Triathlon: the ideal sport for women who want to compete alongside men | Life and style | The Guardian

Triathlon: the ideal sport for women who want to compete alongside men | Life and style | The Guardian: "I take a strange kind of pride in the fact that in all the photos of myself I like the most, I look a right old mess. Usually I’m wearing something skin-tight made out of Lycra or neoprene. I’ve got marks round my eyes where my swimming goggles have sat and my hair’s more street urchin than pixie crop. What you’d notice before all that though – and the thing that’s most important – is the size of the grin on my face.

This is a theme explored recently in the This Girl Can campaign – and I’d recommend anyone who wants to focus on the sheer enjoyment and exhilaration of sport to take up triathlon. You’ll get fit fast – training for three sports will do that – and the variety keeps it interesting.

With our coverage of female triathletes in 220 Triathlon I’m very, very lucky as editor of the magazine. Triathlon is quite an unusual sport at the elite level, as women race on an equal billing with the men at the same events. On the ITU race circuit, men and women race the same courses and distances and receive the same prize money. In fact, my only gripe would be that the wider media could do more – why, for instance, do the men’s races get better TV slots?"



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