It is Award Time!

There has been an exciting new award category added to this annual years TA awards.  To be fondly referred to as the ‘dishonourable’s’ the winners in this category provide a shining example of how to NOT lead a sport in Australia.  

The Bronze medal awarded in the inaugural dishonourable award for the least transparent process in Triathlon Australia goes to its Reporting Procedures.  The Annual TA Report disclosures seem to disclose less information to members on a regular basis, while the increasing TA staff numbers and costs associated with its bloated organisation overseeing the decline of Triathlon is very visible.  For those interested, try downloading the Annual Report information from the TA website - brilliant move.  It is impossible!

The silver medal awarded in the dishonourable category for the least transparent process in Triathlon Australia goes to Governance.  Unfortunately details cannot be disclosed at this time, because well…that’s a question TA needs to answer and justify to Members. 

The gold medal dishonourable award for the least transparent process in Triathlon Australia goes to……. Athlete Team Selection.  This process was by far the least transparent.  Brilliantly executed by the Triathlon Australia Elite Selection Committee (TAESC) and, one would expect, approved by the TA Board, The President, the CEO and the High Performance Director.  

The selection policy is what all athletes and coaches focus all their efforts for 52 weeks every year so that they can achieve peak performance to represent this country in Triathlon for sustained success.  In any sport, the clarity of any selection process is critical for both athlete and coach to ensure peak performances can be achieved.  The ability of the TA Athlete Team Selection policy and process to confuse both Athletes and Coaches nationally is quite breathtaking through its lack of clarity and transparency.  The wonderfully composed extract from the TA Athlete Selection Policy underlines why the Gold dishonourable award was awarded:  

‘Without in any way limiting the discretion of the Selection Panel, the Selection Panel may consider any matter in relation to any athlete under consideration for discretionary nomination. In exercising the discretion, the Selection Panel need not consider any particular matter and need not apply any weighting to any matter it does consider. ‘

The Athlete Appeals process, to be used by an Athlete in the event of non selection received a ’Special Commendation’ , as a sub element of the TA Selection Policy ensuring the ‘Athlete Team Selection’ was awarded the Gold Dishonourable award.  

The Athlete Appeal process provides clause 1,(b),(i), which reads as follows: 

 The sole ground of any are appeal is:

‘(i) That the Athlete's omission from the Team was as a result of a failure by TAESC to properly follow the process set out in this Policy’.  

Then states at 

Clause 5,(ii)  ‘it is not bound by the rules of evidence and may inform itself as to any matter in such manner as it thinks fit; ‘

…just brilliant

Congratulations to the Triathlon Australia Board members, President and CEO and all those Executives of TA who contributed so enthusiastically towards ensuring TA should be subject to an independent review and the future cancellation of dishonourable awards, because, those awards are…….JUST APPALLING.     

Athletes First.  Always.Triathlon Australia needs a full independent review.

Keep signing and sharing the petition - link here

Keep sharing your stories with Sport integrity Australia - email integritymatters@sportintegrity.gov.au

Athletes First.  Always.