Why Is It Important To Bid Triathlons?

Triathlons incorporate swimming, cycling, and running into one race but “of the U.S. Olympic triathletes, all but one have come from a Division I swimming or running background,” according to USA Triathlon’s website (“Collegiate Recruitment Program”). This means the strongest swimmers and runners are the ones that are able to make it to the Olympics. But you have to do more work on the bike in races outside of the Olympics and so the cycling portion is more important to winning these races. Olympic races use drafting on the bike and other races are non-drafting races. These two styles of racing are almost the opposite in the sports they prioritize for winning since swimming and running are critical for Olympic races, but cycling is the

In contrast to the importance of swimming and running in draft-legal races, cycling seems to be the key sport in all non-drafting races since it is “over 50%” in each of them (Dao). In addition to the cycling taking up the largest percentage of the race time, the effort put forth in the cycling portion is much more in non-drafting than draft legal races because the athletes cannot use the other athletes to cut wind resistance. The other two sports have varying levels of importance in each of the different lengths of non-drafting races (Cordioli). Swim is the least important in longer races and is more important in shorter races (Cordioli). But cycling remains the majority of the race in all of the different non-drafting distances. You must be strong in all three sports to excel at any type of triathlon, but the athletes with the strongest cycling could be the deciding factor between top athletes in non-drafting

You might even find yourself watching the race with great interest as you understand the key events to determining the winner of the race. An interesting aspect of this sport is understanding the relative importance of its different parts on overall success. Knowing the importance of swimming and running on draft-legal race performance and biking on non draft-legal can lead to a better appreciation of both styles of racing.

Research Question

Which discipline is the most important factor to winning in a triathlon? Hook or Interesting fact

Triathlons incorporate swimming, cycling, and running into one race but “of the U.S. Olympic triathletes, all but one have come from a Division I swimming or running background,” according to USA Triathlon’s website (“Collegiate Recruitment Program”). Does this mean cycling isn’t as important to triathlons? And if you want to be on the podium at the finish line, which sport should you focus on? Literature Review/Notes A. What is a