World Triathlon and Laureus Sport for Good today announced a new two-year partnership (2026-2027) to drive systemic change for women and girls in triathlon.
The announcement was made during the World Triathlon Congress held in Sanxenxo, Spain, alongside the launch of the new SheLovesTri website.
The new agreement builds on a relationship that began in 2024, when World Triathlon became part of the Body Confident Sport rollout alongside three National Federations: Great Britain, Italy and Mexico. The 2026-2027 partnership expands that work across three pillars:
- Female Coaches Development: growing female participation and leadership across triathlon coaching.
- Body Confident Sport rollout: extending the programme across triathlon, with two newly targeted nations, Belgium and New Zealand.
- Safeguarding: strengthening safeguarding practice across the sport.
“Partnering with Laureus Sport for Good reflects who we are as an international governing body: open to change, committed to our coaches and athletes, and determined to make triathlon a sport where every girl and woman can thrive. From Body Confident Sport to safeguarding to growing our female coaching pathways, this partnership gives us a genuine ally in turning that commitment into lasting change, and there is no better place to mark it than here in Pontevedra, alongside our SheLovesTri community,” said Antonio Fernández Arimany, President of World Triathlon.
“This partnership with World Triathlon shows what’s possible when a federation puts systemic change at the heart of its strategy - embedding Body Confident Sport, strengthening safeguarding, and building real pathways for female coaches and leaders. With nearly two million athletes and 30,000 coaches within World Triathlon’s reach, we’re not just supporting girls and women in triathlon today, we’re changing what the sport looks like for the next generation,” said Missy Franklin, five-time US Olympic swimming champion, Laureus Academy Member and Vice Chair of Laureus Sport for Good.
Building on three years of progress
Since first joining the Body Confident Sport campaign in 2024, World Triathlon has embedded the programme into its coach education system. Body Confident Coaching, an online module, is now mandatory for all World Triathlon Certified Coaches as part of the Continuous Revalidation of Coaches (CRoC). Over the past three years, more than 1,300 World Triathlon-certified coaches from 136 National Federations have completed the module.
In 2026 alone, World Triathlon has delivered Body Confident Athletes workshops during its Continental Development Camps, and run Coaching Female Triathletes workshops alongside Junior, Youth and U23 Continental Championships in Xuzhou (Asia), Antofagasta (Americas) and Papeete (Oceania), with further workshops planned in Hurghada (Africa) and Melilla (Europe). Two Coaching Female Triathletes CPD courses, covering coaching through menopause and coaching female triathletes more broadly, are now available to coaches worldwide through World Triathlon's Education Hub, having grown out of live courses run in 2026.
World Triathlon has also published a 2026 update to its Female Coaches in Triathlon Status Study, continuing to track the representation of women in coaching roles across the sport. Separately, Adele de la Rey (Namibia), a World Triathlon Level 2 Coach and National Federation Secretary General, has begun her studies through the WISH (Women in Sport High-Performance Pathway) programme.
SheLovesTri: from awareness to action
The partnership was announced alongside the launch of SheLovesTri, a new World Triathlon website translating the findings of the Women in Triathlon Status Study into practical action for National Federations. The programme for the 2026 World Triathlon Championship Finals and Congress in Pontevedra and Sanxenxo is bringing together National Federations for a week of activities on this matter, including a keynote on growing female participation, a coffee talk on female coaches, and a female coaching workshop, building on earlier Pontevedra initiatives to turn awareness of the barriers facing women and girls in triathlon into concrete steps forward.
About Body Confident Sport
Body Confident Sport is a first-of-its-kind, scientifically proven set of coaching tools to build body confidence in 11–17 year old girls. It was co-developed by Dove and Nike, in partnership with world-renowned researchers and experts – the Centre for Appearance Research and the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. It comprises of two programmes: Body Confident Coaching, online, self-guided training that equips coaches and other supporting adults with the knowledge and skills to create positive body image environments for their athletes, and Body Confident Athletes, a set of coaching sessions that help young people shift focus from how their bodies look to what their bodies can do.
About Laureus Sport for Good
Laureus Sport for Good is a global charity that supports children and young people by using the power of sport to end violence, discrimination, and inequality. Founded in response to Nelson Mandela’s challenge that “sport has the power to change the world,” Laureus Sport for Good supports more than 300 programmes in 40 countries, with 58 per cent of sports-based programme participants being girls and women.
