The ITU Edmonton 2014 Grand Final organising committee, in collaboration with ITU, recently awarded an eight-week coaching mentorship to a female coach from a developing National Federation, with the first scholarship having gone to Paraguay’s Carolina Rodriguez.

The scholarship was created to encourage emerging female coaches to continue their pursuit of coaching careers, an area that has traditionally lacked female representation across sport. While the committee considered a number of standout candidates, Roriguez was chosen for her ability to strongly impact the sport of triathlon in her native country.

“This is a phenomenal example of women empowering women in sports, and of the triathlon community coming together to grow our sport across the world in a spirit of cooperation and teamwork,” said ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado. “We need to continue to offer female coaches, athletes, administrators and officials the opportunity to succeed. I am very thankful to the Edmonton LOC for fostering this concept and proud of the ITU Women’s Committee for supporting this opportunity.” 

Over the course of two months, Rodriguez lived in Edmonton to work with renowned triathlon coach Kevin Clark of the Edmonton Triathlon Academy to gain valuable insight on training elite triathletes. The scholarship was made possible by a fundraising event held during the Edmonton 2014 Grand Final Breakfast, which was hosted by the ITU Women’s Committee, and raised in excess of $10,000.

“I learned lot and there is still so much more to learn. I learned to plan workouts, as it is completely different to other sports, as well as more about high performance, technical operations and the specialization of the three disciplines. I think this time spent in Canada will mark my life in a very positive way. This new knowledge will help me reach my goals, which are to continue training athletes, attract more athletes to compete in this beautiful sport - especially women - and to share these lessons with other trainers in my country,” said Rodriguez.

Antonio Alarco, President of the Americas Triathlon Confederation (CAMTRI) said the following:
“There is no limit to what women can achieve when given the chance to fulfill their dreams. This project should be copied in different countries and confederations with one objective: gender equity.”