World Triathlon

Olympic history in triathlon

Triathlon has been an Olympic sport since its debut at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The International Triathlon Union (ITU) was founded in 1989 and five years later, on 4 September 1994, triathlon’s Olympic status was approved by the 103rd International Olympic Committee Session, in Paris. The variant contested at the Olympics (called Olympic distance) is composed of a 1.5km swim, followed by a 40km bike portion and a final 10km run leg. Since 2000, the Olympic triathlon competition consists of a men’s and a women’s event.

ITU’s Triathlon Mixed Relay format has brought racing at its most thrilling, where the individual sport combines with pure team spirit. Athletes must complete a super-sprint triathlon - 300m swim, 6.6km bike and 1km run - before tagging off to a teammate, always in the order female-male-female-male. Among the most exciting aspects of these races for spectators is the athletes’ dramatic sprint and dive after being tagged by their teammate, as well as the intensity and speed from start to finish, the tight back-and-forth lead changes and team pride that this innovative racing format elicits.

The very first ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships was held in Des Moines, Iowa, USA in 2009 when the Swiss Team claimed the World Crown. In 2013, the World Championships were hosted in the German city of Hamburg for the first time, where it has taken place annually ever since.

The entertaining format was soon embraced around the world and was included in major Games programmes such as the Youth Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games before, in 2017, it was announced that Triathlon Mixed Relay will make its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Games

Gold

Silver

Bronze

2020 Tokyo

Great Britain

United States

France