The International Paralympic Committee has announced that Paratriathlon will have eight medal events - four men and four women - at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
In the same meeting, the IPC Governing Board has also confirmed that 80 paratriathletes will compete in the Games, suggesting that each medal event will have 10 athletes competing.
“We are really pleased that the IPC has increased the number of medal events for paratriathlon in Tokyo 2020. In our debut in the Paralympic movement, in Rio 2016, we could only have six classes competing, therefore increasing the number to one more medal event per gender is great news for all the paratriathlon community. We will keep on working with the IPC to try to increase that number, both of classes and paratriathletes competing, even more”, said Marisol Casado, ITU President and IOC member.
“The Paralympic Games is the pinnacle of the sport for all our athletes, and increasing the number of medal events in Tokyo 2020 was one of the goals we’ve been pushing for in the last months, to give more opportunities to all. I am sure that this decision will increase the number of athletes practicing paratriathlon all over the world, participating in events and vying to get one of those 80 designated spots for paratriathlon in Tokyo 2020,” she said.
In the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, 60 paratriathletes competed at Copacabana beach in six medal events. Both genders competed in the PT2 and PT4 categories, while the PT1 category only saw men competing, and the PT5 was only for the women. ITU has been working closely with the IPC since then to increase both the number of paratriathletes participating in the Games, as well as the number of medal events.
The ITU Paratriathlon Committee will work with the athletes and the IPC to decide on the selection of the eight medal events and will announce it as early as possible, to allow the athletes to plan accordingly.
