Triathlon’s growth as a sport and its high standards of good governance have been recognised with a 25% increase in funding from Sport Ireland.
Triathlon Ireland has seen its funding increase from €180,000 in 2019 to a total core grant of €225,000 for 2020.
The increase follows a 66% boost between 2018 and 2019 and means Triathlon Ireland is now receiving more than twice the level of core funding support from Sport Ireland than it did two years ago.
High Performance funding remains at €250,000 for 2020.
The increase in funding reflects the huge jumps in participation figures for the sport over the past decade.
Last year, Triathlon Ireland’s membership reached a record high of almost 19,000. Female participation rates also increased in 2019 and are now at 36% – one of the highest rates of any sport in Ireland.
Triathlon Ireland’s work in this area was recognised late last year with a threefold increase in Sport Ireland’s Women in Sport funding.
The Chief Executive Officer of Triathlon Ireland, Chris Kitchen welcomed the funding increase:
“Sport Ireland’s increase in support is a vote of confidence for all the great work done to develop and grow our sport carried out by Triathlon Ireland’s staff, our 96 clubs and especially, the thousands of volunteers who give their time to the sport right throughout the year.”
Mr Kitchen added, “Without them triathlon would not be in the fantastic position we have reached.”
He also said the increase is recognition for the investment Triathlon Ireland has put in to good governance:
“We are very proud at Triathlon Ireland of our programmes to develop the sport and our attention to good governance. It is rewarding that these are also recognised by Sport Ireland resulting in this increase. We have also had a significant increase in our Women in Sport funding reflecting the effectiveness of our ‘Equally Inspiring’ Women In Sport strategy and programmes that have seen an increase in women’s participation in our sport,” said Mr Kitchen.
He also thanked Sport Ireland not just for increasing Triathlon Ireland’s core funding but for leveraging more investment for sport across the board:
“The National Sports Policy and the associated increase in exchequer funding to deliver the policy is a game changer for sport in Ireland. It is great to see the the increase in the awareness of the importance of sport in the health and wellbeing of our nation with more funding in sport in general and it is fantastic to see our fast growing sport of triathlon benefitting from this.”
Triathlon Ireland’s was one of 58 National Governing Bodies to receive core funding allocations totalling €13.8 million. A further €9.4 million has been allocated to High Performance nationally as the country’s athletes prepare for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Last year Irish triathletes won 80 medals at major competitions including four continental cup medals and one World Cup silver medal for Carolyn Hayes, four continental cup podiums – including two victories for Con Doherty; and four top 20 World Cup finishes for Russell White.