Madrid is the home of ITU’s (second) president, Marisol Casado. She took over the reigns from her predecessor, Les McDonald (CAN), in 2008. Casado won Spain’s first triathlon in Guadelajara in 1984, is one of the co-founders of the Spanish Triathlon Federation and was involved in the creation of ITU in 1989.
She is less confronting than McDonald and has adapted a more consensus building approach. Her legacy is the continued growth of the sport (World Triathlon Series), promotion of equal gender-representation, furthering para-triathlon and getting the Mixed Team Relay at the Olympics.
Fun Fact: In 2012 ITU was the first international sport federation with an all-female management. (National triathlon federations still have few women, so overall there is still plenty of work still for Mdm Casado.)
For a decade, from 2003 till 2013, Madrid hosted an ITU World Cup and was part of the ITU World Triathlon Series from 2009 to 2011. In 2011, the Brownlee brothers beat Javier Gomez to the finish in his ‘home race’. Gomez’ real home race was last year in Pontevedra at the ITU Long Distance World Champions, when he did take the win.
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Check here the other Triathlon Destinations reached by the MetaSport Live Triathlon World Tour participants and learn interesting triathlons facts.
