Overview
Triathlon is an endurance sport combining swimming, cycling, and running in a continuous race with no breaks. Born in California in the 1970s, it spread rapidly worldwide thanks to the simplicity of its concept and the difficulty of its execution. It joined the Olympic programme at Sydney 2000 and has since become one of the most spectator-friendly endurance events.
Olympic triathlon consists of a 1500-metre open-water swim, followed by a 40-kilometre cycling leg, then a 10-kilometre run, all contested back-to-back without pause. The transition phase between each leg and the next is a decisive competitive element — a delay of a few seconds in a transition can determine the entire race outcome. Olympic competition includes individual events for men and women, plus the mixed relay added at Tokyo 2020, in which teams of two men and two women rotate through shortened versions of the race.





