The road to the Olympic Games is rarely straightforward, requiring great effort and great sacrifice. In order to support its athletes, World Triathlon has approved a support fund of $100,000USD to provide financial assistance to those athletes from National Federations with the greatest needs in order to help them compete at Continental and World level over the Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Period.
A total of 23 athletes and para athletes from 11 different countries (Azerbaijan, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine) will receive $3,000USD each to help them cover the expenses of travel to the qualifying events. The remaining $31,000USD of the overall fund will be allocated at the end of June and distributed among the same 23 athletes, but considering the number and length of journeys that the athletes made over the period.
“As an organization, we are committed to supporting our athletes in every possible way. The pandemic has had a massive impact not only on their access to training and competitions, but also to travel and resources. Establishing these types of funds will be a big help to some of them on their road to Tokyo. It is our duty to provide opportunities to race and compete, but it is also our duty to work closely with National Federations and the National Olympic and Paralympic Committees to identify the specific needs of athletes and try to help and continue supporting them throughout their road to the Olympics or Paralympics”, said World Triathlon President and IOC member, Marisol Casado. “I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Coaches Committee for the initiative and my fellow Executive Board members for their unanimous support of this program”, she added.
World Triathlon received 28 applications for the funds from 14 different nationalities, most of them from athletes currently competing at the maximum level to try to qualify for either the Olympic or the Paralympic Games in Tokyo this summer. In order to receive the funds, athletes needed to be registered and in good standing with their National Federations and have shown the ability to race at a high standard in Continental and World Triathlon level competitions.
A selection panel, drawn from the Executive Board, carefully reviewed all the applications. This is the list of successful candidates:
AZERBAIJAN Kseniia Levkovska
AZERBAIJAN Rostyslav Pevtsov
BRAZIL Ronan Nunes Cordeiro
BRAZIL Jessica Moreira Ferreira
BRAZIL Jorge Camargo Fonseca
BRAZIL Carlos Fonseca Viana
CHILE Diego Moya
CHILE Gaspar Riveros
CHILE Bárbara Riveros
COLOMBIA Naiver Ome
COLOMBIA Carlos Javier Quinchara Forero
COLOMBIA Lina Maria Raga Prieto
ECUADOR Elizabeth Bravo
MOROCCO Mehdi Essadiq
MOROCCO Badr Siwane
PHILIPPINES Marion Kim Mangrobang
SOUTH AFRICA Simone Ackermann
SOUTH AFRICA David Kenneth Jones
SOUTH AFRICA Gillian Caroline Sanders
TUNISIA Ons Lajili
TUNISIA Fethi Zouinkhi
TURKEY Uğurcan Özer
UKRAINE Yuliya Yelistratova