Oceania Triathlon joins World Triathlon Mentoring Program

World Triathlon Development, together with the Women’s Committee, recently launched the now virtual World Triathlon Mentor Program, with the goal to increase and sustain the number of women and people with disability in leadership roles in coaching, technical officiating and governance in the sport.

A material change is that the virtual delivery of the course allows participants from all five Continental Confederations in a single course.

“There is great value in both mentors and mentees being able to access the depth of talent across the globe in a program such as this” said Continental Mentor Lead Ms Michelle Cooper.

“Our mentors are able to network and learn from others around the world and the conversations in this group have shown the need for a program such as this to connect our passionate contributors to triathlon” she said.

The Oceania region has 10 mentors and mentees in the first block of the program from Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti and Australia with the feedback to date very positive.

“Our hope is there are more of our Oceania Federations who recognise the value in a mentoring relationship and will encourage people from their federation, clubs or community to participate. Ideally we’d like to see every Oceania Federation represented in this program” said Ms Cooper.

With a goal to identify the talent that is in various national federation networks and help them to participate more in the sport as coaches, technical officials and administrators from the grassroots to the top level, the program is delivered in two blocks with the first in August 2020 and the next to begin in January 2021. Each block is made up of three courses starting four weeks apart – each six weeks in duration. Each course comprises of pre-course work, weekly e-learning, weekly exercises and weekly webinars. Two or three Mentees are assigned to each Mentor at the end of each course.

The program has inclusivity targets with regards to gender, developing countries, triathlon disciplines and disability. These are:

Inclusivity Criteria                                              Mentor Target                   Mentee Target
Discipline (Coach, TO, Governance)                   Minimum 25% each           Minimum 25% each
Gender Balance                                                  Minimum 33% Female     Minimum 66% Female
Developing Countries (NF Group 1, 2, 3)            Minimum 33%                   Minimum 66%
Disability (or working with Para Athletes)            Minimum10%                    Minimum 10%

Oceania Triathlon is currently seeking candidates for the next intake to commence in January 2021. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply using the forms linked below or to contact the Continental Mentoring Lead Ms Michelle Cooper on admin@otu.triathlon.org

Mentors’ On-line Application form (English): Mentor Application Form
Mentees’ On-line Application form (English):  Mentee Application Form