyone that would be such an amazing runner that we could build a team around that individual and get them to the run protected to unleash a sub 30' 10km (men)/ sub 33' 10 km (women).

As it is now, I would let the younger generation get their experience at the Olympics now and show that we are invested in their futures.

Funny how things swing in Triathlon in Canada. At any 70.3 or 140.6 race on any weekend, there is a great chance that a Canadian will be on the podium but we barely have a chance to have a Canadian on the podium at an international Olympic distance race of note.

If we get 3 women, then Kretz (no brainer) and Brault first choices - then Sweetland (who hopefully can stay healthy for a few months).

For the men, originally I said (on another thread) Mislawchuk and Yorke - but having given it more thought, and thinking a top 10 is a 'win', then I'd go with Jones over Yorke, as Jones has sneaked into the top 10 a couple of times over the years. (I think Yorke may have great success over 70.3)

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Surprised some of you guys are picking Sweetland ahead of Brault. Brault is higher ranked and beat Sweetland and Findlay big time in Yokohama. Not sure why Sweetland doing better than Brault LAST year at the Rio Event should factor in this year given the performances. It would be totally bogus if Sweetland and Findlay got in to London and Brault is left off.

+1

I agree. It seems Brault has been left out of the conversation although she is highly ranked and consistent.

I really think that the "cuteness factor" as well as her long road of injury, disappointments, and near-misses have lead to Sweetland being the emotional choice.

I think Brault and Kretz should be in. I hope whoever gets the last spot proves to be the best athlete and performs on the day. I don't like it when an athletes seeming goal is to make it to the Olympics, seemingly peaks for this and then the Olympic performance is lackluster.

too many cameras....

But she might be our best hope.

Its a shame the men didn't get 3 spots but it will be Tyler and Andrew Yorke.
Tyler is the easy choice in my opinion. Not only has he been racing the best and most consistently but he has far and away the most potential. Canada won't win a medal but i think Tyler could finish top 10. He also has potential to move into that elite group in 4 years. Give him the experience. Yorke gets the next spot based on ranking but i think he and Kyle are a toss up really.

Women. Kretz for sure. Brault has been racing the most consistently and seems to be the only one who has managed to stay healthy. Kirsten has to be the 3rd choice. If she can stay healthy and keep her training consistent the next few months she has the most potential to hit a home run and get into the top 8. I think that would be a best case scenario for canada this time around. Paula unfortunately hasn't been able to stay healthy or get her run back on track. Sadly i think she'll be on the outside

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Team Every Man Jack

Might be time for Paula to think about moving up to 70.3 for the next few years instead of her pursuit of short distance racing. We can always use another top performing Canadian woman on the podium in the longer stuff.

Courses are different between Yokohama and Rio. Not sure why the Rio results would be ignored? Brault isn't exactly a new up and coming athlete anymore. Brault was 7th at Yoko in 2014, 11th in Hamburg, so results aren't really on an upward swing this year.

I think they will have 3 on the line, so this is likely a moot point. Findlay isn't really in the running at all.

It is hard to go by results depending on the depth of the field at each race. Her 11th place could have been a better result if the field was deep vs her 7th with a weak field. I did not check the field for each race.