Author(s): GARCÍA-GONZÁLEZ, P., GONZÁLEZ-JURADO, J.A., WALZEL, S., Institution: EUROPEAN COLLEGE OF SPORT SCIENCE, Country: SPAIN, Abstract-ID: 126

INTRODUCTION:
Triathlon combines different sport disciplines in one single event. Some authors have examined the relevance of the individual disciplines to overall performance, (1) highlighting the need to continue exploring this perspective. No studies have examined top-class Olympic triathlon performance while jointly considering final ranking, event importance and performance evolution over time. The aim of this study is to compare performance levels across three main triathlon events, to compare the performance of medallist with non-medallist triathletes and to carry out an analysis of the performance trends in Olympic-distance triathlon across 23 years.
METHODS:
The dataset for this study was obtained from the World Triathlon website (http://wts.triathlon.org/). Individual discipline times and overall times from 2000 to 2023 were collected for analysis, excluding 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. World Championship (ITU), European Championship (ETU) and Olympic Games (OG) were included in the analysis. One-way ANOVA following the pairwise post hoc (Bonferroni) were employed to compare performances between competitions. Student's t-test for independent samples was used for comparisons between medallists and non-medallists. Simple lineal regressions were employed to analyse the association between performance in each discipline over the years, for medallists and for all participants, irrespective of the competition.
RESULTS:
The best time never corresponds to the ET for any discipline, groups (medallists and all athletes) or sex. A significant relationship exists between the years and performance for all disciplines considering both groups and sexes (p values <0.001). Running (RT) and Final times (FT) in male athletes reveal significant differences favouring medallists at all competitions (p values <0.001 for RT at all competitions) (p values <0.001; <0.05; <0.01 for FT at the OG, ITU and ETU respectively). For female athletes, medallists’ time has always been lower than non-medallists’ time. For Swimming time (ST), this difference was significant at the OG and the ITU (p values <0.05; <0.01). For Cycling time (CT), this only occurs at the OG (p value <0.05). Nonetheless, for RT and FT, this happens in all three competitions (p values <0.001 for RT and <0.001; <0.001; <0.01 for FT at the OG, ITU, and ETU, respectively).
CONCLUSION:
RT is the most differentiating discipline between the medallists and the rest, although it is not the only one for female athletes. A causal relationship has been proven between the years and the performance improvement in all disciplines for both sexes. Male medallists have a similar final performance at the OG and the ITU. Female triathletes perform better at the World Championship.

1. Piacentini MF, Bianchini LA, Minganti C, Sias M, Di Castro A, Vleck V. Is the bike segment of modern olympic triathlon more a transition towards running in males than it is in females? Sports. 2019;7(4):1–9.