International Triathlon Union and World Triathlon Corporation agree to settle court case

Vancouver, BC (5 May, 2006)  The International Triathlon Union (ITU) and the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) have agreed to a settlement agreement before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

A few days before the hearing was scheduled to begin, the parties chose to resolve the issues that originated from the adoption of a resolution proposed by USA Triathlon during the last ITU Congress in September 2005.

Viewed neither as a victory nor a defeat by the parties, the ITU no longer restricts its member federations from sanctioning WTC events, more widely known as Ironman events.

This settlement agreement will allow ITU to resume its focus on its World Championships and World Cup events, as well as preparing the best starting list of athletes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, China, in 2008.

The signature of the settlement agreement essentially puts both organizations back in the situation we were in prior to the 2005 Congress.  ITUs upcoming season of exciting World Cup races has already begun, with our next stop scheduled for May 7th, in Mazatlan, Mexico.  The Triathlon World Championships will take place in September 2006 in Lausanne, Switzerland stated ITUs CEO, Loreen Barnett.

ITU is the world-governing for the sport of triathlon, and is the only recognized body by the International Olympic Committee.  Triathlon has been a full-medal sport on the Olympic sport since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.  It is a continuous event, composed of a 1,500m open-water swim, 40 km cycle race and 10km run.  World-level athletes complete the event under 1h50mins for the men and 2h00 for the women.

More information on ITU can be found at http://www.triathlon.org.

For media inquiries, please contact Loreen Barnett at 604-904-9248