FEATURE

ITU announces Olympic and Paralympic Technical Officials

By International Triathlon Union (ITU)

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) is pleased to confirm the International and National Technical Officials for both the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and Paralympics.

Triathlon will make its fifth appearance at the Olympic Games, which will be held 5-12 August, while Paratriathlon will make its debut at the Paralympics, which will be contested from 7-18 September.

“It is an extremely high honour to be selected as a Technical Official for the Olympics and Paralympics,” ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado said. “It takes an incredible amount of work to reach this level, and I congratulate all of the Technical Officials who will travel to Rio.”

The Technical Officials (TOs) were selected in accordance with ITU’s Technical Officials Appointment Policy, which is a multi-phase process that involves input from ITU staff, National Federations, the ITU Technical Committee and finally the ITU Executive Board.

“ITU implements a transparent selection policy that is designed to ensure a balanced representation of the most qualified Technical Officials will be present at the Olympics and Paralympics. I’d like to thank all of those who were involved in the selection process,” said Casado.  

A total of 37 nations will be represented via the Technical Officials, with Honduras, Jamaica, Korea, Malaysia, Tunisia, Austria, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Uzbekistan officiating at the Olympics or Paralympics for the first time.

Of the 40 Technical Officials at the Olympics, which includes 15 women and 25 men, a total of 19 International and National Technical Officials will have the honour of officiating the Olympic races for the first time, pointing to the success of a long-term plan that was put in place to develop officials around the globe.

Another 42 Technical Officials and Paratriathlon Classifiers, split between 26 men and 16 women, will travel to Brazil to officiate the debut of paratriathlon at the Paralympics. While 15 officials have Olympic experience, 27 will officiate at the Olympics or Paralympics for the first time.

Canada’s Leslie Buchanan and Japan’s Kiriyo Suzuki will serve as the most experienced officials at the Olympics and Paralympics, each having officiated at every Olympics since triathlon’s inception at the Games in 2000. 

For the full list of officials, click here.