International governing body World Triathlon notes that with ‘two incredible individual triathlon races down, one spectacular team relay [is] to come…
‘The stage is set for Tokyo 2020 to witness arguably the greatest team competition of the Olympic Games: four world-class athletes, two women, two men, each tackling all three disciplines and with all the grit and grind of triathlon fizzing across the super-sprint format. It may be its Olympic debut in Tokyo, but wherever you are watching, it is the hottest ticket in town.’
After much lobbying by World Triathlon (then known as the International Triathlon Union), the Triathlon Mixed Relay was confirmed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics back in 2017.
Taking place on Saturday, July 31, 2021, at 07:30 local time and 00:30 CEST (Friday 11:30pm BST and 18:30 Eastern), the Odaiba Bay venue in Tokyo is the same as the individual triathlon, with the course more compact.
Each leg will start with a 300m swim, transitioning into a 6.8km (two lap) bike and finishing with a 2km (two lap) run.
‘This will be full gas from the start, the leaders will chop and change, the handovers will be spectacular, the tension will reach boiling point and the team that eventually takes the tape and wins those first ever Triathlon Mixed Relay Olympic gold medals will be forever written into the sport’s history.’
There will be 17 teams taking to the pontoon start, South Africa sadly having to withdraw after Henri Schoeman suffered a stress fracture in his foot on Monday. For the remainder, the squads are officially submitted at Thursday’s briefing and the final line-ups confirmed two hours before the start of the race. Late changes and team tactics are all part of the unpredictable format.
Unlike the individual race, however, the start lists are drawn from the world rankings, meaning Team France – World Champions the past three years in a row – will wear number one.
Second-ranked Australia were the only nation to have qualified the maximum three men and three women for Tokyo 2020, bringing both the added bonus of a wider pool of talent to choose from and an agony of choice for the selectors.
The USA wear the number three, with Olympic bronze medalist Katie Zaferes, Summer Rappaport and Taylor Knibb to choose between for the two women’s legs.
Wearing number four will be Team GB – with four Olympic medallists to call upon from a possible five squad members: Alex Yee and Georgia Taylor-Brown, Jonathan Brownlee and Vicky Holland. Jessica Learmonth also has a very strong case for selection.
New Zealand will wear number five, as a young team but with experience already having raced together multiple times.
