Three Paratriathlon Medal Events Added For 2024 Paris Games
by Todd Kortemeier
Kelly Elmlinger competes at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 on August 29, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
The growth of paratriathlon at the Paralympic Games continues as World Triathlon and the International Paralympic Committee announced Friday that the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 will feature 11 medal events, an increase of three from 2020 and five from the Paralympic debut of the sport in 2016.
The three new medal events to be contested in Paris are men’s PTS2, men’s PTS3 and women’s PTS4. Those three new events mean spots for 40 more athletes at the Games compared to Tokyo, a total of 120. New medal events are approved by the IPC Governing Board in consultation with national federations.
“We are delighted with this decision, that proves that paratriathlon is one of the key sports in the Paralympic program, and we keep increasing the number of events and the number of participants,” said World Triathlon President Marisol Casado in a news release.
All three events are currently contested at the world championships. At the most recent edition in Abu Dhabi in early November, Team USA Paralympian Kelly Elmlinger won the women’s PTS4 world title. American Lahna Mohamed competed in the men’s PTS2, finishing sixth.
The announcement comes along with the finalization of the medal events program for Paris, which will see up to 4,400 athletes competing in 549 medal events in 22 sports. Included in that is 235 medal events for women, which represents an increase of eight from Tokyo.