Oceania Triathlon Union
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| Sport | Triathlon |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | ITU |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Location | Lausanne, Switzerland |
| President | Marisol Casado |
| Chief Exec | Antonio Arimany |
| Official website | |
| www |
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The International Triathlon Union (ITU) is the international governing body for the multi-sport disciplines of triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and other nonstandard variations. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, it sanctions the ITU World Triathlon Series and the ITU Triathlon World Cup.
The ITU sanctions the official world championship series races for the sport of triathlon. The ITU was formed in 1989 at its first congress in Avignon, France. It was formed in part to give the growing sport of triathlon an official organizing body and to advocate for Triathlon's inclusion in the Olympic Games. On September 4, 1994, at the 103rd IOC session in Paris, France - under the leadership of Les McDonald, the ITU's first president - Triathlon was added to the Olympic program as a fully vested medal event. Triathlon made its Olympic debut at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
The primary ITU race series is the short-course or standard distance World Triathlon Series and Triathlon World Cup. The distances for the ITU world cup races are 1500 m swim, 40 km bike, and 10 km run. They were chosen from existing swim, bike, and run distances already in the Olympic Games. This distance of triathlon has become one of the primary standards in the world of triathlon.
More recently, the ITU created a long distance race circuit with official world championships. Long Distance Triathlon races are closer in length to Ironman Triathlon races owned and organized by the World Triathlon Corporation.
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