Two candidates to run for the top job at World Triathlon
World Triathlon has confirmed incumbent Marisol Casado and Mads Freund of Denmark will contest its Presidential election this year after they were the only candidates to enter the race before the deadline.
The election is due to take place virtually on November 29 after World Triathlon abandoned plans to stage its Congress in a hybrid format. World Triathlon had been hoping to have some officials attend in person, with others joining remotely, but a rise in COVID-19 infections means the event will be held remotely. Candidates for President of World Triathlon require a simple majority of eligible voters to be elected.
Below is the article TriNation covered back in August on the Dane’s bid for the top job against the present incumbent President:
When World Triathlon holds it elections at its Congress later this year. Mads Freund, Head of Triathlon Denmark intends to run for the top job at the worldwide body against the present incumbent President, Marisol Casado.
Mads Freund,
The Danes belief is that World Triathlon is very centralised and work is needed to change that. Freund say’s “It is about re-establishing World Triathlon, revitalising our race calendar and revising the political structure to give more power back to our confederations and national federations.”
It the opinion of Freund, World Triathlon is “acting like an old federation even though we are very young”. Although Triathlon has come a long way there has been a decline in revenue and participant in the last few years and the Dane, a former triathlete and coach believes he “can make positive change” in the sport and that World Triathlon “can do better”.
Freund is trying to unseat present incumbent President, Marisol Casado, who he respects for the work she has done to-date, but feels she has had her time. The Spaniard, Casado who has led World Triathlon since 2008, has already announced that she would seek a fourth term at the helm. Casado was re-elected President unopposed in 2016 but was challenged for her position at the 2012 Congress in Auckland, where she saw off the challenger South Korea’s Kyung-sun Yu.Marisol Casado
Should Freund succeed in unseating Casado, she would lose her status as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as membership is linked to her function as World Triathlon President. Having become a ICO member in 2010 she is the only female head of a Summer Olympic International Federation and will serve as President until after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games if she is re-elected.
Casado main achievements in her role of World Triathlon President can be listed as the inclusion of a mixed relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, (postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19), Para-triathlon being added to the Paralympic programme and the growth in the number of national federations.
World Triathlon is one of the youngest sports Federations and Casado is only the second President of the organisation. Casado if re-elected says she would “want to invest on our stakeholders (national federations, cities, athletes, officials, coaches, partners etc) to continue our growth and keep being a role model in many aspects” and have ‘”more presence in the Olympics”. Casado was among the founding members of World Triathlon and has been on the Executive Board since 1998 and has also been heavily involved in sport in her native country, serving as a member of the Spanish Olympic Committee for more than two decades.
