This is Great British Bosses by Anything but Footy. We profile the women and men responsible for sport in this country – many at national governing bodies – who manage teams, staff, budgets, grass-root participation and overseeing those medal moments at Olympic, Paralympic and elite level.
Triathlon was only invented in San Diego in 1974, but now the swim bike run event is an integral part of the Olympics and Paralympics and is expanding in 2020 for the first time since started in Sydney 20 years ago. In this episode, we’re back in Loughborough and the base of British Triathlon with Chief Executive Andy Salmon. Andy joined British Triathlon in November 2017, having previously chaired Triathlon Scotland. He talks us through the challenges ahead for a sport that’s had great success in GB – the joint most successful nation in the Olympics and medals on debut in Rio at the Paralympics. Andy admits he had sleepless nights about the heat of Tokyo for his competitors following the test events there last August, but is also confident the event will be a huge success. We talk about the possibility of double Olympic champion Ali Brownlee returning for Tokyo, and also his delight at him not retiring after a disappointing performance at his home World Triathlon event in Leeds earlier in 2019. And Andy gives us his personal view on how many medals British Triathlon will win at Tokyo 2020!
This is episode six of the first series of Great British Boss – Badminton, Gymnastics, Fencing, Swimming and Table Tennis covered off so far – watch out for more in 2020! In the meantime if you like what you hear please leave a review and rate us on Apple Podcasts!
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Invariably behind his brother when we launched our anything but footy spin-off Great British bosses we wanted to get behind the scenes of as many Olympic and Par Olympic sports see how decisions were made and talk to the people who help make the British success happen so we’re delighted in our sixth and final
One of the first series of # GB bosses we’re talking Triathlon the Brits are the joint most successful Triathlon Nation at the Olympics won four medals at the first ever parat Triathlon events in Rio and Triathlon is one of the fastest growing participation Sports in
The UK not bad for a sport invented in the 70s I’m John and I’m Michael and John and I have a combined four Decades of experience broadcasting about big Sports stories and at all the major sporting events we’ve reported on the Olympic Games the par Olympics the Commonwealth Games rugby and Cricket
World Cups Wimbledon the open and world and European championships in athletics swimming and cycling amongst others we also co-host the weekly podcast anything but footy about Olympic and Par Olympic sport which gets over 1,000 downloads every month and for this episode of Great British bosses we’re in lfra and
I’m and sumon and I’m the chief executive of British Triathlon Andy firstly thank you for having us it’s it’s nice to be here the weather is horrific um but I suppose it’s quite AP that I swam my way here um how I mentioned about the sport started in in
The 70s I really didn’t know that much about it until really 2012 came along I’ll be honest I know that it came in in the Olympics in in Sydney but firstly what is the beauty of triathlon in your eyes I guess it depends your perspective
A little bit but from my point of view as an administrator I love the fact that it was invented in the’ 70s in San Diego it’s super cool it’s very fresh one of the things we’re really proud of in our sport is that we have gender equality so
Right from the from the get-go female athletes were paid the same prize money as male athletes and that’s something that’s continued and that’s something that you know if you look at the sport now we’re very very proud of our our gender profile um so yeah huge amount to
Be to be really excited about but just that that freshness that that that um beginning of of the journey that we’re on you know we’re still growing very very quickly because we’re very much on the Steep part of that of that growth curve that that we’re seeing at the
Moment and I mentioned it’s one of the most participated Sports in the country you’ve got plans I’m assuming to grow even further absolutely one of the things you know we keep talking about internally here is whilst we are growing significantly we mustn’t be complacent and because we’re a young sport you know
If you compare it to a sport that might be 100 150 years old you know we’re not in the same place so yes we’re making making hay while the Sun’s shining but let’s work really really hard to make sure that growth continues so yeah we’ve got some really ambitious plans to
Introduce more children to the sport to grow our membership significantly so yeah really is an exciting time what would you say your your main role is at British Triathlon because when we’ve been doing this series of Great British bosses for example British swimming British Athletics are there to deliver
Elite medals British gymnastics England badminton they’re there to deliver for an elite program but they have a Grassroots and mass participation uh Lookout and remit as well what is your remit then yeah so really the remit is is everything um without getting too complicated here at lra we have uh
British Triathlon and Triathlon England and therefore we have responsibility for the entire sport from Cradle to grave literally So within our Triathlon England operation we’re really concerned with increasing participation introducing people to the sport developing clubs working with our regions and then watching those those young athletes who show some talent to
Develop that Talent so they can progress into the British Triathlon sphere where we really develop that Talent even further onto our world-class program and aspire to to compete in the par Olympics and the Olympic Games and you mentioned gender equality right at the start obviously something that that’s clearly
Important how big an issue then in in some other sports is that gender inequality I think it’s very easy for us to be sanctimonious in in triathon and we try very hard not to be um it’s back to that point I made at the beginning because we were invented in the70s I
Think we had the opportunity to set our stall out my career past was spent in golf and you probably couldn’t find a more different sport which was invented hundreds of years ago in cold damp jewy Scotland um so contrast that with San Diego in the 70s you get where I’m going
Um so it’s been easy for us to set our stall out in the way that we have uh and so I’d be very hesitant to be critical of other sports but I would still challenge other sports you know diversity is is a is a huge Topic in
Sport not just gender diversity but all forms of diversity and we haven’t cracked all of them either um but we need to work harder and harder at that yeah I was going to ask is there still work to do and if so what work yeah so
You know we we we pride ourselves on on being inclusive um but you know if you go along to a Tron event next summer you will see lots of middle-aged white men and women uh so we’re working very hard um at being inclusive for Bame uh and we’re making progress that starts with
Leadership so now for example 20% of our track on England board come from a Bame background so that’s really good so that’s the beginning um we now then need to look at the the um the imagery that we use on our website and our news stories and make sure that the people
From the Bame Community can see that this is a sport that they can do um the same for lgbtq plus and and and all the other um forms of diversity that we’re concerned with there’s there’s still a lot to do um yeah in those areas before we talk more about British triathon and
And the aims and obviously Tokyo coming up a bit about you because this is about GB bosses so you’ve been in the industry for 25 years and you mentioned golf so how did how do you end up being the CEO of British Tri I think I think so so often like you
Know this sort of happens in life doesn’t it it was literally a a shering moment where I I was a golfer I worked in golf did a bit of running some friends asked me to come along and do a triathlon relay and I did the relay uh
Sorry the running um leg of the relay I couldn’t swim at that time and I didn’t own a bike uh and it sounds a bit a bit corny and a bit cheesy but I was literally inspired it was a half Iron Man um event up in Scotland and I was so
Inspired I said to my wife I’m going to do this race next year so luckily she was a very good swimmer she taught me how to swim I went out and bought a bike when you say you couldn’t swim you couldn’t swim at all or you’d never done
Open Water Swimming I yeah I I could I could puddle from one to the other with with some form of breaststroke I couldn’t do front crawl I couldn’t do a length of front crawl I would drowned before I got to the other end of the
Pool um so she taught me to swim bought a bike um and I did that half Iron Man the following year uh and I set myself a target of 6 hours and I did 5 hours 59 minutes and 57 seconds so I was pretty chuff with that well well done and and
You mentioned Iron Man this is something that Str I struggled what’s the difference between the Iron Man competitions and triathon yeah and I just made a mistake there of using that term flippantly Iron Man is a brand uh so there’s an organization that owns that brand that run races um and and
They do half Iron Man or and then full Iron Man um outside of that brand you would call that long distance or half distance or middle distance um triatlon so it’s just a brand but it’s a very iconic brand and they have their world Final in in Kona in Hawaii um every year
In October so you’ve outlined your credentials as far as Triathlon is concerned but how do you come to this role then yeah well I’d hen to I’m not very good at Triathlon so my credentials only go so far better than us but um yeah no quite literally I you know that
That day was was a real life changer because I you know I got the bug I started to compete in triathlons and and improve um from being terrible to just not very good um and then the opportunity came up in in Scotland where I lived to be uh the chair of the board
Of Trion Scotland so I thought well I’m not really sure but you know I’m I’m a golfy guy I’ll give it a go and and they they they chose to take a risk and and take me on so I did that for a few years
And then after a couple of years um the Scotland board asked me to represent them on the British board so I joined the British board when Jack bner was the chief executive uh and so I guess I had had a little bit of a head start when
The opportunity came up when Jack moved on to go to British swimming um I thought long and hard about it and I thought you know here’s a sport I love um I love everything about it I love the culture I love the atmosphere why not and unfortunately the the board took a
Took a chance and and appointed me just over two years ago when you arrived at British Triathlon as a a CEO and you walk into your glass W office what are the challenges that present themselves what did you sit down on day one and think this is what I need to tackle here
Mhm yeah great question and and you how long have you got I think there the really practical responsibilities that you have as a CEO so do we have enough money in the bank what are our future projections what are our Reserve levels that type of thing what are our
Relationships like with our our partners both our commercial partners and our and our key Partners UK Sport and Sport England um but for me it’s always the first thing is always about the people um so it was a an opportunity to really get to know the people that worked here
Um assess how clear they were about the direction of travel uh and and they weren’t that clear so my my first real objective was to clarify our sense of purpose as an organization and then um on the back of that to establish some really meaningful organizational values
That the team and when I say the team I don’t just mean the staff team I mean the volunteers the boards and so on we did workshops all around the country developed our organizational values and that formed what what I’m really quite proud of is a onepage strategy which
Lays out what we’re all about one page one page one page of well that was my goal right from the start apart from making it meaningful and impactful it needed to be memorable and you know snct so our our vision is is six words so most of us can remember those those six
Words um great experiences through Swim Bike Run that is is our vision um and so I think you you asked me to really distill what is my key responsibility is to set that direction of travel and align everybody to that direction of travel and yeah we’re making good
Progress is it fair to say that you guys put on events as well um so obviously everyone knows about the leads or should know about the leads um event the world Triathlon series event there there’s the the relay event in Nottingham and then I think you you’re you’re kind of doing some
Road shows over the next kind of few weeks about trying to to get local authorities to maybe look at triathlons you know you you look at any weekend in this country in your local town There’s a 10K or a half marathon is that something that you want Swim Bike Run to
Be happening right across the UK yeah trion’s a very event realized sport you know you don’t come home from work and say I’ve just going to do a triathlon you you’re going to train and you and the weekend you might go and compete so Trion events are critical for us to the
First part of your question we don’t deliver very many events at all but we do deliver some really key events so the world Tri one series event in leads next year is is absolutely you know fundamental and at the core of our event strategy um we then have other events
Where we either appeal to a corporate Market um like the Accenture um corporate race in in Canary WARF in London that we’ve done for the last two years and then we have what we call the big weekend end which is at mallerie park where we bring together the the
Sort of developing Talent from around all three home countries to compete so so we deliver those types of events but the vast majority of events out there in the marketplace are delivered by clubs by commercial race organizers and they’re the people we really want to support so the workshops that we’re
Doing over the next couple of weeks are all about supporting those race organizers and they come in all different shapes and sizes to again back to our vision if we want people to have great experiences through swim B run we can’t do that all ourselves we need those race organizers those event
Organizers to provide those great experiences so our job is very much to support them to do that and and looking at the stats um I believe the triathlon business to the UK economy is worth 445 million pounds and that’s a 50% increase since 2012 and that goes to show what I
Said right at the start which is I didn’t know anything about Triathlon before 2012 and now it’s just literally you know skyrocketing yeah and you know as I say long way that continue but it won’t continue unless we continue to work really really hard and you know we’re very fortunate we get fantastic
Investment from UK Sport and Sport England but we need to put that investment to good work and not just spend it but suspend it in a way that’s sustainable so that if you know God forbid that that funding source dries up in the future the sport can carry on
Growing um even without it and how important is that event in leads because obviously it was in London you moved it to leads I suspect because we we had Alistair and Johnny brownley who were were based there along with a lot of other triathletes but the fact that and
I’ve covered that event for for radio every year it’s happened the fact that thousands go to round Hay Park thousands lie in that route and then thousands come not just into the the seats in Millennium square but all around the city center so how important is that
Event and and being away and out of London yeah it wasn’t so much about how can we get away from London but clear running running races in in London is incredibly expensive so that that was a consideration you’re quite right you know the success of the brownlees was a
Real Factor um before my time but I know was a real factor in bringing the race um up to leads but also in lead city council we have a phenomenally good partner you know they they they really along with the support from from UK Sport and our commercial Partners make
That event possible and the people of leads as well people of leads I just you know we get you know anything up to 70 80,000 people lining the streets the weather was pretty awful last year but you know it’s been pretty good previous years um the atmosphere there is is
Absolutely electric and and actually you know to your question about how important is the event it’s not just important in the UK it’s important globally so the itu the International Federation for Triathlon for the second year have said and I think they’ve been pretty honest with us have said you know
This is the best race on the on the series and what they really love about it is that City Center atmosphere and the buzz you know throughout the when when the athletes are lapping on the bike and the Run the atmosphere that you’ve both experienced um is second to
None and and they really value that and before we go on to talk more about some of your big names the brown ley’s inevitably for a sport that you know only came into the Olympics in 2000 you mentioned 70 to 80,000 that’s equivalent of Wembley Stadium isn’t it that’s a
Wembley Stadium Triathlon event to put that into vacular that people might understand from football or rugby yeah it’s interesting I’ve never thought about it in those terms but you’re spot on and the other unique thing is you know those those fans or or those the relatives of those fans can’t go and
Have a game of football on the turf at Wembley where of course in leads you know the whole race encompasses a weekend so all throughout Saturday and Sunday morning we’ve got people like you and I taking part and and on Sunday more you than me I’ll be
Honest well we’ll sign you up for next year I’m better talking about it than I am doing it so yeah we that that that’s very much part of the you know the magic of of of triathlon is that we’ve got you know ordinary punters like me then let’s
Say that taking part but then we’ve got this other phenomenon called a age group you know we we’ve got these amazing age group athletes who are people who have full-time jobs and busy lives families and what have you but they train and they get to a standard where they can
They can compete for GB and they they come along and race on the same course as the elite athletes it’s it’s quite a sight yeah and on the same day as well as the likes of Ali and and Johnny brownley in the men’s race and the likes
Of non Stanford Vicky Holland Jess Liam Georgia Taylor Brown in the women’s race you don’t get have a kick about do you with Harry Kane and you don’t get to to throw a rugby ball about do you but you can go and line up on the same pontoon
In round he Park as the triathletes exactly exactly and finish on that same blue carpet and you know that that amazing feeling when you finish that cross that finish line is uh yeah you can’t do that in every sport as you say so this year Ali brownley crossed the
Line in leads and said I’m done he told me he was retiring where was your heart in your mouth at that point as as of British Triathlon this is the double Olympic champion luckily I wasn’t there I didn’t hear it live but it was related to me
Shortly afterwards and uh yeah I think I think Ali’s yeah that was that was a low spot for him clearly he’s had a tough year 18 months um but he’s such a phenomenal athlete you know not not just in terms of what he’s achieved but his
Ability to to push himself to do things that most people would logically say shouldn’t be possible and he seems to be able to do that um so thankfully he’s not retired and I hope he’s not going to retire for for quite some time yet to come so the all important question is is
He going to put himself forward to go to Tokyo well yeah that’s the question we’re all asking isn’t it uh and I don’t know the answer um I would love him to make himself available because we haven’t selected the team yet for for Tokyo either on the men’s or the women’s
Side or or indeed the par Olympic team um but yeah of course you know a double gold Olympic medalist the opportunity to do something so special in coming back for a third gold medal and indeed win a fourth medal in the relay um if he were selected for the for the Relay Team
Let’s just hope that’s just too much for him to ignore and and he’ll he’ll put himself forward and you mentioned that that relay this is again showing Triathlon growing for the first time is a a mixed relay at the at the Olympics so potentially Ali could go but just be
Part of the team um or as you say he go and try and defend his title yeah we’re so excited about the relay you know when you when you look at some of the key Championship races over the last 18 months to two years that have involved
Relay actually some of the TV audiences have been greater for the Relay race than they have for the individual race uh it’s just you I’m I’m sure you you guys have witnessed it as well it’s so exciting it’s a dynamic and the and the race you often in individual Triathlon
Over Olympic distance the criticism that there is is one is that if you get a big Breakaway group on the bike it can kind of rule half the field out of the race but in relay it just seems to EB and flow so so quickly and at the um Olympic
Test event in in Tokyo this year we had the most phenomenal finish with Alex G running last leg for us and you know Jess had done a absolutely blinding first leg and built up a great lead unfortunately um Jess um Georgia wasn’t wasn’t feeling so well and and she lost
A bit of that lead and then Alex had that last leg and he was competing with a with the French in a Sprint finish and you that just brought to life just how exciting it is and I think you know the itu are so to be congratulated first of
All for pushing the ioc to include mix Rel in in the games I think it’s just a real Filip in the arm for the for the sport and it also means for the sport of triathlon and you as head of GB Triathlon you know the joint most
Successful Olympic uh you know in the Olympics means that people can win multiple medals it’s you know in swimming you know where you you can win three or four medals um you know while you’re out there sometimes in athletics as well it’s great to see that that they
Can become bigger than just an Olympic champion they can be you know a two times Olympic champion exactly exactly and and you know there there’s early early stage disc discussions going on with the ioc about adding another race format you know hopefully for Paris maybe but if not for Los Angeles so you
Know there could be potentially um three medal opportunities or perhaps the opportunity for us to take a bigger team and you mentioned obviously aliser and Jonathan brownley there are other men the likes of Alex ye who you mentioned Gordon Benson and others but the strength in depth with the British women
Surely the biggest task there is going to be selecting your team not just for the individual event but then for for mix relay as well because you’ve got non Stanford you got um Vicky Holland both been world champions of course you’ve got Jess liont Georgia Taylor Brown on
The the podium several times in the World Series there’s a a lot of very good British women doing Tron at the minute yeah no it’s it’s so exciting for so many reasons when you know just before I started when I was being interviewed for this job people were
Really talking very very clearly about concerns you know what what does life look like when the brownley retire you know where where’s the next role model coming from and all of a sudden you know we’ve got six or seven female British athletes who are capable of going to
Tokyo and being really competitive and that’s fantastic and over the last two years of racing there have been so many great images of of us where we had you know four athletes in the top five or six during the run and that type of thing and really iconic and you talk
About role models and inspiring the Next Generation you that that that just does it all and so many of those female athletes as well have come through we use this word pathway time in sport but you know they’ve come through our programs through our talent development programs so it’s it’s really great to
See so you’re pretty confident there’s life in British Triathlon when when Johnny and alist hang up the bike the the goggles and the trainers yeah you know we’ve got some really talented young guys coming through you yeah you mentioned Al Alex Y and you know his
When he’s in full flight on the run’s he’s a sight to behold and he’s such a such a great character as well and people like Ben dyra Tom Bishop Gordon Benson you know there’s more depth there than perhaps some people will realize uh and lots and lots of talent coming
Through the home nation program so yeah you know things do go in Cycles a little bit but um will there ever be another Alistar and Johnny brownley maybe maybe not but there’s certainly a plethora of talent coming through John mention obviously his first kind of introduction
To Triathlon was was in the lead up to London in 2012 I can remember sitting up in the middle of the night watching it in in Sydney I can remember in the buildup to the Sydney games that Tim Don was was really someone a lot of people
Were predicting was going to win a medal the other narrative ahead of Sydney was that there were going to be sharks in Sydney Harbor and they were going to eat the eat the triathletes the The Narrative of course in Rio was about water quality and whether that was going
To be an issue have you got any concerns ahead of Tokyo obviously we’ve seen marathons and the race walks moved because of the heat do you have any concerns about temperature water quality yeah I mean athletic welfare is always the first consideration you know of of course we’re in the serious
Business of preparing athletes so that they can go ahead and win medals both Olympic and Par Olympic but athlete welfare comes first we were out in in Tokyo this August for the for the test event and I have to say the night before the the women’s race I lost some sleep
Worrying about athlete welfare because you know when you when you’re out there yourself and you feel that oppressive heat and humidity you can’t help but be worried but what I what I saw I guess were two things I saw the International Federation the itu doing its absolute
Utmost to look out for athlete welfare and they made some tough decisions for example they reduced the women’s race to 5K now I know you know some of our female athletes Vicki in particular felt so good that she was actually really disappointed with that decision because
She felt if it had been a 10k race she would have gone on and she you know she was catching up with the athletes in front of her but the other thing that that I took real pleasure from was to see just how well prepared our athletes
Were both our par Olympic and our Olympic athletes you know they really were ahead of their compe competitors in how prepared they were for those hot and humid conditions um so so so that was really gratifying but as I say it first and foremost it’s about athlete welfare
We saw on the um Saturday with a par racing of what what appeared to be a very L last minute decision it was always going to be a last minute decision to move the race to duathlon now for some of our parah well for all of our parah triathletes that’s a
Massively significant decision but for some more than others and you know one or two athletes had never done a duathlon before and depending on the disability that they have to actually run twice is is a hell of an Ask of of somebody but they coped brilliantly and
And and and the results were really good it wasn’t that event wasn’t all about results it was about how well prepared we were for those conditions so we were very gratified but um yeah I’m satisfied to your question that I think the itu have done everything they can to to take
Into account those those weather conditions there’s more that will be done we know that will be done that wasn’t done for the test event that will be done for the race um next August does it then surprise you the ioc have said well we’re going to move the marathon and race walk
Um I I suppose to some extent it surprises me you know I I I try and I try and focus on you know the well it’s not even the controllables but you know what what’s in my realm of of of influence and yeah it’s of course it’s
Relevant that the marathon and the walk have been moved to to to somewhere where where it’s going a little bit cooler um but triathon is very different you know the the the the temperature and the quality of the water is really really significant for us that you know that
Clearly isn’t a consideration in a marathon or a walk and you know the the temperature of the water influencing how hot or otherwise those athletes are when they come out of the water is is absolutely essential in in in Triathlon so that’s what it’s all about let me
Talk to you then about Jess liont and Georgia Taylor Brown and crossing the line hand in hand in Tokyo it obviously got quite a lot of cover quite a lot of column inches how did they not know the rules well clearly they didn’t know the rules I thought I thought you might
Mention this thank you yeah yeah um I I was literally right there at the at the Finish Line I thought what what a what a great moment you know we’ve we’ve we’ve shown that we’ve got the one and you know the top top two athletes on the on
The day and then of course the logic kicked in and the rules and and the rules were applied correctly by the it first of all they got it right didn’t they they got it right yeah I know there’s a lot of chat afterwards about whether or not they did but they got it
Right they interpreted the rules correctly the rule was there for a purpose um to to ensure that there’s proper competition um so the girls didn’t know the rule that that that was clear um they accept a certain amount of responsibility for not knowing the rule every athlete should know the rules but
We also accept responsibility and we will be working harder in the future to make sure that all of our athletes are aware of all of the rules because obviously we’d had the situation the previous year with the brownley brothers where one through the other across the line so you presume that aliser was
Aware of what would have happened if he if he carried his brother over the line yeah although SL slightly different those two things are often muddled up they’re actually quite different things so the aliser Johnny thing in KML in 2016 was about helping another athlete across the Finish Line whereas this one
Was about not competing across the finish line so both both are addressed separately within the itu um rule book um but you know at the end of the day as I said earlier we we took it we took our teams to Tokyo to prepare for 2020 we
Didn’t you know the results were were clearly of of relevance but whether we came first and second or or crossed the Finish Line first and second and we disqualified from a performance point of view wasn’t essential it was really disappointing and challenging for the girls because they lost some prize money
And and that’s that’s a real shame um and it was a painful lesson to learn and I can remember being in Rio at the Olympics at the Copa cavana watching the women’s tra on there and you had the two housemates Vicky Holland and on Stanford Racing for a bronze medal and I remember
Interviewing Vicki afterwards and said well why didn’t you cross the line together you could have and she explained to me then she said no well you know the rules are you can’t do that pretty awkward conversation I imagine though when they got back home wasn’t it
Yeah I mean the the great thing is uh we’ve got great team spirit within within you know the athletes they they those those two train together up in leads um so they know each other really well they’re great great friends so you know I I saw them later that evening
They were having dinner together so it couldn’t have been too difficult a conversation I don’t think uh looking ahead to then Tokyo 2020 medal Target ha so par let’s start with the Paralympics um we’re we’re in a really great place with with the par Olympics
Um I’m going to I’m going to go for six medals wow six medals yeah in the par Olympics in the par Olympics and the Olympics Olympics I’m going to go for two just on the Paralympics you obviously a new sport in Rio is there any advice for people like par Bonton
Who are going to to Tokyo for the first time um as a sport you know the Paralympics are a different whole kettle of fish to their normal tournaments do you know I think if I tried to give somebody running a performance program and another sport any advice around
Performance they would probably laugh at me so I’m not even going to go I’m not even going to go there I think what I would say though to the to the whole whole sport you know the whole organization is don’t underestimate the opportunity that it presents to raise
The profile of your sport and to send out a really clear message that your sport is accessible and inclusive um certainly from from our Parry athletes um they they they don’t like the word inspiring but I find them incredibly inspiring I’d love to spend a little bit
Of time with them from time to time some of them have come along and talk with our commercial partners with our all staff meetings and they Inspire the people in those rooms the stories they have to tell are phenomenal um some of the adversity that they’ve had to
Overcome um so their ability to inspire people to take up badminton or to take up triathlon who might not otherwise do is is underestimated constantly I think in sport and we try hard not to do that in Trion and then you mentioned two medals for the Olympics male
Female you you’re going to put me on the spot now so yeah I’m yeah two two medals in the in the women’s race uh and I’m I’m I’m I’m hopeful for the for the mix relay but but I’m not taking it for granted well Andy salmon CEO of British
Triathon thank you very much for talking to Great British bosses you’re very welcome enjoyed it thank you Sports social podcast Network lucky land Casino asking people what’s the weirdest place you’ve gotten lucky lucky in line at the deli I guess ha in my dentist’s office more than once
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