In honour of the United Nation’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, ITU celebrates its incredible paratriathletes by highlighting their achievements and the sport’s great growth this year.

The 2012 ITU paratriathlon season was one of the most successful to date, which was highlighted with a record 109 paratriathletes at the 2012 World Championships. The number is nearly threefold that of the 2008 World Championships just four years ago.

After the 25th ITU Congress in Auckland, Claire Cunningham (GBR) and Oswald Kydd (RSA) became the first paratriathletes to be elected to the ITU Athlete Committee.

In October, Yannick Bourseaux (FRA) and Melissa Stockwell (USA) were shortlisted to be the International Paralympic Committee Athlete of the Month for their accomplishments at World Championships. Bourseaux won the accolade, while Stockwell was named the United States Olympic Committee Female Athlete of the Month.

Earlier in the year, paratriathlon champions were crowned for the first time at the inaugural stand-alone PATCO continental championships for the Americas. That same week, Ireland held its first ever Paratriathlon National Championships, marking a landmark step in the country’s paratriathlon growth.

Paratriathlon also received a big boost in Australia this year when Triathlon Australia and the Australia Paralympic Committee held a seminar to support paratriathlon programmes ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games.

ITU would like to congratulate all the paratriathletes for their accomplishments, as well as all National Federations working to grow the sport of paratriathlon. To find out more about paratriathlon, please click here.