Antonio Fernández Arimany became the new president of World Triathlon just a few days ago, after sweeping a vote in which he received the support of 64% of the assembly members. He succeeds Marisol Casado, so a Spaniard will continue to lead an International Federation.
Ask. Was the support received greater than expected?
Answer. It was a satisfaction to have the support of so many countries. We have worked a lot, but that difference is also surprising.
Q. World Triathlon has had three presidents since it was born in 1989 and two have been Spanish. How has this been possible?
R. One of the challenges I had was to succeed Marisol Casado, being also Spanish, another Latino, but it was shown that, thanks to the work we had done with Marisol, the world was in the trend of wanting to consolidate this project and continue working on the same line. This may seem easy, but it has cost us a lot and many countries have encouraged me to face this challenge. But without a doubt, it is an exception, not only that there are two Spaniards who have continuity in office in an International Federation, but of any nationality.
Q. What legacy has Marisol Casado left you?
R. I inherit a federation that has solvency and economic stability and that has a very important development of the sport of triathlon at a general level. It is a federation that had a budget of 2 million euros and now 12. Thanks to this legacy we can continue to grow.
P. Were you passionate about triathlon when you joined this federation?
R. I had done some triathlons, but not professionally. I also got to know a lot about Les McDonald, the previous president of World Triathlon, with whom I had collaborated doing some things before Marisol’s time. It was not a surprise to enter triathlon because I had an important affinity with Les from the time of Athens 2004.
Q. What message do you send to the Anglo-Saxon world, so important in this sport, which now sees another Spaniard occupying the position?
R. I had the support of many countries in the Anglo-Saxon world and it was because of the project that I presented. I have presented a project that is not merely continuous. We have to face many changes because the world is different and we must transform this federation into a different federation than it has been until now. Thanks to the stability we have now, we will be able to face these changes. I explained this project, but that it is not only the project of my team, but that of a team from different countries that we want to implement this change. […] There are many Anglo-Saxon countries that have supported us, but I am going to be the president of all of them, not just the president of those who voted for me, who have been the majority, but there has been a group that did not. We have to continue developing triathlon and holding competitions in all places where possible.
Q. Tell us about the pillars of your program.
R. What I want is to market the International Federation. We have to open ourselves to the world of companies and have more sponsors. We must have a greater media presence and that is going to be a key point for the rest. We are going to have to redefine our own events. Triathlon has always been a federation that has been very flexible to change and now we are going to have to face a new change to be able to market our sport.
We are also a federation where we do not have a monopoly on the organization of sports. There are large private organizers such as Ironman, PTO, Supertri or Challenge, which operate in the world of triathlon. We really have to become the reference and the government of triathlon, and we have to agree with all of them. We have already managed to reach an agreement with PTO and we are going to advance in these agreements; We are really going to become the governing body of triathlon worldwide.
We really have to become the reference and the government of triathlon and to do so we have to agree with the private organizers
Antonio Fernández (president of WT)
We are going to create a great triathlon community, where everyone can get in touch with each other, not only through us, but all together. That is a great technological challenge that today’s society offers us and that we have to face and assume. We have four years to achieve it.
We also have to try to grow at the Olympic level. Let’s see if we can have a greater presence in the Games. We are talking with the IOC and with Marisol hand in hand we hope to achieve it.
Q. What is your relationship with so many private companies?
R. With the organizers, the first thing we have to convey to them is that we are not their competition. There are certain services that the International Federation can provide and that for them are services that only generate cost and inconvenience and that we have identified. For example, anti-doping. We can achieve economies of scale and, if we offer it to everyone, it can be done under better conditions.
There are also complaints that occur in competitions. We have the jurisdictional bodies and we can offer them that service in a way that solves a problem, because otherwise they would have to go to the ordinary courts of each country and that generates a lot of cost in lawyers, a cost. Also, the technical officers. We invest a lot in training technical officials worldwide and they can provide this service at your events.
We also want to bring together the rules of triathlon, be the reference in creating the rules and we also invest a lot in this entire part. They are services that we can offer right now in sports and that for them are a very important cost. And for us the calendar is essential, for the athletes, who are the key. Let everyone not go their own way, because those of us who offer competitions do not step on each other. We have to coordinate the calendar so that athletes can compete both in our competitions and in those of others and that there is no war in that sense and the athlete always benefits.
Q. Are there any rules you want to change as soon as possible?
R. There wouldn’t be big things I would change. The only thing we do want to change is how we can make sport more visual in the new media, not only on television, but on the internet, on all the new devices, so that companies can have greater visualization in these media.
Q. Are you going to bet on bringing triathlon to city centers as in the case of the Paris Games?
R. Paris has been a success for us because of the impact that the triathlon has had, which has taught us from the river to the streets of the city. We want to be in the center of the cities, but we also want to be in emblematic places, because the center in the end are quite flat places and we also want to create competition places that are very demanding for athletes and that at the same time offer a sporting spectacle. very important. So what we are going to look for is a combination of both.
Q. Is the testing schedule to your liking?
R. We have to stabilize the calendar. We must have a much more stable calendar and then also adapt it to that of the private organizers, because we cannot only think about ourselves, we have to think about the athlete. If he wants to do other events because he can make money, that’s fine. We want athletes to have the greatest facilities and, as I said, we are not going to compete with private organizers. We are going to collaborate with them and we can achieve a large number of synergies in the commercial field. Also having common sponsors, because reaching good common agreements is a great opportunity that triathlon can have.
We are not going to compete with private organizers, we are going to collaborate with them and we can create a large number of synergies in the commercial field.
Antonio Fernández (president of WT)
Q. At the Paris Games there was controversy over the quality of the Seine’s water and we can also talk about tests like Hong Kong or Sunderland in this sense. Should we take more care of this?
R. We have clear water regulations and you will not swim in water that is not suitable for swimming. We face great challenges in many places. In Paris, the river challenge was complicated because the quality of the water constantly varies. The athletes are the first to ask us to swim in the Seine; It’s not that this was done against athletes. Both Olympians and Paralympians wanted to swim in the Seine knowing that there were optimal water quality conditions. That’s why we had to adapt the calendar. In other places where there have been water quality problems, and we have had them, you have to ensure that it is okay. Fortunately, we do not have major cases of water poisoning because we have standards that are quite good. The national tests of our federations are taking this into account. Do we have to evolve in those norms? Yes, to guarantee that the events can be done in a safe way for the athletes, since we certainly do not want any of them to get sick.
Q. In the finals of the World Series in Torremolinos there were two deaths in the veteran categories. Are certain mandatory medical tests standardized?
R. This is an issue in which we have to evolve, because right now we leave it in the hands of the national federations, who are the ones who assume this responsibility of accepting athletes. It has been a tremendous misfortune that after 17 years we once again have a deceased. You have to look at the specific circumstances of both cases, but it has been a disgrace. We want to advance in that and one of the intentions that I have with our Medical Committee is to see if we have to do something more to guarantee that athletes have one more medical check-up in a sport like triathlon, which is demanding. And then we are going to review, especially for those who are older, to see what competition we can offer them so that they do not put their health at risk in any case.
Q. In paratriathlon this federation has been a model of integration, but we must continue working on this.
R. We have to continue working, because paratriathlon has evolved a lot and grown. We attract more and more athletes and it was seen because we grew significantly for Paris. We have even a higher quota of athletes in the Paralympic Games than in the Olympic Games, which is why paratriathlon is important to us. We have all the classes that already participated in Paris and are going to participate in Los Angeles. Now we want to introduce the relay in paratriathlon competitions. Spain is a reference in this sense. We are going to continue betting on it to continue having world-class competitions.
Q. Do you want to expand the number of triathlon events in the Olympic program?
R. We want to have more events on the Olympic program, more medal events. We want to add the sprint modality, there is the possibility of adding the duathlon, we have the possibility of adding cross country. We already made a request to introduce the cross duathlon in Los Angeles, but we have not achieved it. Why include it? Because this way we would give added use to the mountain bike headquarters at the Games. And we also want more quota because we have little quota. There are 55 per gender and we want to have more to be able to expand the number of countries that can choose to go to the Games. As for the big countries, we are fine, but we want more countries to be able to attend the Games.
We want to put the sprint modality in the Games; There is also the possibility of duathlon and cross country. And we want more quota
Antonio Fernández (president of WT)
Q. Are you considering being in the J winter games?
R. Yes of course. We are working a lot with Milano Cortina to make triathlon an exhibition sport. It is not going to be a medal sport, but we have already spoken with the Italian Federation, which has also invested a lot in the events recently. We are working quite well to consolidate the winter triathlon there. It is difficult to enter the Winter Games program as a summer federation, but we are different: we do winter and summer. But what worries us is sport and the winter triathlon. We don’t want to get into the political part, we want the winter triathlon to be in the Winter Games. As? We are open to any possibility. We do not need it and it is not a requirement that it has to be guided by us. What we want is to offer athletes this possibility. We will have to find a way to make it possible and not think about ourselves as an organization, but think about the athlete and the sport.
Q. What place does Spain occupy in triathlon worldwide?
R. In recent years, Spain has become a benchmark in terms of event organization and sports. I would not be president today if I did not have a country like Spain behind me, because Spain is the country that has saved the International Federation the most in recent years. When it was difficult to organize events, Spain was always there to say ‘here I am and I organize it’. That is why there have been so many events in Spain, not because we asked for it from the International, but because in the years of the pandemic we have had problems finding organizers and Spain has been one of the countries that has always been there. And then at the sporting level we have had great competitors like Javier [Gómez Noya]Mario [Mola] or Ivan [Raña]who are references, and now we have new athletes, like Sergio Baxter or David Cantero, who are going to be references in the coming years. […] Thanks to being Spanish and having a federation like the Spanish one, I have achieved this challenge, this difference. And what is more important, Spain is committed to solidarity and sharing knowledge. Countries in the rest of the world appreciate and recognize that someone comes and wants to help without asking for anything in return and it makes me feel very proud of my country.
Thanks to being Spanish and having a federation like the Spanish one, I have achieved this challenge
Antonio Fernández (president of WT)
Q. Where would you like to take a triathlon?
R. I would like to have a triathlon in one of the big North American cities. Triathlon was born in the United States and I would like to have a reference test there.
Q. Is there any territory where you want to promote the practice of triathlon?
R. One of our great objectives in the coming years is to grow in territories where it is not developed. In China we are working on it and we will see in Los Angeles that this country takes a step forward, thereby opening up the Chinese market, which is very important. And the next is going to be the Indian market. India is going to represent the future and we are also going to bet on having a presence in India. In China we are doing well and we hope to see results soon, but in India we still have to work a lot.
Q. Can we say that triathlon is currently a fashionable sport?
R. I think so. I think we are the sport that most executives practice in the world. I think it is a sport that offers challenges that are very attractive to any athlete and we only have to look at the last World Championship that we had in Torremolinos, where we had 5,500 participants. It is a large number and with that we can grow. I think it is fashionable and it is demonstrated by the fact that our number of participants is growing.
Q. Has anyone taken issue with the fact that Spain has brought together so many important tests in recent years?
R. We have a way to adjudicate evidence that is transparent. Perhaps unfortunately for Spain, which does have a series of events scheduled in the coming years, it has shown that triathlon has grown again and this will awaken the appetite of other countries to return. I’m already noticing it because some are already asking me to organize a World Championship, and we already have the next four assigned. That is very good news and thanks to Spain that appetite has been awakened, but I don’t think anyone feels bad that Spain organizes so much, because it has done so at the most complicated time. What Spain has done is support a lot and now we have to look for more places that organize great events, but I think we have great events for everyone.
