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Questions for my wife - kit issues
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Hi Womens,

My wife (way cooler than me...) is racing in Lausanne in a week or two (Olympic distance), and the ITU uniform rules are giving her a bit of a headache. Hoping that some of you here may have some experience with the nuances of ITU rules and/or have a few tips or tricks.

1) If the swim is not wetsuit legal, it looks like you're allowed to wear a swim skin.. but then you have to wear it for the rest of the race. Anyone gone this route before and worn a swim skin the whole time? She doesn't even have a skin, but if that's by far the best option, we might need to look at that.

2) If you're not going to wear a swim skin, the only real answer is to swim in a swimsuit. No big deal. But then are you allowed to pull on tri shorts in T1? Or does this violate the "whatever you wear for the swim is your uniform" rule?

3) If adding shorts in T1 isn't allowed, has anyone raced full races in a swimsuit before and have any advice or tips for keeping the backside in place? Double sided tape, maybe?

I'm sure we can get answers to some of these questions when we get to Lausanne, but sorting out a game plan while we're at home would be nice since it looks like the water temps should be borderline. Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!

Mr. Slow
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Re: Questions for my wife - kit issues [MoveSlow] [ In reply to ]
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It's my understanding that if you're racing ITU age group worlds then you HAVE to wear your federation's approved Team(insert country here) uniform with the 3 letter abbreviation for your country on it.
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Re: Questions for my wife - kit issues [MoveSlow] [ In reply to ]
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Per triathlon.org here are the rules:

Uniform - What kind of trisuit do I need?
  • Athletes must wear the uniform for the whole competition.
  • Uniform must cover the whole torso in the front and the back maybe uncovered from the waist up.
  • Covering the legs below the knees is not allowed in the swim when wetsuits are not allowed.
  • One-piece uniform is preferred, if a 2 piece is used the pieces must overlap. No Torso is to be visible during the competition.
  • The zipper must be located at the back and no longer than 40cm
  • Uniform must be worn over both shoulders during competition.

Uniform - What are the rules for the national uniform?
ITU Uniform Rules: https://www.triathlon.org/...tegory/uniform_rules
For Triathlon Continental and World Championships and for Multisport World Championships, AG athletes should comply with their approved National Federation uniform(s) color. Since March 2019 athletes from the same National Federation may be allowed to wear different uniforms, always within the uniform(s) the NF previously got approved. National Federations may still choose to keep one uniform design approved at one time at their discretion.
ITU logo and Country code are mandatory. Family name is optional.
National Uniforms approved here: https://www.triathlon.org/agegroup/documents
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Re: Questions for my wife - kit issues [HeartRN] [ In reply to ]
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HeartRN wrote:
It's my understanding that if you're racing ITU age group worlds then you HAVE to wear your federation's approved Team(insert country here) uniform with the 3 letter abbreviation for your country on it.

Yep, that's correct as far as we know. But, there's an approved swimsuit, approved one-piece suit, approved two-piece suit... etc. So she would be wearing the approved USA swimsuit for the swim, then pulling on the approved USA shorts. In theory!
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Re: Questions for my wife - kit issues [MoveSlow] [ In reply to ]
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Okay phew. I was concerned that she was just going to be wearing any old swimsuit, not the approved Team USA kit.
Because you have to have your country's name represented at all times, I'm not so sure how wearing a swim skin the whole time would work/be allowed. In theory, I guess it would be okay if she pulled the bike shorts on overtop of her swimsuit if all she has is the swimsuit not the tri-suit with legs option. That might be a question better suited for an official though. They might just look at her and ask, "if you wanted the padding why didn't you just order the one piece with legs and padding to begin with."
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Re: Questions for my wife - kit issues [HeartRN] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the responses!

I agree that I'm not sure how the swim skin for the whole race would meet the uniform rules - maybe some federations have official swim skins? Either way, the one-piece kit is unfortunately not an option at this point since she doesn't have one! We've been thinking in a non-wetsuit swim, the swimsuit would be the way to go from a drag perspective, and then hopefully she could just throw shorts on over it. If that's allowed... that would be the preferred method. If not, she'll just have to race in the swimsuit and we'll figure out a way to make it as comfortable as possible...

Hopefully it's just a wetsuit-legal swim and it's not an issue!
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Re: Questions for my wife - kit issues [MoveSlow] [ In reply to ]
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I just looked at the athlete guide for Lausanne and this is what it says regarding speed suits:
Note that if a speed suit is worn, it MAY NOT be removed in transition and therefore must be worn for the duration of the event. (see ITU Competition rules 4.10 c (i)). According the suit must also comply with the ITU Uniform rules in respect of branding and country code.

So..unless it has the country code on it I think the swimskin is a no-go :(

Looks like the water temperature right now is 21 C, so barely wetsuit legal.
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Re: Questions for my wife - kit issues [HeartRN] [ In reply to ]
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HeartRN wrote:
I just looked at the athlete guide for Lausanne and this is what it says regarding speed suits:
Note that if a speed suit is worn, it MAY NOT be removed in transition and therefore must be worn for the duration of the event. (see ITU Competition rules 4.10 c (i)). According the suit must also comply with the ITU Uniform rules in respect of branding and country code.

So..unless it has the country code on it I think the swimskin is a no-go :(

Looks like the water temperature right now is 21 C, so barely wetsuit legal.

Yeah, we're thinking the same about the swimskin needing the official country branding. So that's probably a no-go regardless at this point. Hopefully the water just stays cool enough for wetsuits and she can avoid this issue altogether!
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