How do athletes qualify individually?
The Olympic Qualification period runs over the course of 24 months, from 27 May 2022 to 27 May 2024. This period is split into two parts; the First Part runs from 27 May 2022 to 26 May 2023 and the Second Part runs from 27 May 2023 to 27 May 2024.
Athletes can use their twelve best results in total towards Olympic qualification. In the First Part, a maximum of six results count. In the Second Part a maximum of eight results count. The twelve results quota can therefore be reached in several ways. An athlete can use four results from the First Part and eight from the Second Part, or five results plus seven results, or six results from both Parts.
Athletes can achieve their results at a number of events. The obvious starting point is the WTCS and the WTCS Final. As the pinnacle of the triathlon calendar, the WTCS events represent the best opportunities for athletes to secure their Paris qualification.
The next set of qualifying events are the World Cup races and the Paris Olympic Test Event.
The last tier contains Continental Championships events and Continental Games events.
For Continental Championships, a maximum of two results can count in the whole qualification period. If there are three races during qualification period, the first two will count.
Both scoring Continental Championships may happen in the same Part, but they may also take place with one in each Part.
Only athletes from the respective continent of the Continental Triathlon Championships will earn points; for example, a European athlete cannot earn points at the African Championships and vice versa.
Only the Standard distance Continental Triathlon Championships events will be considered for points.
For the Continental Games, such as the European Games, only one will count per athlete in the whole Olympic Qualification period; any Continental Games may happen in the First Part or in the Second Part.
What are races worth?
The winning athlete at each event will earn thet following points:
- 1250 for the World Triathlon Championship Finals;
- 1000 for the World Triathlon Championship Series;
- 1000 for the World Triathlon Olympic Test Event;
- 500 for the World Triathlon Cup;
- 400 for the Continental Triathlon Championships and for the Continental Games.
In the case of Sprint distance events, the race will be worth 75% of the points of an Olympic distance race in the same category. By that logic, a Sprint WTCS race should only reward the winner with 750 points and the winner of a Sprint World Cup race with 375 points.
In the case of a semi-final/final or eliminator format, the winner will earn 87.5% of the points that would be awarded to the winner of an Olympic distance event.
For the Continental Games, the points will be awarded as a sprint event regardless of the distance of the actual race.
As with the normal WTCS scoring, the points awarded decrease by 7.5% per position and to earn any points an athlete must finish within the 8% cut-off of the race winner’s time.
One final point to note is that any athlete competing under the World Triathlon flag will be considered in the continent of the National Federation they are moving to.
How do Mixed Relay teams qualify
The Mixed Relay Qualification period is identical to the individual period, 27 May 2022 to 27 May 2024, and is split into two Parts.
The difference is that National Federations can use a total of five results towards Olympic qualification.
In the First Part, three races at most can count and in the Second Part the same maximum of three races applies. The five total results therefore have to be made with two results from one Part and three from the other.
The Qualification events are the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships, the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series, the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Olympic Test Event and the Continental Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships.
For the Continental Championships, the same rules that apply to the individual apply to the Mixed Relay. A maximum of two events count in the whole qualification period and National Federations may only score at the Championships of their own continent.
With regards to scoring, the maximum points a team can earn at the races are as follows:
- 1000 for the World Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships;
- 800 for the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series;
- 800 for the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Olympic Test Event;
- 500 for the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Continental Championships.
Points decrease by 7.5% per position and the cut-off is set at 10% of the race winner’s time.
The Order of Qualification
It is important to note that the Olympic slots are allocated in a specific order, with the Mixed Team Relay slots coming before the individual slots.
There are eleven relay slots available, qualifying twenty-two women and twenty-two men. As the host country, France automatically earn a relay slot with two men and two women.
The best finisher (that has not already qualified) at the 2022 World Mixed Team Relay Championships earns the next relay slot and the best finisher (that has not already qualified) at the 2023 World Mixed Team Relay Championships earns the third relay slot.
The next six best ranked countries (that have not already qualified and excluding France) in the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Olympic Rankings will be allocated relay slots.
After that, there will be a qualification event in 2024 to select the final two relays.
With eleven relays qualified, twenty-two of the fifty-five individual slots per gender are taken. Two further slots are taken up by Olympic Universality places.
Twenty-six slots are assigned according to the individual Olympic qualification rankings. Note that each country is capped at three slots per gender. As a result, in some cases an athlete may be in the top-20 of the rankings but may also be the fourth ranked athlete in their country. In such cases, the slot rolls down to the next eligible athlete.
A final five slots are given to “New Flag” countries. These countries are ones that have not already qualified for the triathlon at the Olympic Games. One slot is available to each of the five regions under World Triathlon (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania).
In instances where a country qualifies two men and two women, but not a relay, they will also be eligible to start in the Mixed Team Relay at the Olympics.
Simulate the current qualifiers
World Triathlon have introduced simulations that can be downloaded from their website (the simulations can be found in the left panel). These simulations indicate who, at any given point, would be in line to qualify for the Games at any given date.
However, and this is a big however, the crucial factor of final selection resides with National Olympic Committees.
As such, each National Federation will have its own selection criteria for athletes to achieve in order to make it to the Olympics. In some cases, even being in the top-30 in the world is not sufficient to guarantee qualification in cases where countries have significant national depth.
At the Tokyo Olympics, athletes such as Taylor Spivey, Sophie Coldwell and several others were not selected for the Games despite being in the world top-30 as their countries had alternatives to choose from. Likewise, an athlete could earn an Olympic spot for their National Federation only for the Federation to select someone else at the Games.
There is therefore no certainty that meeting the criteria set by World Triathlon will be enough for some athletes to qualify, especially for those athletes that belong to countries with considerable depth.
As with all things in life, athletes looking to go to the Olympics will need a slice of fortune to go with their commitment and sacrifices to help them on their way.
