First Olympic quota spots at stake at 2022 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships in Montreal
The mixed relay event on Sunday 26 June will assign two quota spots, two men and two women each, for Paris 2024: find out which nations are vying for Olympic passes in Canada.
Some of the best athletes on the planet will be in action on 24 – 26 June in Montreal to compete in the first edition of the World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships.
The Canadian city is the fifth stop of the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series, the third taking place this year after Yokohama, Japan, in May and Leeds, Great Britain in June.
The Mixed Relay world championship will give the highest-ranked nation two quota spots per gender (two men, two women) for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, provided that the winning team has not already obtained the quotas.
Those earned in Montreal will be the first quota spots in any sport ahead of the next Games.
With the next Olympic host country receiving automatic spots, should France win the event, the second-placed team will obtain two direct Olympic passes.
What nation will punch its ticket for Paris? Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming championships.
READ: The road to Paris 2024: Triathlon qualification system explained
2022 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships: Formats
Mixed Relay
The mixed relay event made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, where Team GB won the gold medal, followed by the USA (silver) and France (bronze).
The competition features four athletes, two men and two women. Each of them has to swim for 300m, cycle for 6.8km, and run for 2km before tagging a team-mate. The order is always female-male-female-male.
The first Team Mixed Relay World Championships was held in 2009 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, with Switzerland taking the inaugural title. From 2013 until last year the event had been taking place in Hamburg.
The German city will stage the competition again in 2023.
Three-time defending champions France have been the most successful nation in the event (four titles) ahead of Great Britain (three) and Switzerland (two).
Sprint and super sprint
Junior and age group athletes will compete in the individual sprint distance (750m swim, 20km bike ride, 5km run). The elite will race over a super sprint distance (300m swim, 7km bike ride, 1.5km run) in the new eliminator format with qualifying rounds, semi-finals and repechages before the final.
Mixed Relay World Championship: Stars to watch
The first Mixed Relay event giving points for the Olympic qualification rankings took place in Leeds on 12 June. Germany took the victory in front of home favourites Team GB and France, thanks to a powerful display by Lasse Nygaard-Priester, Anabel Knoll, Lasse Luhrs and Laura Lindermann.
With no Germans having entered the competition, Olympic medallists Great Britain, USA and France will likely fight for the win in Canada.
As teams won't be confirmed until 24 hours ahead of the event, Tokyo 2020 individual silver medallist Alex Yee is expected to lead a strong British team, also including fellow Olympic mixed relay champion Georgia Taylor-Brown, leader of the WTC elite women rankings.
The men’s elite series number one Leo Bergere should headline the French squad and will be supported by three-time mixed relay world champion Vincent Luis and Cassandre Beaugrand, both bronze medallists in the Olympic event last summer.
Team USA, featuring Olympic mixed relay silver medallists Kevin McDowell and Taylor Knibb, will also be among the contenders along with Italy and Belgium, respectively forth and fifth in Leeds.
2022 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships: Schedule
The World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships is a multiple-event competition which includes the World Triathlon Championship Series for the elite athletes, as well as the Junior World Championships, Age-Group Sprint World Championships and the Mixed Relay World Championships for Elites, Junior/U23 and Age-Group categories.
A total of 1,500 athletes from around the world will compete on Le Grand Quai of the Port of Montreal.
Times are local (UTC-4). Detailed schedule can be found here.
24 June
8:00 Junior Women’s Sprint World Championship
10:00 Junior Men’s Sprint World Championship
12:00 Women's/Men's Qualifications (Eliminator Heat)
16:00 Women's/Men's Repechages (Eliminator Heat)
25 June
14:06 Elite Women final
16:46 Elite Men final
26 June
14:00 Junior/U23 Mixed Team Relay World Championship
16:45 Elite Mixed Team Relay World Championship
2022 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships: How to watch
The World Triathlon Championship Series elite races are streamed live and on-demand at triathlonlive.tv and on FloBikes, FloTrack, FloSwimming in the United States of America.
You can check the list of TV Broadcasters here.