Triathlon is one of the sports at the quadrennial Commonwealth Games competition. It was first granted Commonwealth Games sport status in 2002, and has been held in each edition since, except in Delhi 2010 Games due to the lack of suitable venue for the swimming leg in Delhi. Until 2022, it was a core sport which had to be included in each competition's sporting programme. Para-triathlon was first included as an optional sport in the Gold Coast 2018 games. The next appearance of the sport will take place in the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Australia [1]
Currently there are five triathlon events in the Commonwealth Games.
Individual events are held for men and women and have been since the sport's introduction in 2002, while a mixed team relay has been on the programme since 2014.
Additionally, as part of its program of integrating parasport into the Commonwealth Games, two paratriathlon events were included in the 2018 Games in Gold Coast, Australia. These events, one for each sex, where wheelchair paratriathlon events ('PTW1' and 'PTW2' classifications) using a multiple start format to ensure fairness across different wheelchair classes. In the 2022 Games the paratriathlon events were retained, and were for athletes with visual impairments ('PTVI' classification). A third set of paratriathlon events, as yet undesignated, has been announced for Victoria 2026.
At the 1990 Commonwealth Games at Auckland, Triathlon was a demonstration event; won by Erin Baker (women) and Rick Wells (men), both from New Zealand. [2]
Flora Duffy of Bermuda is the only triathlete of either sex to win two individual gold medals, or to win gold medals in separate Games, while Alistair Brownlee. Jodie Stimpson and Alex Yee have each won two Commonwealth Games gold medals, one individual, one mixed relay, in a single Games. Alistair Brownlee, with two golds and one silver medal, is overall the most successful triathlete in Commonwealth Games history. Jacob Birtwhistle, Matthew Hauser, Jonny Brownlee and Vicky Holland have also won 3 medals, including at least one relay gold.
| Games | Year | Host city | Host country | Best nation | Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XVII | 2002 | Manchester |  England |  Canada | 2 |
| XVIII | 2006 | Melbourne, Victoria |  Australia |  Australia | 2 |
| XX | 2014 | Glasgow |  Scotland |  England | 3 |
| XXI | 2018 | Gold Coast, Queensland | Australia | England | 5 |
| XXII | 2022 | Birmingham | England | England | 5 |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 () | Simon Whitfield (CAN) | Miles Stewart (AUS) |  Hamish Carter (NZL) |
| 2006 () | Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) | Bevan Docherty (NZL) | Peter Robertson (AUS) |
| 2010 | not held | ||
| 2014 () | Alistair Brownlee (ENG) | Jonathan Brownlee (ENG) |  Richard Murray (RSA) |
| 2018 () | Henri Schoeman (RSA) | Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) |  Marc Austin (SCO) |
| 2022 () | Alex Yee (ENG) | Hayden Wilde (NZL) | Matt Hauser (AUS) |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 () | Carol Montgomery (CAN) |  Leanda Cave (WAL) | Nicole Hackett (AUS) |
| 2006 () | Emma Snowsill (AUS) | Samantha Warriner (NZL) | Andrea Hewitt (NZL) |
| 2010 | not held | ||
| 2014 () | Jodie Stimpson (ENG) | Kirsten Sweetland (CAN) | Vicky Holland (ENG) |
| 2018 () |  Flora Duffy (BER) | Jessica Learmonth (ENG) | Joanna Brown (CAN) |
| 2022 () | Flora Duffy (BER) | Georgia Taylor-Brown (ENG) | Beth Potter (SCO) |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 PTWC | Joe Townsend (ENG) | Nic Beveridge (AUS) | Bill Chaffey (AUS) |
| 2022 PTVI | David Ellis (ENG) pilot : Luke Pollard | Sam Harding (AUS) pilot : Luke Harvey | Jonathan Goerlach (AUS) pilot : David Mainwaring |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 PTWC | Jade Jones (ENG) | Emily Tapp (AUS) | Lauren Parker (AUS) |
| 2022 PTVI | Katie Crowhurst (ENG) Guide: Jessica Fullagar |  Chloe MacCombe (NIR)Guide: Catherine A Sands | Jessica Tuomela (AUS) Guide: Emma Skaug |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | England | 9 | 4 | 1 | 14 |
| 2 | Australia | 3 | 5 | 8 | 16 |
| 3 | Canada | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 4 | Bermuda | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | South Africa | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | New Zealand | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 7 | Wales | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Northern Ireland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Scotland | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Totals (9 entries) | 17 | 17 | 17 | 51 | |
Triathlon had its Summer Olympics debut at the 2000 Games, in Sydney, when men's and women's individual events were first held, and has been contested since then. In 2021, at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics a mixed team relay event was held for the first time. The sport, and its Olympic events, are governed by the International Triathlon Union, known since 2019 as World Triathlon.
Alistair Edward Brownlee MBE is an English former triathlete. He is the only athlete to hold two Olympic titles in the individual triathlon event, winning gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He is also a four-time World Champion in triathlon being Triathlon World Champion twice and World Team Champion twice, a four-time European Champion, and the 2014 Commonwealth champion. Brownlee is the only male athlete,, to have completed a grand slam of Olympic, World, and continental championships. Brownlee is also a one-time world champion in aquathlon. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest male Triathletes ever.
Jonathan Callum Brownlee is an English professional duathlete and triathlete. He is a six-time World champion, and one-time Olympic champion in triathlon.
Jodie Lee Stimpson is a British professional triathlete who also currently competes in the Iron Man distance of the sport. In 2013, she finished runner-up in the ITU World Triathlon Series. She has won 3 global titles during her career.
Non Rhiannydd Stanford is a British former professional triathlete, representing Great Britain and Wales at international level. Stanford was the ITU World Champion in 2013, part of the Great Britain world champion mixed relay team in 2012 and represented Team GB at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she finished fourth behind teammate and housemate Vicky Holland. Hindered thereafter by recurrent injuries, she struggled to repeat the dominant form of her early years. In her final year of competition, 2022, however she found an exceptional final flourish of form; she anchored Wales to silver in the team event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, her first Commonwealth medal and her first major championship medal since 2015 World Triathlon mixed relay bronze. One week later, in her final major Olympic distance triathlon race, Stanford won her first and only European championship.
Vicky Holland is a British former triathlete who was part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic team. Holland was the 2018 World Triathlon champion, the fourth British woman to win the title. She was also the first female triathlete to win an Olympic medal for Great Britain, a bronze in 2016, holding off housemate, compatriot and fellow world champion Non Stanford.
The Triathlon competitions at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow, were held in Strathclyde Country Park. The men's and women's individual events were held on Thursday 24 July and women's triathlon was the first medal event of the Games. Mixed team relay was held on Saturday 26 July for the first time ever in major multi-sport Games. Marisol Casado, ITU President and IOC member, commented: "We are delighted the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee has embraced the Triathlon Mixed Relay. Triathlon is on currently on a high in the United Kingdom, and the Mixed Relay will offer an extra opportunity for the people of Glasgow to watch another thrilling and unpredictable event live on their city streets."
Beth Potter is a multiple World Champion Scottish triathlete and long distance runner competing internationally for Great Britain, and for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. She competed for Great Britain in athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In 2019 she won the gold medal at the European Triathlon Championships in Weert, Netherlands. In 2022, she won individual bronze at the 2022 World Triathlon Sprint Championships, and silver with Team Great Britain in the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships. In 2023, she won the Elite championship in the World Triathlon Championship Series, becoming the sixth British women's world champion.
England competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia between 4 and 15 April 2018. It was England's 21st appearance at the Commonwealth Games, having participated at every Games since their inception in 1930.
Jessica Learmonth is a British triathlete. Learmonth is a European, Commonwealth, Olympic and World Triathlon Series medal winner based in Leeds, England where she trains at the Leeds Triathlon Centre. She won the European Triathlon Championship in 2017 and took silver in 2018. She competed in the women's event and the mixed relay at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning silver medals in both disciplines. Learmonth won silver in the 2019 World Triathlon Series.
Nicole van der Kaay is a New Zealand triathlete who represented her country at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. She won a bronze medal in the mixed relay with teammates Andrea Hewitt, Tayler Reid, and Ryan Sissons, and was the best-placed New Zealander in the women's triathlon, finishing seventh. She competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games where she came 9th in the women's event. She grew up in Taupō.
Mixed-sex sports are individual and team sports whose participants are not of a single sex. In many organised sports settings, rules dictate an equal number of people of each sex in a team. Usually, the main purpose of these rules are to account for physiological sex differences. Mixed-sex sports in informal settings are typically groups of neighbours, friends or family playing without regard to the sex of the participants. Mixed-sex play is also common in youth sports as before puberty and adolescence, sport-relevant sex differences affect performance far less.
Lauren Parker is an Australian para-triathlete and para-cyclist. She won a silver medal (triathlon) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics and two gold and silver (cycling) medals at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Georgia Taylor-Brown is an English professional triathlete. Having won bronze in the 2018 and 2019 World Triathlon Series, Taylor Brown won the one-off sprint triathlon race in Hamburg that constituted the 2020 World Triathlon Championship, becoming the fifth British woman to become world champion.
Sophie Coldwell is a British triathlete. She competed in the women's event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. and has achieved several medals in International Triathlon Union (ITU) and European Triathlon Union (ETU) Championships. Sophie Coldwell is based in Loughborough, England. On the 26th June 2022, she won her 1st major medal when helping Team GB to Silver in the mixed team relay. She finished in third place in the 2022 Super League Triathlon Championship Series.
Alexander Amos Yee is a British professional triathlete and distance runner. He is the 2024 World and Olympic champion in standard or 'Olympic' distance triathlon, the second man to win both titles in a single year.
Triathlon was one of the sports contested at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, held in Birmingham, England. This was the fifth staging of triathlon at the Commonwealth Games since the sport's debut in 2002, and the second staging within England specifically.
The 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series was the 14th season of the World Triathlon Championship Series, the top level international series for triathlon, since its establishment in 2009, and crowned the 34th official World Triathlon Champion for both men and women since the first was crowned in 1989.
The triathlon competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris ran from 31 July to 5 August at Pont Alexandre III, featuring a total of 110 athletes who were to compete in each of the men's and women's events. After a successful debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the mixed relay competition will remain in the triathlon program for the second time.
