Agreed. I was looking through Sam vs. Tayler's results. Sam has a heap of top 10's at WTCS level and they are all from age 23-25. He's 27 now. I think they missed out big time.

Seems like many of the Australians have been training in the heat near Cairns. But no word on selection.
Do you know if there is a team camp or is it all individuals doing that?

Some of the likely Aussies to be selected were still racing the last few weeks in the Oceania Cups... My predictions to Join Gentle & Birtwhistle are: Women: VanCoeverden and then one of (Jackson, Jeffcoat, Kira Hedgeland (theoretically McShane could be on this list, but she's on the road back from injury, so I am not sure she has a shot, and while I think Jeffcoat is their best bet for the relay, her performances of late have been a lot of DNFs, so unless she's been working at a domestique role, I would suspect she's out too)) on the men's side Matt Hauser and one of Willian/Royle.

I don't think anyone is under the illusion that the NZ situation is anything but political. If memory serves, this has been an ongoing issue in that federation for a number of years, with very successful athletes repeatedly missing selection, due to the decision to work with coaches other than the designated national coach. Ward is just the latest in this saga, but I seem to remember Sissons may have also run afoul of this, since I seem to remember challenges there for major games selections.

And yes, it's amazing that Sutton is still around, and still has his disciples (and while I'm a Salvisberg fan, I'm still scratching my head on why they went with him instead of Brifford, unless they are looking for a swim bike domestique). But in general this problem of athlete safety cross into all sports. It's easier to deal with in the Major pro sports, because the media attention can help to paint the offenders as radioactive (although despite the allegations against someone like Mike Babcock, I suspect he'll get hired in some capacity by someone in the league in another year or two when it starts to blow over). The problem in amateur sports is that unless there's criminal charges (that show up when people run record checks on the coaches), it's hard to even manage it within a country, let alone between countries, without someone to coordinate (I've seen the cases where teacher/coaches are hopping cities every 2-3 years, starting programs (in some cases with the same name) in each new city, all the while rumors follow about them dating their students/athletes). Without a louder global statement that this will not be accepted, and like doping infractions, if you're caught, you can't work anywhere, we're going to keep seeing this pop up, and we're going to see these serial patterns of behavior. The challenge is the toxic environments that are sometime created where coaches are abusive towards athletes, but not necessarily in a sexual way, are the tougher ones to police, since they rarely result in criminal charges (usually just "voluntary departures", often involving NDAs, so noone is the wiser, and the cycle can continue elsewhere).

The new certification schemes that many federations are putting into place have a lot more safe sport education included, and are setting the table for a better and safer setting in sport in the future, but until you flush the current clog out of the toilet (I think that analogy is perfect in this case), those coaches aren't going to have the opportunities to establish themselves at the top level.

Retired. He is really torn up by how he has been treated.
Sophie Corbidge has also retired, for the same reasons, but has been able to move on quickly by starting her teaching career,
Ryan Sissons retired last year because he could see which way the wind was blowing (even after he won Mooloolaba).

Now no athletes in NZ program over 25.

On the Australian selection, and since I live in Australia and follow this closely: my bet would be (to accompany Jake and Ash), Hauser and Willian, VanCoevorden and the second spot is more of an unknown. I like Natalie VanCoevorden as she's on form right now, and has a good all around game and would be great for position 1 of the relay. If you think Nat does the relay with Ash, then that probably means less incentive to pick Emma Jeffcoat. In that case my money for the second (third) female spot would be Jazz (and not Kira) Hedgeland.

On your Sutton/Salvisberg point: I'm split on Sutton still coaching athletes. On one hand what was reported of his past behaviour is horrible and there's no way he should still be allowed to coach. On the other hand, and please someone step up if that's not been the case and enlighten us, it looks like he may have learnt his lesson and there have been no reports of bad behaviour since he moved to Switzerland 20 or so years ago, is married with kids, and don't we as a society want people to change and be able to buy their way back (reinsertion)? But it's sad that it seems like being a Sutton athlete was an advantage for selection in this case. It should be neutral at best. The coach of the other athlete (Adrien Briffod) is one of the first coaches in Switzerland with a Swiss Olympic coaching accreditation (more than 15 years ago) and I guess a great example of home grown talent and you'd think Swiss Triathlon would want to promote/support that. But I'm biased as it's my brother :-).

On Salvisberg being a domestique, most probably as he's not good enough to have individual aspirations. I actually think his brother Florin deserved selection ahead of Andrea (but both were dominated by Adrien Briffod in this last selection period). To be a domestique for Max Studer, they will need to be able to position next to each other on the pontoon start and Andrea to swim somewhat conservatively and 'guide' Max through the swim. Adrien swam as well as the Salvisberg brothers in this last selection period, and he's actually arguably stronger on the bike so would also have been a good ally for Max Studer, while giving a second card to play for a top 8 overall with his great run ability (all around package). Adrien also has arguably among the best transitions in ITU, maybe the fastest T2 of all, so would have been a good fit for the relay too. But what's done is done (the selection), and that's very disappointing. For those not familiar with Swiss matters, there's another factor at play, you could call it discrimination or minority handicap: the fact that all people selected in the team are Swiss German, and Adrien is from the French speaking part of Switzerland. All of this together meant that Adrien knew that he had to be much better than the others to be selected. And he did. But what he didn't know was that even that would not matter. The selection had already been made!

The first warning sign that your system is broken is where you have your up & coming super stars retiring... Sissons has battled with this for years, and he saw the deck being stacked to get screwed over yet again, so I am not surprised that he stepped away. Ward and Corbridge both have lots of potential and are viable options for NZ, but for the obvious politics. Unfortunately the push for reforms will need to come from their membership to show their discontent with how the federation is being run. I like Hayden Wilde, he's an entertaining athlete, but honestly the best outcome for the federation will be for him to have a terrible race in Tokyo and for them to flame out in the relay, so that NZ is forced to look in a mirror and re-think their approach.

On the Aus side, I agree that it's likely Birt, Willian and Hauser, in theory it could be Royle instead of Willian, but really only if you want to use him in a strategic role in the individual race (and when I say strategy, I mean have him in the swim break in the outside chance that you can't pull Birtwhistle close enough to be in the dash for cash). On the ladies side, it comes down to whether you think they put NVC in the relay with Gentle or not, for my money I'd say pick Jeffcoat for the relay, because if she's on, she's a better relay athlete than NVC, but they could also go with hedgeland for the future to give her a taste, because she will be one of their stars come Paris, or Jackson as a wild card (again, her brilliant days of late are few and far between, but if she happens to have one in the individual race, she could land on a podium).

On the whole Sutton sitch, for my money, I can't understand why a female athlete would work with him, given what is broadly known about his past. This is another case of one of those situations where the lack of a Global athlete safety oversight body rears its head, and that he can still operate. His presence in the registry makes him radioactive in many places, but there are others, such as Switzerland where he can. If you had a global oversight body that was able to enforce a global band, it becomes easy to regulate, because you could use a contamination rule (like they do with the "doping doctors" like Ferrari, or doping coaches like Salazar, Charlie Francis, etc.) where athletes working with banned coaches will be ineligible to compete (I'm sure they'll still find ways to consult via carrier pigeons or whatever, as I am sure Ferrari still does, but at least they will not be in direct regular contact with athletes).

On the Swiss selection, agreed, I'm sratching my head why it was Briffod selected, or Florian, ahead of Andrea. Any of the 3 could domestique for Studer, but only Briffod is actually a viable threat for a podium at that level... any one of them could be a viable relay option (throwing aside conspiracy theories of some mystical pull that Sutton has with the federation that got his athlete selected instead of someone else, Andrea may have been chosen because he was the only one willing to commit to a domestique role, rather than also harboring individual ambitions).

https://www.triathlon.org/...uota_places_for_toky

Shots fired by the World Triathlon Athletes Committee. Way to highlight the grey between the letter of the rules and the spirit of the rules that several NFs are dancing within... I know that there has been much chat in this thread over the last couple years on this topic, about whether all athletes were obligated to start the individual race to be relay eligible, and the answer appears to be no. But they raise some really valid points about optics, and the interesting idea that the NF shouldn't prevent anyone who wants to race the individual race from racing the individual race. That said, I can't see many wanting to pass up an individual start in the OG, even if they would be better served staying in an A/C'd room out of the heat to be fresh for the MTR... The real solution to this problem can't happen now, but for Paris, would be to change the rules... You could ensure a full start list, by mandating that every quota spot for the individual race must be used, or the nation would be ineligible to race in the relay, but then allow all MTR qualified countries to nominate one additional athlete as alternate/relay, who would not need to race individually but would be relay eligible. That change would make for a more exciting relay, by giving the deeper nations a chance for a well rested super sprint specialist in their relay, while still fielding a full field for the individual race, with some contingency in case of crash, injury, or just someone going too deep. That wouldn't change the race for quota spots, because there would still be a huge advantage to qualifying 3 quota spots (to now have a 4th option, so you could theoretically either have two people for the relay and have one sandbag the individual, or you could bring a domestique or two, and still have a relay specialist). That of course would involve convincing the IOC to allow for another 15-20 athletes/sex for the OG (you could reduce that by only giving the nations that auto qualify their relays that extra relay slot, i.e. the top 7 in the MTR series plus top 3 at the relay qualifier, and then any nation that gets a relay by virtue of qualifying two and two by individual ranking doesn't get that extra slot). All interesting potentials for down the road...

That said, more selection drama to come in the next few days, as the rest of the selections will be announced between here and Monday, which is the deadline for NFs to declare their selections.

I have been thinking the same thing about NZ. Imagine if they had to use their reserve ranked 121st because they chose to leave the athlete ranked in the top 20 out. I kind of hope it happens, might make them rethink choosing their team 8 yrs ago. (Sarcasm, but kind of really)
And when it comes to Aus I think ppl are confusing the Hedgeland sisters. Jazz, who may or may not be on the team, isn't as young as it appears you are thinking. 1995 born, same as Birtwhistle, only a year younger than Jeffcoat. Few years older than Knibb, same as Lindeman. Star in Paris? she better find something we haven't seen yet then.
As an Aussie I am torn on who I want to see selected for the 2nd and 3rd spots. I think Royle and Vancoeverden as they have made all the effort to qualify points, leaving the safety of Aus racing without a lot of federation back up. It is a pretty big effort to travel from Aus at the moment. They deserve to go. The 3rd spots can be for relay choices. I assume they will pick Hauser, but the girls I really think could be any one of Jackson, Jeffcoat or Hedgeland Jackson when on has the fastest run (won in Edmonton 2019) but I don't know her form at the moment. As I said, I am torn.

WOW.... I thought the athletes had to race the individual race even if some dnf or cruised. I am actually disappointed in this rule, I hope all selected get to race. Will thete likely be NFDs that dont allow some to race? What are everyones thoughts on this?

My assumption is that this statement would only have been prepared if there was an NF trying to force one of their athletes to sit out the individual race for the relay... I hope that all 55 get to toe the start line, even if a number sandbag it after the swim or if they're not firing on all cylinders to save their legs (or drop out before the run for the same reason)... But I suspect that some of the surprising picks, that are obvious relay picks, are likely being selected to race the relay only, with something ranging from a strong suggestion to an outright mandate to not race the individual event from their federation...

The thing is that there is more then one spot in the World Tri rules and OG rules, whether there are things that you would generally assume were forbidden, but that the rules don't explicitly rule out. This OG case is one, but there are a handful of others as well in the regular rules...

i wonder about the track and field model - in cases where an athlete qualifies in, say, the 5000 and 10000 or the 800 and 1500, and decide that they'll coast one to 'save up' for the other. between all the heats it can add up to a lot of pounding. . .

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Paulo Sousa has posted something about this. I wonder if it is someone in his squad coming under undue pressure

I suspect there are a couple of athletes facing this. If you look at who sits on the athlete's committee, you can start to guess which countries might be the culprits. If you cross-reference that with Paolo's squad, I would suspect this country calls their MTR the Hammers...

I refer to that team as USA D team. (At least the female half)

I hope that's not the case.
I may joke about the girls being fully American, but they have earned the right to race the individual race.

That federation will let their guys race for sure, since both of them have legit podium aspiratons, but neither of their ladies are likely to land on the podium barring an act of god in the individual race, so I could see the temptation to tell them relay only. But again, they have earned the right to race, and should be allowed to start, but likely with the instruction to cruise the run if they are outside of the top 20 (or even to drop out after the bike if not in contention).

sometimes we scratch our heads too much. Let the federations choose the relay out of any athlete they want to send as long as they fulfill some criteria, but not the obbligation to go in the individual race plus the MTR.
That also can end up in a new range of athletes specialized in supersprint... not such a bad thing.

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

I don’t like this at all. I partially think athletes should have to finish the individual race to be eligible for the relay…not really, but to not even start seems a slap in the face to the sport.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Having only a handful of young athletes left should be one of the last signs... The first signs were long ago.
Hayden Wilde is the only hope for Trinz to avoid the 2001 scenario - Triathlon got pumped up for 2000 because Hamish Carter was a good chance for the first olympic Tri. The following year funding was slashed and the organisation was basically run out of someone's garage.

Picking an athlete to gain olympic experience is pointless. The average improvement in places from one olympics to the next for tri womens is 2 (20th to 18th as an example). Yes you can point at Gwen but she turns out to be an outlier (gold medallists usually are in more than one way). The 14 women who've medalled are evenly split between succeeding first time out (2000 does skew that a little) and needing experience. So NGBs should put their best squad forward.

In the case of AUS, Jeffcoat is the best chance of making the split on leg 1, but her recent form hasn't been that encouraging.

As for the topic of letting athletes race - the IOC have said they don't want to see athletes sandbagging the individual. So there is some validity in not racing an athlete in individual if their purpose is the MTR and they wouldn't be going full gas for the standard dist. If the talk of having an individual supersprint race comes to fruition it will get even messier as the IOC won't allow any extra athletes.

But when IOC stipulate number of athletes can't be changed so same athletes if purely MTR athletes are favoured for teams it will definately begin to erode the top end of the sport.

They can’t. There is a strict quota of headcount from IOC which is why the start list is 55 athletes and not the 66 as per ITU WTS races

I was meaning for the next olympics, not Tokyo.
By the way, the sport is eroding itself by setting flat courses instead of hilly ones...8 laps in a flat 5k circuit is just boring...why not 2 x 20k loops with any serious climb? Then make 10 laps in the run if you want to show the race to the local people.

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

Could be cool to watch!

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Morten Falk Størling
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The IOC stipulated they would have a relay but would not add to the 55 athletes, so whether Tokyo or Paris it wouldn't happen. There are quite a few races with Hilly courses, sure, not Tokyo but throughout the season there are some. Also the 8 or more lap circuits are for tv viewing not the local ppl.

Tri Canada all but admitting they are one of the federations

https://triathlonmagazine.ca/...olympic-nominations/

Are you telling me that for the TV show it is more fun to watch a flat circuit with 180º turns than a hilly course sort of Arzachena but longer? I would think just the opposite, they keep the bike leg inside the cities for the local spectators...

Regarding the MTR, I would put it days before the individual race, so you avoid DNS DNFs and so on... dangerous? yes, some people might get injured but I dont find a better solution. You could even order to finish the individual race to go on the MTR...but do you think the ones focused in the relay are going to go full gas? plainly no.

So, IMHO the best choice for Paris should be to add extra people for the MTR. It works like that in T & F, so you dont compromise the individual race which is the main thing in the sport, isnt it?

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P