Running and swimming are traditional high school and college sports in the US. What would it take to get triathlon in the high schools? Here are a couple of scenarios but you may have other ideas:
Triathlon as a relay event. This way the school’s swimmers and runners interact with each other and find someone (maybe one of themselves) who can ride a bike. Events could vary and include a true sprint event with each distance being roughly 1 min (100m swim, 400m run, 1000m cycling). This might best be done as a stage race type event with times just added for each event. The crowd moves from the pool to the track to a cycling venue. Relays could also be done with transitions of some kind where the swimmer tags the runner who tags the cyclist. Races could also include middle distance (4 min per leg) and long distance (>10-15 min per leg). This approach would not recruit young athletes directly into individual triathlon but it would get swimmers and runners thinking about cycling.
Individual events. You could also have traditional individual triathlon but I think the distances should vary and include a true sprint distance as above, as well as long distance that is short enough such that the winning time is around 30-45 min. I think the different distances are really important as they increase participation by bringing in sprint kids from other sports. Down the line they may all take up the longer events we think of as triathlons. On the other hand the sport might change and include true sprint races. I’ve participated in two races with individual ~1 min stages as I described above and would love to see those on a regular basis.
The key might be to find one school district to start with and have a large bike company donate a few bikes to each school. Bikes could (and probably should) be very similar and uniform (think Little Indy 500).
Comments?
I don’t see tri coming to schools in the near future. The current economic conditions in most states have reduced funding for sports programs. Schools are being forced to stop offing football, baseball, basketball, etc. programs.
But to answer your question; a proactive approach from the USOC and USAT, desire from students, parent involvement.
Another issue with this is the liability of having a bunch of highschoolers riding on the roads in a school sponsored event/practice. That will require some serious insurance…unless all training is on trainers.
Cycling is not even a high school sport. If triathlon ever becomes a college sport, then there might be a shot for high school, but even as a college sport, it is doubtful that triathlon will ever make it.
My high school had(has) triathlon, actually. It’s not a varsity sport, though. It’s an “advanced” phy ed class, the exit exam of which is a race(a pretty sturdy one, too) between the students in the class.
Participants ranged from varsity swimmers, to runners, to dancers, to stoners. It was pretty epic.
Bikes could (and probably should) be very similar and uniform (think Little Indy 500).
Comments?
Cheers,
Jim
i don’t know that you’d need to go Little Indy 500, you coudl have different sizes, but really, if you’re going to have high schoolers racing tris, you’d need to have something like that. otherwise, it’s just consumerism galore.
the more i think about it though, the less i see it happening. i really can’t see any high school principal signing off on an open water swim.
I could see location being a problem… not everyone has water near a suitable bike course. It’s pretty tough to make a (safe) bike course in an urban area.
…and some limitations on bikes would be necessary. I’d even go so far as to recommend fixed/single speed bikes.
My son’s swimming coach is a triathlete and we’ve talked about it. Lots of barriers. For one, at least in Michigan, there isn’t really an appropriate high school season. Spring and Fall seasons both feature snow in much of the US. Much harder to organize something in the summer.
What he has done is organize one week tri camps with the idea of doing an onsite race at the end and then a local race for those interested. Most of the interest was from elementary and middle schools kids, very little interest from the high school students.
I think the best you could hope for would be to start a club and then encourage surrounding schools to start a club. They could train together and race existing races. Maybe once this was active at several schools you start put on specific events. I think it would be a very long path to a varsity sport.
So maybe I didn’t lay out my thoughts very well. Easiest way to do a HS tri would be pool swim (okay, limited to highschools with pools), run at the track (most high schools have tracks), and ride multiple laps in a large hs parking lot. No open water concerns, and no traffic, no permits.
Would that be more feasible? Weather permitting at least.
The New Zealand “model” might be a good one to check out (I say that not knowing if there is in fact a “model”, but something’s working). Triathlon & road cycling are hugely popular high school sports here. With some strong direction and the the right buy-in it can be done.
We have some scary, scary talent coming through…the first tri I ever participated in (2006) was an Oly won by a 15yr old in 1:55 (draft legal)…he’s not a unique case, there are probably a dozen high schoolers who could comfortably go sub 2:00 in that format, even more of the little bastards going well under 1:00 for the sprint distance. Our 2010 Elite long distance national champ is an 18yr old one year out of school (3:5x HIM). I’m betting most of them have more tri experience than the average STer (myself included). Terenzo Bozzone is a good poster boy for the system…young guy in his mid-20s with a decade’s experience and a bunch of world titles (5 at last count). Scary.
I think cycling is just too expensive for most schools to incoroporate it even with a bunch of cheap bikes, but I don’t see why aquathlon couldn’t be integrated someway. That would be really cool!
Since cycling has made zero inroads as a high school competitive sport, unfortunately, I think there is little chance of triathlon doing so in the near future. But there is another way to get a foot in the door: start with high school aquathlon. In addition to likely making administrators a lot more comfortable with their liability concerns, it also prevents the cycling event from turning into an event that favors athletes with the richest parents. And possibly an interesting way to make it exciting to watch if the logistics of a ‘mass start’ pool swim are a problem: say the event is a 1000m swim and 3000m run. Run a time trial 1000m swim event at the pool and get times (to the nearest second) for all the finishers. Then, start a 5k on the track or at a local X-C course and have the HS racers all start in the order that they finished their swim in, giving each of the swimmers an exact handicap based on their swim time. The first athlete to cross the run finish is the overall winner.
Governance issues: National Federation of High Schools & state high school association(s)
Costs: Yet another coach to be hired, increased participation fees (only the wealthy can participate then?)
Access: How many schools have swimming pools (& remember there are 50 states + DC).
Pissing contests with club swim teams - “you’re taking OUR kids away from us.”
LIABILITY: school sponsored activity with teen agers on bicycles
Sponsorship: Why would any bike company donate? What’s its ROI? Some districts embrace corporate involvement while others prohibit it.
A more likely approach would be for a local/area event to create a high school division and have “teams” created representing high schools in the area. Use simple XC scoring. Make the trophies big so that the schools would put 'em in their trophy case. An enlightened HS AD might allow the sport to exist as a club activity. There was one HS in Florida that even granted varsity letters to kids who competed for the club tri team.
It’s on the way. A number of CA high schools now have mountain bike teams. The big CA college teams encourage high schoolers to train with them, and of course local tri and cycling clubs encourage teens to join rides. In a few years, hs tris will be like competitive music programs, or the bike clubs. Most schools won’t field club teams, but a few will.
The bikes can be altered pretty significantly. The rules can be found on the IUSF (IU Student Foundation) website. Teams can drop about 6 pounds from the stock weight if they spend enough coin on it. The stock wheels and cranks are pretty crappy. I had one for a while but sold it last summer…Gonna try to buy another one before I leave Bloomington
As far as Tri as a high school sport…NO WAY it will ever happen. With the amount of budget cuts, parents and kids would be on the hook for 95% of the costs. Think about how much it costs for a race…shutting down roads, paying people to work, etc. Too much…
While I agree there are probably too many issues to make this a viable reality, I think it’s funny that so many liability issues come down to cycling. All the elementary school kids are on their bikes, ride to school, yet once in high school it’s a huge issues? These kids are driving cars, you’d think we could trust them on a bike!
The New Zealand “model” might be a good one to check out (I say that not knowing if there is in fact a “model”, but something’s working). Triathlon & road cycling are hugely popular high school sports here. With some strong direction and the the right buy-in it can be done.
We have some scary, scary talent coming through…the first tri I ever participated in (2006) was an Oly won by a 15yr old in 1:55 (draft legal)…he’s not a unique case, there are probably a dozen high schoolers who could comfortably go sub 2:00 in that format, even more of the little bastards going well under 1:00 for the sprint distance. Our 2010 Elite long distance national champ is an 18yr old one year out of school (3:5x HIM). I’m betting most of them have more tri experience than the average STer (myself included). Terenzo Bozzone is a good poster boy for the system…young guy in his mid-20s with a decade’s experience and a bunch of world titles (5 at last count). Scary.
Not to mention the benefit from all those steak n cheese pies. And being generally tough buggers instead of being raised as coddled little rays of sunshine.
The only way to do it is to encourage them to join swim team and XC/track. cycling on open roads is generally a no no, but that is something they can do on their own.
You will not be able to run a race for the high schools because of liability. The best way is to have your kids do an allready established race. There parents and the race organizers then take the liability.
Buy bikes for your city or school. Or have parents buy their kids’ bikes. Another option is getting a corporate sponsor. When you travel to a race, have the kids borrow bikes from the opposing team.
Let’s say Bishop Ireton in Alexandria has 15 members and Cardinal O’Connor in Ft. Lauderdale has 20. Only 10 kids can compete from each school. Cardinal O’Connor has to loan BI 10 bikes. The rest of the kids from BI volunteer or do not travel. Or the remaining kids can compete in team/relay triathlons.
You are not always going to have enough bikes for everyone. You are not always going to have everybody’s size. Not everybody is going to race, but it allows a chance for kids to compete out of town without the hassle or expense of transporting bikes.
Collegiate Horseback riding teams (Equestrian) compete this way. Horses are a* little* more expensive than tri bikes.
I’ve contacted Steve Kelley of USAT regarding youth triathlons but we’ve never seemed to connect.
No Indy in the name.