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Casado Earns Re-election as ITU President after Seeing Off Yu Challenge

Triathlon - 24 Oct 2012 -
Marisol Casado from Spain was today re-elected as president of the International Triathlon Union, after defeating Korea's Kyung-Sun Yu in an election, and will serve a second four-year term.

In addition, Loreen Barnett of Canada secured another four-year term as secretary general at the ITU Congress in Auckland, New Zealand, ensuring the ITU remains the only federation representing an Olympic sport with women in the top two leadership roles.

The long-serving Barnett faced competition from Mexico’s Antonio Alvarez, Liechtenstein’s Philip Schaedler and Sarah Springman, president and chair of the British Triathlon Federation.

There were no changes to the ITU vice presidents, with Springman, Alvarez and Australia's Bill Walker retaining their posts. Argentina’s Alberto Raul Fonollosa, Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Machado Froes and Canada’s Stephen Holmes missed out.

Ria Damgren Nilsson of Sweden, Ahmed Nasser of Egypt and Shin Otsuka of Japan were re-elected to the ITU executive board, with Debbie Alexander of South Africa voted in for the first time.

Casado's re-election will be seen as a major boost to her Olympic aspirations. She became an International Olympic Committee member in 2010, two years after succeeding Les McDonald as ITU president, and is seen as a rising talent within the international federation and Olympic circles.

Casado claimed in her presidential campaign statement that her IOC membership "has been one of the most powerful tools to help us achieve the level obtained by our sport in 2012, and to continue this upwards trajectory sustainably over the next four years."

Yu, who had been an ITU vice president, is a member of the organising committees for the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon and for the 2018 winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang. He had campaigned on a platform of: financial reform and greater transparency; improved administration; including more triathlon disciplines in major games; making the sport more media- and spectator-friendly; sharing workload and benefits with confederations and increasing their funding; and increasing support for athletes.

He had also vowed to "cut down expenditure through shutting down unnecessary offices and downsizing the ITU structure." The ITU has two main offices – its headquarters in Vancouver, Canada and an office in Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the IOC – but Casado is also mainly based in an office in Spain.

Casado's focus over the next four years will be to: ensure that triathlon maintains its position as an Olympic sport in a review of the Olympic programme taking place in 2013; strengthen further the top-tier World Triathlon Series; and campaign for the bid of the mixed team relay event to be part of the Olympic Games.

The campaign has so far resulted in the discipline being included in the programme for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010 and for the Commonwealth Games of 2018, while the ITU is also pushing for its inclusion in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.