Olympic Qualification Part 2. Are the rich getting richer.

Tjebbe Kaindl claimed the final 48th quota slot via the Individual Ranking in 2024 finishing in 81st place on the table. Coming in with 1690 points he was 15 places and over 500 points behind Jamie Riddle of South Africa who claimed the 47th slot. Despite being so far behind Riddle on total points the competition for the final slot was consistently in the high 70s low 80s on the rankings during the qualification period.

The total points required was also significantly lower than previous Olympics and the gap of 15 places was filled with athletes from countries who had already filled out their maximum quota allowance. Overall it does appear that the rich are indeed getting richer in World Triathlon.

Of the top 81 athletes on the Men’s Olympic Ranking, including Kaindl, 6 nations accounted for 45% of the total. 70% of the athletes came from just 11 nations with 4 or more. 

Over the last 3 Olympics the numbers are quite stark. In Rio 2016 there were a total of 31 nations in the top 81 slots. This dropped to 29 for Tokyo 2020 and dramatically to 25 for 2024. 

Meanwhile the number of athletes accounted for by the top 11 scoring nations has also steadily increased from 48 in 2016, through 51 in 2020 up to 56 in 2024.

Clearly this concentration of top athletes in fewer countries is not a healthy trend for the sport as a whole however it is not necessarily bad for the prospects of individual athletes from smaller nations due to the limits of team sizes. The big players as in all Olympic sports can only take a limited number of the slots on offer. 

Where the smaller nations will continue to be impacted of course is in costs. We will look at the total number of events a typical athlete on the edge of qualification has to do and how much travelling is involved in a future post.

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