Sam Ward has been controversially overlooked for the New Zealand Triathlon Team to compete in Tokyo which has ruffled quite a few feathers among his supporters in the sport. Now the Kiwi triathlete ranked 16th in World Triathlon Olympic rankings is considering his future after Tokyo Olympics snub.

Sam Wards initial non-selection back in March came as a shock to his family, and several other members of the triathlon community, who expressed concerns about what they perceive to be an unbalanced selection process.

Wards omission follows a range of appeals and a selection ombudsman report that instructed Triathlon New Zealand that it needed to review its selection decisions because it hadn’t followed its own criteria.

Hayden Wilde, Tayler Reid, Nicole van der Kaay and Ainsley Thorpe have been named in the New Zealand triathlon team to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in the individual and mixed-relay disciplines

Controversy centres around Tayler Reid overleaping Ward for an Olympic spot. At the time Ward lodged his appeal he was ranked 24th in the world and had an Olympic qualifying ranking of 16th. Tayler Reid on the other hand was much further down the rankings at 51st and 56th respectively.

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A key point raised at the appeal was as to whether consideration was given by NZ Triathlon selection committee under clause 5.1 in the nomination process criteria: ‘An athlete needs to meet two top individual performances in a qualification event and must be able to show that they can contribute to a medal in a mixed-team relay’.

Ward had medalled in one of the only few races he was offered in the mixed-team relay and got a bronze medal in Abu Dhabi (in 2019) in a field consisting of some of the world’s top triathletes. Only Ward and Hayden (Wilde) have achieved two top-eighth individual performances. So, the question was simply had he not met the selection criteria as set out.

Following the appeal, the selection committee again revealed the same nominations for Tokyo based on insufficient evidence of Wards ability to contribute to a relay team medal in comparison to the athletes chosen.

Wards father felt compelled to give out NZ Triathlon’s response “we are not saying Sam can’t contribute to a medal, but we are saying on the balance of probabilities there is not enough evidence”. The father then went on to berate “Which is the biggest crock of crap I ever read. You either can or you can’t. The balance of probabilities state that it’s binary; you either have, or you have not. And he has.”

The Ward family say Sam was never informed that he was not meeting the selection criteria and is extremely disappointed at being denied the chance to represent his country at Tokyo. Ward is so disillusioned by Triathlon NZ’s selection process that he is considering his future in the sport.