Checkmate Triathlon Team is devoted to changing the way professional triathlon is performed. When Triathlon became an Olympic Sport, it was designed to please fans, and allow for athletes to work as teams. Olympic Triathlon is no more individual than professional cycling, yet the athletes involved continue to race alone.

History:  The popularity of the triathlon has soared around the world over the last forty years, and was included in the Olympic Games for the first time in 2000.  Since the Olympics the triathlon has grown in popularity faster than any other time since its inception in the late 1970’s.  Currently there are over125,000 annual members of the USA Triathlon Federation (USAT).  There are  USAT events each year.  Over 300,000 one-day licenses are sold each year to athletes who want to race in one USAT-sanctioned triathlon.

Triathlon began as an individual sport, and as such the cycling portion of the race included strict rules to limit the ability of athletes to the slipstream of other cyclists (drafting) for an advantage. This ensured that each athlete faced the same athletic challenge in completed the race, but also required the sport to use large courses where it was impossible for spectators to watch live.

This changed when Triathlon became an Olympic sport in 2000. One stipulation for the triathlon’s inclusion in the Olympics was that it had to adopt a more spectator and TV-friendly format.  To do this, the International Triathlon Union created multi-loop bike courses, and sanctioned drafting in 1996 for the cycling portion of the race in the elite category.  With drafting legal, tactical racing was introduced, and the intelligent athlete gained an advantage. The cycling leg of Olympic Triathlon is now more like a true bike race, where riders can work together in packs.  In cycling, teammates work together for the benefit of one or two designated riders to secure the victory for the team.  A good example of this is the Astana cycling team that worked for Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador in the Tour de France.  Using “team tactics,” the team protected Armstrong and made his victory possible.  The same strategy, using team tactics, can be used in draft-legal triathlons to increase the odds of victory for the team.

The rules of Triathlon have changed to allow intelligence and teamwork to separate the elites of the sport. The best athlete will win, but that athlete needs the smartest team behind them.

[a big thanks to Team Kinysis for their help in providing information]

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