How does a smaller country marshal its resources ahead of an Olympic Games?
Belgium makes for an interesting case study in this regard given its relatively small population and core of talent in triathlon. Most notably, the Belgian Federation will be able to call upon WTCS medallists Marten Van Riel and Jelle Geens and will be hoping to sneak a medal in the Mixed Team Relay.
As depth is not a luxury the Belgian team have, particularly when compared with countries like America and Australia, any selection policy has to extract as much as possible from the talent available.
How will the athletes qualify?
The Belgian selection policy has a series of stages at which athletes can be selected. The highest ranked selectable athletes are nominated in the following order of priority until all qualifying places have been filled.
First priority goes to any athlete who has personally earned a qualifying place for the Games. That athlete has to have also achieved at least two of the following performances, with at least one performance achieved during the Second Period of the World Triathlon qualification window (27/05/2023- 27/05/2024).
An athlete must either finish in the top-12 of a WTCS Final in 2022 or 2023, finish in the top-8 of a WTCS event (Sprint or Olympic distance) in the qualification window, or finish in the top-3 at an Olympic distance European Championship in 2022 or 2023.
If slots remain after this stage, the policy moves on to the second priority. This covers the selectable athletes who have not personally obtained a Qualifying Place, but has achieved at least two of the above performance standards with at least one of the following performances during the second the Second Period.
If Belgium qualifies a Mixed Team Relay to Paris, the athletes that have achieved the performances under the first or second priority will be selected to form part of the relay.
For the remaining relay places, the Belgian team will be filled using selectorial discretion.
It should be noted that Belgium are currently on the bubble of qualifying a relay. As it will be touch and go if they can qualify a relay, there is a chance that their team will be selected using only the individual process. This would eliminate the discretionary element of filling the relay slots.
If Belgium does not qualify for Paris in the Mixed Team Relay, any unallocated qualifying slots not allocated according to the first or second priority will then be allocated to athletes according to the following priority.
First choice will go to an athlete who has athlete who has personally obtained a qualifying slot for the Olympics and recorded on finish in the top-12 of WTCS Final or a top-8 at a WTCS race or a top-3 at the European Championships (Olympic distance) during the World Triathlon selection period. Whereas athletes selected in the first priority have to achieve two of such finishes, here an athlete only needs one.
If no one hits this criteria, then any athlete who has not personally secured a qualifying slot for Paris but has achieved at least one of the above criteria (a top-12 at a WTCS Final, a top-8 at a WTCS race or a top-3 at the European Championships) during the World Triathlon selection period will be chosen.
If there are still places remaining, the slot will go to any athlete with a top-16 at a WTCS Final or top-5 at a European Championships in the qualifying period.
Finally, any last slots will be filled using the highest individual World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Ranking as of 27/05/2024.
Who does the policy favour
On the women’s side, Valerie Barthelemy is currently 28th in the individual Olympic rankings. Meanwhile, Claire Michel moved up to 46th after WTCS Abu Dhabi and Jolien Vermeylen is 48th.
As things stand today, Barthelemy and Michel are in line to earn a qualifying slot for Belgium individually. If they can therefore achieve a WTCS Final top-12, a WTCS top-8 or a European Championships medal, they can be confident of being selected. Both athletes are capable of stepping up to make that happen.
However, if Vermeylen has a good year and overtakes either Barthelemy or Michel, she could put herself in position to qualify for Paris.
At this point, then, the policy does not really help any one female athlete and each of the three contenders has a good shot.
The men’s side is a little different.
Jelle Geens is halfway qualified. He is very likely to earn a qualifying place by himself (barring catastrophe) as he is currently 3rd in the Olympic rankings. Moreover, he has a 3rd place from the 2022 WTCS Final. If he can achieve a WTCS top-8 in the Second Period, he will go to Paris. Given he had five top-8 WTCS finishes prior to the Final in the 2022 season, he can confident of securing another one.
The second men’s slot is still up for grabs between Noah Servais (ranked 57th) and Marten Van Riel (ranked 66th). As a WTCS medallist, Van Riel has the upper hand in achieving the requisite WTCS Final top-12, WTCS top-8 or European Championships top-3, although Servais could surprise him.
Way too early team predictions
Jelle Geens will qualify for Belgium. That is a fairly safe bet at this point. The second men’s slot will go to either Servais or Van Riel. If Van Riel has fully shaken off his injury and returns to top form, he will likely hit the criteria.
As the younger athlete by five years, Servais has a lot of potential and could make some big steps forward to earn the slot himself. Right now, though, Van Riel has the history to nudge himself ahead as the likelier pick.
Then there are the women. If any of Barthelemy, Vermeylen or Michel secure the requisite race finishes, they will earn their qualification. As such, their destinies are in their own hands.
Rather cruelly, Barthelemy finished 13th at the 2022 WTCS Final so that will not help her. Nevertheless, she has shown she can get close to the top-12 she will need at this year’s Final.
Vermeylen has a best WTCS finish of 33rd, which came in the Final in Abu Dhabi in November. However, she is fairly new to the sport and a silver medal at the Bergen World Cup last August highlighted her potential. She can get the top-8 finishes she needs at WTCS races but she will be racing against time.
Finally there is Michel. She achieved WTCS finishes of 4th and 6th in 2019 (in Edmonton and Montreal) so she definitely can hit the criteria. In 2019, she also won a bronze medal at the European Championships which would satisfy the criteria. Like Vermeylen, though, she will be in a race against time to recapture that brilliant form following injuries.
If we had to choose the team now, we think Barthelemy and Michel will join Geens and Van Riel in Paris simply because they have the experience of getting the finishes they need.
View the selection policy here.
