Il sogno del Triathlon di avere anche la medaglia a squadre con la formula Mix Relay ai Giochi olimpici di Rio 2016, si ‘sospende’, ma non è detto che non ci sia una nuova futura possibilità per l’Olimpiade del 2020.
Questo in sintesi la notizia più importante che ci comunica la federazione mondiale ITU ed il suo presidente, nonché membro CIO, Marisol Casado, in una lettera ufficiale inviata sabato scorso a tutte le federazioni:
“ Abbiamo lavorato a lungo e molto bene, ci siamo fatti conoscere ed apprezzare nel nostro potenziale, il CIO ha approfondito la proposta avanzata per il sostegno di un’ulteriore medaglia da riconoscere nelle gare di triathlon con la gara a squadre Mix Relay, ma purtroppo la decisione presa è stata di non cambiare nulla per i prossimi Giochi Olimpici. Sono certa che c’è margine di lavorare per il futuro – è quanto ci fa sapere la presidente Casado – E’ altrettanto importante evidenziare il riconoscimento e l’apprezzamento che sono stati rivolti al triathlon dal CIO che, non nel contesto dell’analisi di quei possibili sport da escludere dai programmi olimpici, come pentathlon moderno, Hockey prato, Canoa, Taekwondo, Pentathlon moderno e Lotta - il triathlon è rimasto una certezza all’interno dell’interesse olimpico” – sottolinea quest’ultimo aspetto la spagnola Marisol Casado, che assicura proseguirà nel percorso di sensibilizzazione per il futuro inserimento della Mix Relay per l’edizione dei Giochi 2020”.
Di seguito la lettera alle Federazioni della Presidente Marisol Casado:
Dear National Federation Colleagues,
During the last months we have being working with the IOC on various strategies to maintain and expand Triathlon within the Olympic Games.
The first decision by the IOC Executive Board was about the Core Sports for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, which was taken on the 12th of February of 2013. During the months leading up to this decision we established a strategy to lobby all the IOC Executive Board Members, and I, as the ITU President, met with many of them personally at various events.
In addition we prepared a comprehensive dossier, created by the staff, highlighting the importance of triathlon and the key information and metrics of our sport. Thanks to this work, the list of sports recommended to be dropped from the Olympic programme did not include Triathlon. The sports that were voted on were: Field Hockey, Canoeing, Taekwondo, Modern Pentathlon, and Wrestling. As you know, Wrestling was the sport to be proposed for elimination to the IOC Session in September of this year.
This was a very important outcome for us - maintaining our existing position on the Programme, because as you can see some of those sports involved in the vote are really strong sports.
Following this decision on Core Sports, we worked diligently to justify why triathlon should remain within the same group of sports for the distribution of the television revenue from the Río 2016 Olympic Games of. Again, as an ASOIF Executive Board Member, I was highly involved in these discussions with the IOC. The IOC Executive Board decision in St. Petersburg announced five different groups with triathlon maintaining the same position in the 4th group, while other sports, such as Field Hockey, Handball and Modern Pentathlon, were downgraded from their previous categories. This is a great achievement considering the limited TV (4 hours) that Triathlon has at the Olympic Games compared to the other sports in our group.
The third Olympic Programme issue we have been working on is the inclusion of the Mixed Relay on the Olympic Programme for Rio. I worked very closely with ITU staff and all of you to put together a comprehensive bid strategy. This campaign began two years ago when we included the Mixed Relay World Championships in Lausanne with the World Triathlon Series and presented our proposal to the IOC.
Since then we have created very professional videos, bid brochures, and numerous personal letters to promote this new medal event for triathlon. Again, I, as ITU President, met regularly with many IOC Members including the IOC President and the IOC Sport Director.
The feedback from the IOC Sport Department was that Triathlon had the most complete and detailed bids.
As a part of our lobby we invited all IOC Executive Board Members and IOC Program Commission Members to the 2013 Mixed Relay World Championships in Hamburg. Our campaign also included securing some very strong supporting letters from global TV broadcasters to support the bid. As well, just a few weeks ago the IOC Sport Department sent an observer to the European Mixed Relay Championships in Alanya.
All of the feedback from the IOC has been excellent and we believed we were in a very good position for the final decision.
Unfortunately, we received a letter from the IOC informing us that there will be no increases in the number of medals or athletes for Río 2016 Olympic Games. The increase in the latter did not concern us since our proposal, following IOC recommendations, did not include any increase in the number of athletes. Of course we were bitterly disappointed, as I'm sure other sports, such as FIBA with their 3x3 Basketball campaign, are too.
ITU will continue our campaign for having more medals in the Olympic Programme.
It is very interesting for us that the IOC just announced that they will be reviewing all the disciplines on the programme for 2020, so we will continue to work hard for Mixed Relay's inclusion.
I also know that I speak for all of you when I say that because of our resilient culture inside ITU we will pause only briefly to lament this decision, but will recover to continue down the path together for an addition medal category.
Kind regards,
Marisol
'foto R.Giardina - The Shot'