Leonid Boguslavsky, Co-founder and Chairman at Super League Triathlon, kindly gave up his time to talk about a range of subjects.
Originally a scientist with a specialism in mathematics and computer networks, then an entrepreneur, an investor and now “a venture capital guy”, Leonid gave a brief, modest overview of his extensive background.
He started triathlon training in his early 60s as a way to test out his endurance. From this, with co-founders Michael D’Hulst and Chris McCormack, Super League Triathlon was then born.
The Super League event series has built momentum over a number of years, with late 2020 seeing the acquisition of the Malibu Triathlon – enabling entry into the key US market. With this event as a base in Malibu, California, Super League Triathlon’s 2021 Championship Series wrapped up a series of elite racing this September.
Leonid noted that Super League was primarily established as a media-friendly format, noting that “traditional triathlon is a bit boring; it’s not for media.”
The award-winning Arena Games, originally launched amidst the struggles presented by the pandemic is a virtual-meets-real-world event. Powered by Zwift, the Arena Games has been held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and London, UK.
Super League has recently tied up with international governing body, World Triathlon, for the launch of the new Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift. This is billed as ‘the first esports triathlon world championships’ and aims to ramp up the ‘innovative concept of esports into a new and officially recognised discipline for triathlon.’
Leonid gave some background to the Arena Games, which he considers as a new sport… “conferring a number of advantages. It is indoors, not dependent on the weather, can be put on at any time of year.”
As both a media friendly format and in-turn offering a boost to awareness and triathlon participation, he referred to clubs practising Arena Games – setting up bikes and treadmills at local swimming pools.
He said “Before the virtual world came, before platforms like Zwift appeared, there have been attempts. But participants/competitors didn’t see each other. Now they know everything. They know the wattage of their main competitors. They know the pace. It’s a different game. It’s very interesting.
“On top of this, you can create a show – with elements… music, lighting, ‘colour it’ in many different ways. For spectators, for media, it is much more interesting; because it is a show.”
