Building upon the successful model of other fantasy sport games, including football and baseball, FantasyTri provides an opportunity for triathletes and triathlon fans to enjoy triathlon without breaking a sweat! Unveiled at October’s Ford Ironman World Championships 2009, FantasyTri is including a game that is billed as the ‘Championship Challenge’.
By registering to play FantasyTri, participants are able to have fun while learn more about the sport of triathlon they love. FantasyTri introduces users to 2,000 professional triathletes from around the globe and over 100 of the major events they compete in. All the world’s major racing formats are included: Olympic, ITU, XTERRA, Half Ironman and Ironman.
According to the organisers, FantasyTri is also a great opportunity for professional triathletes, and their sponsors, to gain exposure to triathlon enthusiasts worldwide.
The goal of FantasyTri is to make membership fun, informative and rewarding. The web based gaming service offers members weekly news stories covering topics such as upcoming race previews, pro triathlete interviews, post race recaps and other news of interest.
FantasyTri organisers state that the new initiative is run by ‘a group of passionate triathletes just like you and your friends. They came together from around the world with a vision to create something new in the sport. Part of that vision is the website and games that you are looking at right now. But the vision is bigger than just fun and games. FantasyTri also wants to see our sport grow. Grow in terms of getting more people to engage a heart healthy lifestyle of fitness. Grow in terms of connecting more pros with potential sponsors. And grow in terms of fostering young people’s interest in the sport of triathlon.’
While pursuing these goals, FantasyTri also believes in giving something back. To start off, FantasyTri is providing a portion of the proceeds on all FantasyTri play to support the efforts of World Bicycle Relief (www.worldbicyclerelief.org), which was founded in 2005 by SRAM Corporation and Trek Bicycle in response to the December 2004 tsunami that swept the Indian Ocean.
Most recently, FantasyTri has provided Leanda Cave with a package of game entries for her Great Athlete Auction that was created to raise much needed funds for the Blazeman Foundation for ALS (a non-profit, multi-sport movement to end Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Leanda is a Blazeman Warrior, along with other professional triathletes such as, Chrissie Wellington, Dede Griesbauer and Matt Reed. Collectively, the Blazeman Warriors are trying to reach a US$750,000 target to assist with cutting-edge scientific research to find treatments and an eventual cure for ALS.
www.fantasytri.com
www.worldbicyclerelief.org
www.thegreatathleteauction.blogspot.com
