The International Triathlon Union president tells Around the Rings that London’s iconic backdrop is the most important aspect of the competition at next summer’s Olympics.

“It’s very important to have a visual backdrop,” Marisol Casado told ATR.

“For us, we really like to race in the centre of the city. This is not a stadium, we are in the street, we are in the park… if they technically make a good course we are very happy with this.”

She was speaking with ATR at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championships Series in Hyde Park Sunday where torrential rain caused some problems underfoot for athletes but could not dampen the spirits of the hundreds of spectators lining the course.

Hyde Park is part of the Olympic triathlon course, which saw racing through the Wellington Memorial, down Constitution Hill and around Buckingham Palace, offering iconic backgrounds for all of the weekend action.

After the women’s event on Saturday morning, there were some complaints about the surface of the course.

Emma Snowsill, who came fifth in the women’s event, voiced her complaints about the race course to Australia’s Herald Sun, saying: “I don’t really think it is Olympic standard. I think it is a bit too higgledy piggledy… lots of uneven surfaces.

Read more: Around the Rings

So confident was triathlete Simon Whitfield heading into the Beijing Olympics that he campaigned for the Canadian Triathlon Union to institute a controversial plan to have teammate Colin Jenkins serve as his domestique in the bike leg.

It created hard feelings among a couple of Canadians trying to qualify for Beijing. But the plan ultimately paid off with an unexpected silver medal for the then-33-year-old Victoria resident, eight years after his surprise gold medal when the grueling swim-bike-run sport made its Olympic debut in Sydney.

Now, after going two years without a World Cup win and with two young daughters creating a need to balance priorities, the self-described “old wolf” of triathlon concedes he doesn’t have the “same swagger I used to have.

“My wife would be the first to tell you that,” he said Thursday on a call from London, site of Sunday’s International Triathlon Union world championship series race on the 2012 Olympics course. “My smirk, she calls it, certainly the smile that indicates I was ready.”

Whitfield opened this season with a 30th-place finish in a WCS race in Madrid, then did not finish his second race in Kitzbühel, Austria, because of illness. Last month, at an ITU World Cup event in Edmonton, he was sixth, two spots behind Oakville, Ont., native Kyle Jones, the first time he had been beaten by another Canadian in an elite-level triathlon in a decade.

Whitfield concedes he’s struggled with his legendary belief in himself, one expressed on his frequently entertaining blog by the subhead “the relentless pursuit of.”

“I have, for the first time in my career, had some doubts,” said Whitfield, who will be 37 at the London Olympics.

Read more: Vancouver Sun

British brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, two of the world’s top triathletes, can take a big step closer to the Olympics at this Sunday’s Hyde Park Triathlon in London.

Finishing on the podium will be enough for either of them to meet British Triathlon’s selection criteria for the Games.

Alistair, 23, won the world title in 2009 and is widely tipped to win gold over the same Hyde Park course at London 2012. But Jonny, 21, is hot on his heels and rapidly improving.

The pair recently finished first and second at the European Championships, held in the Spanish home town of their closest rival, reigning world champion Javier Gomez.

Here, the brothers reveal all about life competing alongside each other – with some help from Gomez.

Introduce each other…

Jonny: This is Alistair Brownlee, the current European champion, the grand final winner in Budapest in 2010, and the European champion in 2010 as well. And he’s most famous for being Jonathan Brownlee’s brother. (Not really).

Alistair: And this is Jonathan Brownlee, current European [awkward pause] second-placer. Previous European junior champion and U23 World champion, and up-and-coming Olympic hopeful. He’s also my brother and he does a bit of history studying every so often. Outside of that, he’s a semi-professional triathlete and a semi-professional Football Manager player.

Read more: BBC Sport

Universal Sports caught up with three-time Olympic triathlete Hunter Kemper on Wednesday via Skype as he prepares to compete in London this weekend with a chance to secure a berth at the London Games.

In addition to sharing his outlook on the pre-Olympic atmosphere in London, he also passed along an unexpected historical footnote on Big Ben, and discussed why he as a triathlete has aged similarly to a fine Merlot.

Watch the video on Universal Sports here.

The faster Sarah Haskins-Kortuem runs, the better the chances of the Americans breaking back onto the Olympic podium in triathlon. And her secret weapon is an oxygen mask.

Treadmill workouts utilizing supplemental oxygen have opened the door for the Olympic Training Center resident to improve her speed, and she’s optimistic her diligence will pay dividends next month when she attempts to punch a ticket to the 2012 London Games.

Shooting for her second Olympic berth, Haskins-Kortuem, 30, can become the first U.S. qualifier if she’s the highest-placing American woman and if she finishes in the top nine at a world championship series event Aug. 6 in London. She’ll be joined by OTC resident Jillian Petersen, Laura Bennett of Boulder, Sarah Groff and Gwen Jorgensen, and on the men’s side, OTC residents Matt Chrabot and Hunter Kemper, Manuel Huerta and Jarrod Shoemaker also will compete on the Olympic course, with Aug. 7 their date to qualify.

Haskins-Kortuem has been taking hour-long supplemental oxygen jogs the past month at the OTC, at the advice of her husband, Nate, who doubles as her coach, and OTC sports nutritionist Bob Seebohar. They think supplemental oxygen will allow Haskins-Kortuem, who ended last year ranked No. 14 in the world and was No. 6 in 2009, to carry over her endurance level from Colorado Springs, at 6,035 feet, to London, essentially at sea level.

If their plan comes to fruition, Haskins-Kortuem could be as much as 45 seconds quicker during a 10-kilometer run that follows a 1,500-meter swim and a 40-kilometer bike at the Olympic qualifier. That’s a “significant chunk,” said Haskins-Kortuem, who is strongest in the swim. “That’s kind of the goal I’m aiming for – to take my run to that next level.”

Read more: Colorado Springs Gazette

Australian triathlon’s Olympic program badly needed its big weekend in Hamburg.

On July 16-17, Australia posted the sorts of results that have historically been its habit in the sport.

Brad Kahlefeldt won round four of the world championship series as the three Emmas – reigning world champion Moffatt, rising star Jackson and Beijing Olympics gold medalist Snowsill – swept the women’s podium in that order.

But it was also the first time this season that any Australians had reached the podium in the series.

The opening two races scared the hell out of the program.

Apart from Brendan Sexton’s breakthrough fourth place in Sydney, no-one made the top 10.

“If you’re going to get kicked in the guts, I guess 15 months out is the right time,” said national performance director Mike Flynn.

“It was a massive wake-up call.”

The woeful start to the series prompted a reassessment within the national program.

“Training form, to be honest, is right on target – it just hasn’t converted this year to results,” head coach Shaun Stephens said before Hamburg.

While top 10 results for Kahlefeldt and Moffatt at round three in Austria showed their form was turning around, Hamburg was the shot in the arm everyone needed.

But British brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee and Canadian Paula Findlay – the most in-form competitors right now – did not race in Hamburg.

Read more: ninemsm

After just missing out on a medal in Beijing, Spanish triathlete Javier Gomez has his eyes firmly set on gold in Hyde Park next year. Here, he chats with Olympic.org about his training leading up to the 2012 games.

How is your training going ahead of London 2012?

Training is going really well. Right now, the most important thing is qualifying for London 2012, so I need some good races at the World Championship series. There’s no doubt that I am thinking about the 2012 Olympic Games at every training session!

What is your favorite training session?

It’s difficult to pick just one; I love training. But I particularly like fast workouts, for example my track sessions where I might do something like 8 x 1,000m with two-minute recoveries. I’d run these at 2:40-2:42 mins pace. It’s tough and it hurts, but it’s great training.

What are you most looking forward to about the 2012 Games?

There’s one thing that keeps driving me forward: the gold medal. There are so many things which make the Olympic Games unique and interesting, but what I want – and what I didn’t get in Beijing – is that gold medal.

What do you think about London as a city?

London is one of my favorite cities in Europe. I like the mix of cultures you find just walking through the streets, and I really like British people. Of course, Hyde Park where the Olympic triathlon will be held is one of the best places we can race. It’s beautiful – I love it.

Who do you see as your main rivals for the gold medal in London?

There are so many! The sport is very strong at the moment with a great number of fantastic athletes. But If I have to pick anyone, I’d say the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan. They are both very talented and, of course, they’ll be racing on home soil which will be extra motivation for them. Or perhaps it will be extra pressure; who knows! But I can’t discount guys like Jan Frodeno, Brad Kahlefeldt, Steffen Justus and Bevan Docherty. There are a bunch of names who have a really high chance of getting a medal.

Read more: Olympic.org

McCormack has only competed in non-drafting races up to this point in his season. Photo: Aaron Hersh

McCormack, who was an ITU short-course world champion in 1997 but who was unfairly left off the Australia 2000 Olympic team in Sydney, made big news back in February when he announced that he would forgo attempting to defend his title in Kona to attempt to make the 2012 London Olympics.

He had hoped to be on the start line at the World Championship Series’ Sydney leg, which was held in early April, but he chose not to race because of a calf injury, he told triathlete.com at the time.

McCormack has a tough row to hoe if he wants to qualify for the Olympics. Australia can at most qualify three men for the Olympics, and as of right now, there are three men who are legitimate medal contenders for London: Courtney Atkinson, Brad Kahlefeldt, and Brendan Sexton. While Australia’s qualification criteria is almost entirely discretionary, McCormack will most likely have to prove that he is either more of a medal contender than one of his three rivals or that he can somehow help one of them win a medal for Australia if he serves as a domestique.

McCormack also has no ITU points as of right now and is being given a discretionary spot into Kitzbühel. He must quickly prove that he is worthy of that spot if he is to continue getting discretionary spots.

McCormack knows what he is up against, however.

“I’ve been quite open that I don’t want to rob some other kid of their dream if I can’t be a player. I don’t want to be that guy,” he told triathlete.com back in April. “I think I can do it, but don’t do me any favors because I want the best guys to go. I’ve got nothing to hide.”

McCormack has also been candid that he realizes he’s got a lot of work to do if he wants to compete with Spain’s Javier Gomez and Great Britain’s Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, who can swim, bike and run with the best of the best and who are capable of finishing their 10Ks in under 30 minutes.

“It’s quite interesting to be going into a race with a different mindset. Most of the time, I think, ‘I want to kill these guys. I want to win.’ But now I just need to beat as many guys as I possibly can,” McCormack said back in April. “I don’t think in these early stages I can be competitive with Javier and Alistair. It’s one thing to watch it, and it’s another to feel the pace and intensity. People tell me I’ve got to run sub-30 minutes. I can tell you right now I can’t do that.”

Going into Kitzbühel, McCormack is at the distinct disadvantage of having just finished an Ironman; he won Challenge Cairns on June 5.

But if there’s anything that the wily McCormack has taught the triathlon world over his long career, it’s that you can never count him out.

You can watch his return to the ITU on https://triathlonlive.tv. Or look for reruns on Universal Sports if you live in the United States.

Subscribe to Inside Triathlon magazine for the most in-depth ITU and Olympics coverage, or purchase a recent issue by clicking here.

It was the first time both Brownlees have both podiumed at a World Championship Series event.

The Brownlees embrace before finishing 1-2 in Madrid. Photo by Delly Carr and triathlon.org.

Spain’s Javier Gomez, the reigning ITU short-course world champion, finished third.

“The Brownlees were just on a different level on the run, so I couldn’t do too much,” Gomez said to an ITU reporter. “I tried on the first lap—I tried to follow them but I know that was not my pace. I was waiting to see if they would slow down, but they didn’t. They went faster and they smashed me.”

The Brownlees went 1-2 by racing in typical Brownlee fashion: They were instrumental in a break on the bike that went into T2 almost two minutes ahead of the main chase pack.

The break included Gomez, James Elvery, Frederic Belaubre, Dmitry Polyansky, Alexander Brukhankov and Aurélien Raphael.

The Brownlees, along with Gomez, did most of the work on the break. Despite this, the Brownlees had the two fastest 10K splits of the day. Gomez finished with the sixth-fastest split.

Out of T2, Jonathan and Alistair quickly developed a gap over Gomez, and Alistair began to pull away from his brother during the bell lap.

As Alistair approached the finish line, however, he began to slow down—he was waiting for his brother. The two embraced before crossing the line, with Jonathan ensuring that Alistair crossed first by lightly tapping him on the shoulder to push him forward.

“It was really good. We train hard together, and it’s a bit strange because we’ve done it in small races but never in a world series, so it’s a bit of a strange feeling but really nice that he waited for me — it was really a special moment,” Jonathan said to an ITU reporter.

The two brothers have often said that they are friends over everything else. They live and train together in a village outside Leeds, England.

To view a photo gallery of the Brownlees, click here.

To read a sneak peek of an Inside Triathlon magazine profile of the Brownlees, click here.

Rather than allowing all entrants to battle for medals at the 2012 Olympic triathlon in London, the Great Britain squad is considering using a cycling “domestique” to aid the top medal contender.

“It’s a really important aspiration to win at least one medal,” said British Triathlon chief Zara Hyde Peters.

“We will do that however we best can, using potentially the entire resources of the team at our disposal.”

Other countries have employed the policy since triathlon made its Olympic debut at the Sydney Games in 2000.

Unlike open-participation triathlon, the Olympic discipline allows cyclists to ride in packs, as conventional road racers traditionally do in events such as the Tour de France, where team riders are known as “domestiques”.

That allows the opportunity for a cycling specialist to work for the team and push team-mates harder during this phase, between the swim and the run.

However, Britain’s former Under-23 world champion Will Clarke says he is concerned about the potential use of pacemakers.

“I’m not sure there’s actually anyone strong enough who could do the domestique job,” said Clarke.

Read more: BBC Sport

Tim Don showed he’s gunning for a fourth Olympic Games appearance by winning the Seoul ITU Triathlon Asian Cup over the weekend.

Renowned battler Don, 33, the 2006 world champion, showed his impressive turn of speed to outrun the competition and take the title by 35 seconds from Ukrainian Danylo Sapunov. He finished in 1:51:57.

Hideko Kikuchi of Japan took the women’s title, outrunning New Zealand’s Kate McIlroy to finish in 2:07:46.

The victory is Don’s second at an ITU Continental Cup this season following a win at the Port Elizabeth ITU Triathlon African Cup in March.

Don chose to race in Seoul following the postponement of the World Championship Series race in Yokohama Japan, which will now take place on Monday September 19.

Don said: “It’s always fantastic to achieve a win on the ITU circuit.”

Read more: The Sun

Rob Urbach was an All-American tennis player at Centre College in Kentucky, way more comfortable with serves, forehands and lob shots than he was with swimming, biking and running. A 1979 Sports Illustrated article on the Ironman triathlon forever changed him.

“This is something that really appeals to me,” Urbach said he thought as he competed in his first triathlon, an age-group event in 1981 in Louisville, Ky. “I want to do this.”

That burning desire equated to a lifelong hobby rather than a lucrative profession, but he never has lost belief in the value of the endurance sport, intent on using his power as the new chief executive officer of USA Triathlon to increase the crowds at the starting lines.

Urbach, 48, has spent his first two months on the job trying to determine ways to raise the profile of the Colorado Springs-based national governing body, which boasted an all-time high 134,942 members, $6.8 million in total assets and roughly 50 employees when Skip Gilbert was forced to resign in August from a $243,096 post he had held for 5 ½ years.

On top of getting money from its members, USA Triathlon is supported by 325,000-plus people who purchase one-day licenses to race in events across the country, as well as 869 clubs and 36 corporate partners. Media coverage of triathlon remains minimal, especially in non-Olympic years, with only a few competitions broadcast on TV and most reporters unlikely to write stories about the sport until the buildup to the 2012 London Games.

Read more: The Gazette

Hunter Kemper ran away with the Ishigaki ITU Triathlon World Cup.

The three-time Olympian and national team member emerged from the water 15 seconds off the pace and was 50 seconds behind the leaders off the bike. Kemper (with Spaniard Ivan Rana) caught up on the first lap of the run, then he took off and took the lead to the finish line

“It’s my second race of the year, and it feels good to win in Ishigaki. It’s a beautiful place,” said Kemper. “I’ve had injuries for the past two years — it’s been very difficult since Beijing in 2008, and this is my first World Cup win in a while. So it feels good to be back on top of the podium and win here in Ishigaki in front of the Japanese people, who have dealt with so much the past month or six weeks. It feels good to celebrate, even if just for a few hours.”

Read More: USA TODAY

How it works: This grueling event sees competitors battle it out in the water, on their bikes and in a final run. Olympic triathlon combines a 1.5K swim, a 40K cycle ride and a 10K run. 110 competitors, split evenly between men and women, will battle it out in the two medal events.

The stage: The event will begin and end in Hyde Park. A swim in the Serpentine, right, is what awaits competitors at the start before they cycle on a course which takes in Buckingham Palace and Wellington Arch. The contest will culminate with a run around the Serpentine.

Who’s hot: In the men’s event Germany’s Jan Frodeno won gold in 2008 and will be up against his compatriot Steffen Justus, Australia’s Brad Kahlefeldt and Spain’s Javier Gomez. In the women’s Australia’s Emma Moffat, the 2009 world champion, will hope to improve on 2008 bronze

The road to London

April 8-10: World Championship Series first event in Sydney

August 6-7: World Championship Series penultimate event in London

September 10-11: World Championship Series final in Beijing

Read More: The Guardian

The big names battled it out at the Comox Valley Half Marathon on Sunday, March 20, with Simon Whitfield talking first place by a margin of three seconds.

Whitfield, an Olympic gold and silver medal triathlete, broke the tape in one hour, six minutes and 23 seconds while Jim Finlayson was right on his heels, finishing second in 1:06.26.

The event was part of the Frontrunners Island Race Series. Jerry Ziak of the Comox Valley finished third in 1:06.36.

Kyle Jones, who has won three of the first five races in the series and has his sights set on the 2012 Olympics, took fourth in 1:07.35 while three-time Olympian Jon Brown (who coaches triathlete Jones) was fifth in 1:07.37. Brown holds the course record of 1:03.57, which he set in 2005.

Read More: BC Local News

Snowsill will race in Australia for the first time in two years when she lines up in what will be a “who’s who” of the triathlon world at the ITU World Cup in Mooloolaba (March 26 and 27) before what promises to be a spectacular opening round of the 2011 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series in Sydney.

And she revealed how she has developed the baboon shuffle as she was forced to sidestep the feisty monkeys on her mountain treks.

“Baboons on the road… that is always an interesting one. That is probably the one time when you didn’t want to have a banana in your back pocket when you are running up a mountain,” Snowsill revealed in an interview with Ian Hanson.

For the Olympic champion and three-time world champion it will be the first time she will have raced in Sydney, although she has vivid memories of the 2000 Olympics.

“Obviously for me it was one of the first races I ever got to watch was the Sydney Olympics so it is a very special place in my memory,” said Snowsill.

Read more: Hansonmediagroup.com.au

McCormack has been very open about the disappointment he felt in being left of Australia’s team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and Inside Triathlon magazine’s editor-in-chief, Courtney Baird, sat down with McCormack while she was in Abu Dhabi to get some insight into his decision.

Triathlete.com: Everyone is really interested in your decision to try to qualify for the Olympics.

McCormack: Oh, Ok. My midlife crisis—my wife calls it.

Triathlete.com: How’s your training been going now that you’ve decided to take on short course instead of long course? You’re pretty much the only guy who has decided to go from long course to short course.

Macca earned his second Kona win at the 2010 Ironman World Championships. Photo: Paul Phillips

McCormack: Well, to be honest, had you asked me this question in January, it wasn’t even on the table. I did an interview in Australia with the press after my Kona win and that sort of reignited my talking with the federation again [Editor’s note: Triathlon Australia, which is the national governing body of triathlon in Australia, decides who is on its Olympic team.]

I hadn’t really dealt with them since they’d left me off the team in Sydney and I’d gone on to do my own thing. And we sat down and we cleared the slate and talked about the direction of the sport in my country and being I guess Craig [Alexander] and myself being two key guys within multisport in Australia, and they wanted to work closely with us, and then the Olympics came on the table. And I asked, you know it’s one regret in my life is not going back for Athens, and I think, speaking to Hamish Carter, who won the gold medal, he was like, “You’re an idiot, that was a race for you.” [Editor’s note: The course at the 2004 Athens Olympics was brutal and suited to cyclists and strength athletes such as McCormack.]

And I was just stubborn and young and in a different phase of my life. When the proposition was put to me that there was a possibility, that the door was still slightly open. It’s not wide open to get in—there’s a lot of work I have to do that makes it more difficult than some of the other guys to get on the team. I have to accumulate points. And I thought, ‘Why not?’ They’ll be no regrets at the end of my career. At least I’ll have tried and the only failure I thought was not trying, and I can live with whether I make the team or not. So I’m at a completely different phase in my life and yeah, so once that presented itself four weeks ago, I’d already committed to races like this [the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon] and Puerto Rico next week and Ironman—a Challenge [series] race in Cairns [Australia]—so I had to really honor those contracts. I didn’t want to turn my back on my bread and butter for the last few years. So it hasn’t been perfect preparation coming into the first rounds of the World Cup [World Championship Series]. It’s definitely been a shift in training—a lot of hard work to do—it’s a big road ahead of me and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Triathlete.com: What specifically has shifted in your training?

McCormack: It’s the time, I guess, is halved. The actual volume—the time on the bike, the time [is] halved, but the intensity has really increased, and trying to be delicate in that transition across to speed, taking into consideration that I am 38 in a few weeks time and I haven’t been doing this style of training for—nine years was my last World Cup race.

We’ve had to sit down and really plan that shift across to this style of racing. I think a lot of people confuse, they think I’m going to come in and do things. I’m under no illusions of grandeur in early-season racing. I think these guys are a class above me at the moment. I know just from where I’m at in my training. It’s a difficult transition because I’m really in limbo land right now. For an event like this [the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon] I’m really hollow. My back-end endurance is going to be off because I’m no longer training for this, and really my speed’s not there for Sydney.

It was a difficult decision that my early season racing could be quite shallow and hollow. But it’s been an enjoyable process, I must admit. I’m reinvigorated. I’m looking forward to that challenge and I think more than anything, as an athlete, I was always motivated by the process of trying to work out a solution for a certain event. Kona was my puzzle for many years and being a bigger guy trying to get that race right, you know especially when I had sports scientists who told me, “You can never win this race.” You know, and those same sports scientists told me that it was a one-way ticket, that once I went to Ironman I could never come back. So it would be real sweet to prove those guys wrong twice.

Triathlete.com: What are the challenges to trying to do long-course racing and ITU racing at the same time? Many ITU athletes I have spoken to say they would never try to do both at the same time.

McCormack: Oh the challenges are enormous but as I said, four weeks ago I wasn’t even looking at this. You know, I’m an Ironman guy who is trying to find speed and speed kills aged athletes. I’m almost double the age of some of these guys I [will be] racing. I know their talents and I know their abilities. But I think my savvy, my race savvy is very good. This was my specialist distance when I was younger. I don’t think I was ever as fast as an [Alistair] Brownlee or these type of guys, but it was definitely the distance that I was most suited to, so, I’m hoping that I can find that speed—[but] be very very delicate in that transition across. Start with the swim, bring that threshold work back on the bike and develop the run last. And you know, people I’ve spoke to who do the ITU say it’s mass suicide to do that because the run is so quick, but I just really have to be delicate at 38. I just cannot shift that kind of work, because an injury at this time in my career is career-threatening. And I think they’re right, you can’t do both. And I won’t be, post-June. And my focus is definitely trying to make the Australian team so, if you do see me on start lists on events like here [the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon] and the [Challenge] Cairns, without saying anything negative about the events and me being a part of them, know that my focus is elsewhere and I’ve taken that into consideration.

Triathlete.com: You talk a lot about how you really like to break down races and study them. Have you started to do that with ITU races?

Although McCormack is one of the strongest runners at the Ironman distance, he's acknowledge he has some work to do to get his run to the ITU level. Photo: Nils Nilsen

McCormack: One hundred percent. I’ve watched the last three years of the World Cup series online. We bought the DVD set. And that’s really given me an insight into the year—it’s that I’m way behind. You know, my transitions are poor compared to these guys. There’s the way they’re attacking these races. We’ve had to understand the fact that I’m not Alistair Brownlee. Even at my best, my running is just not at that level. And if I have any aspirations of being successful at the pointy [top] end of this style of event, I need to look at other ways to try to put myself in a position to win.

And you know … that is what I thoroughly enjoy. I sit there with my guys and we watch the individual athletes and we start the process of writing up about them, OK, Brownlee, this is where we think he’s fragile. What are his bike skills? And you know, and until you’ve raced in the races—it’s one thing to watch them—but, that’s why I’ve decided to throw my hat in the ring in Sydney [the World Championship Series race in Sydney]. I know I’m going to get blasted but I really get to see them in a racing environment—how they handle the buildup. How they handle the racing. Whether there are athletes who like to intimidate, whether there are athletes who are low key and sit back and are opportunists. And uh, once you sort of get that psyche of an athlete you can really pick on that outside the racing and really develop strategies to beat them.

Triathlete.com: So are you going to start talking a little smack? Because the ITU wants that.

McCormack: [Laughing]. Yeah, I guess so. First I gotta get to know the characters and I’m sure these young guys want to retire me. It’s been quite ironic and it’s quite different in Australia. There are a lot of the Ironman guys who are like, well, it’s great to have one of our own in the ITU. And a lot of the ITU guys are like, well, I get to see what these Ironman boys are all about. A lot of them are going to try to say, “Hey, we don’t get enough respect. Look at the punishing we’re giving to your world champion at the moment.” But I think it’s definitely going to spark an interest. I know a lot of the guys who don’t follow the ITU are now going to watch how I go. It’s been funny reading some of these chat sites and forums with people going, “What’s he thinking? Who does he think he is?” Like, well, “He’s going to get his ass kicked.” And I want to say I’m under no illusions. This is a personal venture I’ve set with my wife and said, “You know what? Let’s do it.” And the only failure I can have is not trying. And I’m only looking for a spot on the Olympic team. I never said, “I think I can win in London.” You know, you gotta be in the Olympics for dreams to happen and the first step is to get there.

[sig:CourtneyBaird]

Photo courtesy of Capt. James Bales.

Captain Bales, 21st Force Support Squadron orthopedic surgeon currently on staff at the U.S. Air Force Academy Hospital, has been named U.S. Air Force Male Athlete of the Year for 2010.

He received the award at the annual Air Force Sports Directors Conference in San Diego in December.

Captain Bales is one of the military’s elite athletes who found his niche in triathlons – swimming, biking and running. Now, he is part of the two-year U.S.A.F. World Class Athlete Program, which allows him to train for the 2012 Olympic Trials and Olympic Games.

He started competing in triathlons after graduating from the USAF Academy in 2001, where he was a member of the varsity swimming team. First, it was Ironman Wisconsin in 2002; then, he raced annually in the Armed Forces Championship beginning in 2003; finally, he competed in the 2007 World Military Games and the 2008 Ironman World Championship – just to name a few.

On June 5, 2010 Captain Bales was one of 78 of the military’s top athletes who competed in the 2010 Armed Forces Triathlon at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, Calif. He completed a 1,500 meter swim, 40K bike and 10K run to win the event in a cool 1:46:32 (19:24 swim, 54:39 bike, 33:44 run plus transition times) and he won his first gold medal.

Captain Bales had the energy and stamina to compete, although he didn’t arrive at the competition until 13 hours before the start of the event because he was completing his five-year residency program at Wilford Hall Medical Center, an Air Force Level 1 Trauma Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Click here to read an interview with Captain Bales.

Photo: Paul Phillips

Laura Bennett has long been one of the best American triathletes on the ITU circuit. She won the inaugural ITU Hy-Vee World Cup Triathlon—the world’s richest triathlon, with $200,000 to the winner—in 2007, and she barely missed a medal in Beijing by finishing fourth. Out with an injury for a while after the Olympics, she recently bounced back with an 8th place finish at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Grand Final in Budapest, Hungary, in September. That finish makes her the top-ranked American in 2010 and 10th in the world.

Training & Racing
Training spot: Victoria, B.C.
Place to swim in open water: Noosa, Australia
Race: The Olympic Games
Form of active recovery: Easy swim
Piece of gear: Oakley sunglasses
Do you prefer a hilly or flat course? Hilly!
Drafting or non-drafting? Drafting, as long as it is a hilly, challenging course.
Proudest moment in triathlon: Winning the Des Moines World Cup in 2007

Fuel
Pre-race meal: Chicken and veggie pasta
Fuel during a race: Carbo Pro
Post-workout recovery fuel: Athletes Honey Milk
Coffee: Amante Selection A
Junk food: Chocolate chip cookies
Cocktail: Piña colada

Travelling
City to race in: Sydney, Australia
Snack when you’re traveling: Honey Stinger Bars
Way to avoid bike fees: Hope I am lucky and have a nice check-in attendant who doesn’t care about adding to the revenue of the airlines.
Way to pass the time in a plane: Sudoku and movies

Downtime
Book: “The Da Vinci Code”
Charity: Family
Movie: “Wedding Crashers”
Type of music: Black Eyed Peas genre
If you weren’t a professional triathlete, you’d be… A Hollywood superstar

This article was featured in the December issue of Triathlete magazine. Click here to subscribe.

See the announcement from USAT below:

With the debut of the USA Triathlon Elite Race Series in 2011, USA Triathlon has created a domestic, six-event series that delivers an opportunity for the nation’s top Olympic-distance triathletes to compete for more than $300,000 in prize money and a series title – all while honing the draft-legal racing skills necessary to challenge for the podium at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The six events that comprise the series will be held in Orlando Region, Fla. (March 5), Miami, Fla. (May 22), Seattle Region, Wash. (June 25), San Francisco, Calif. (July 9), Buffalo, N.Y. (Sept. 24) and Myrtle Beach, S.C. (Oct. 8). Each site also will host an age-group race in conjunction with the elite event.

“The USA Triathlon Elite Race Series offers elite triathletes the opportunity to compete in the type of high-level, draft-legal events that are rarely contested in the United States,” USA Triathlon National Events Director Jeff Dyrek said. “Additionally, multisport fans on both coasts will have the chance to watch America’s Olympic hopefuls in action and witness firsthand the excitement of draft-legal racing.”

Each event will offer prize purses ranging from $30,000 to $75,000. A total purse of $305,000 will be on the line over the course of the series.

To be eligible for the series title, an athlete must compete in a minimum of three series events. Each athlete’s top three finishes will be used to calculate the series standings. The top 10 finishers in each event will earn points toward the series title and a $60,000 overall series prize purse.

The overall series winner for each gender will earn a $10,000 bonus. The top five men and women in the series standings will split the overall series prize purse.

Both the USA Triathlon Elite National Championship in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept. 24 and the Oct. 8 series finale in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will be worth double points. The Buffalo event will feature a $75,000 prize purse – $25,000 of which will serve as a bonus for the top-five American finishers. $50,000 will be up for grabs in Myrtle Beach.

Several of the events may be a part of the to-be-announced 2011 International Triathlon Union Pan American Cup series. A maximum field of 75 elite athletes per gender will toe the starting line.

“It is very exciting to have a draft-legal race series in the U.S. leading into London 2012. Draft-legal races are extremely different from non-drafting races, and for U.S. athletes it is important to race in this format,” said Jarrod Shoemaker, 2008 U.S. Olympian and USA Triathlon National Team member. “This series also will increase exposure for both athletes and media to the draft-legal format.”

The series will kick off with a pair of early season sprint-distance races in Florida – The Draft Legal Challenge at Clermont on March 5 outside Orlando, Fla., and the May 22 Miami Speed Triathlon in Miami, Fla. The Draft Legal Challenge at Clermont will serve as the first-ever USA Triathlon Elite Sprint National Championship.

From there, the series will resume on June 25 with the TriMonroe – Gateway to Adventure in Monroe, Wash., which is located outside Seattle.

The popular San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island will serve as the fourth stop of the series on July 9.

The Nickel City Triathlon in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept. 24 will serve as event No. 5 of the series, as well as the 2011 USA Triathlon Elite National Championship.

The Myrtle Beach Triathlon, which will simultaneously host the 2011 USA Triathlon Long Course and Club National Championships, will conclude the series on Oct. 8.

Fans in attendance at series events will have the opportunity to experience the draft-legal style of racing found on the ITU’s World Championship Series circuit and in the Olympic Games. This format is exceptionally spectator friendly with multi-loop courses on the bike and run.

“Spectators who attend these races will be able to watch more of the race than at any other triathlon,” Shoemaker said. “With athletes passing the same point multiple times during the race, it is a more energetic environment for both spectators and athletes.”

2011 USA Triathlon Elite Race Series
March 5 – Orlando Region, Fla. The Draft Legal Challenge at Clermont $30,000
May 22 – Miami, Fla. Miami Speed Triathlon $30,000
June 25- Seattle Region, Wash. TriMonroe – Gateway to Adventure $30,000
July 9 – San Francisco, Calif. San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island $30,000
Sept. 24 – Buffalo, N.Y. Nickel City Triathlon $75,000
Oct. 8 – Myrtle Beach, S.C. Myrtle Beach Triathlon $50,000