Swimming is still producing stats that prove it to be the fastest growing sport via participation in the nation and now it’s helping other sports reach the same level.
The NCAA broke the news today that the sport of women’s triathlon will be added to DI institutions and will be able to start competing as soon as August 2014. It will receive the status of an ’emerging sport,’ which means that it has a certain amount of time to prove continued momentum to become a full-fledged NCAA sport. The decision, long anticipated, was approved at this week’s NCAA convention in San Diego.
As an emerging sport, it will not immediately have an NCAA champion, but with increased growth, could be sponsored in the future.
This is tremendous news for female Olympic sport athletes, as sports in this category, like triathlon, allow for the NCAA to meet minimum sports sponsorship requirements, minimum financial aid award requirements, and gender equity standards. As the sport of triathlon grows and gains popularity, student athletes won’t be the only ones who will benefit. The sport has enough popular-participation that it could potentially be a money-neutral sport for programs that design themselves the right way.
Triathlon is the fastest growing sport in the country according to the U.S. Olympic Movement. Some may think that triathlons are just a fad that college swammers get into after their collegiate careers come to an end. They already have the swimming part down, so why not try the bike and run?
Among the popularity of the sport as of now, over 200 American colleges and universities currently have triathlon clubs. There are number of schools in the top 25 from last year’s collegiate national triathlon championships that currently have schools in our Mid-season power rankings (men and women). Cal, UCLA, Arizona, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Michigan, Stanford, Wisconsin, Arizona State, Penn State, Minnesota, and Duke all performed extremely well at the collegiate championships and it will be intriguing to see how the addition of triathlon will affect these schools. There are several Division I swim teams with national-and-international level triathletes already on their rosters (including LSU, for example), and the acceptance of triathlon as an NCAA sport could shift that participation.
Other current emerging sports in the NCAA include women’s rugby and women’s sand volleyball. Among the sports that successfully emerged from emerging status as a full-fledged NCAA sport include women’s bowling, with several others (including synchronized swimming) failing to do so.
To read more about emerging sports and the criteria to become championship-sponsored NCAA sports, click here.
While this is great for the women and I’d rather see expansion of sports like triathlon than, say, football, I’d still rather see some more gender equity back in the area of swimming with more men’s teams getting reinstated and/or created.
I hope men’s triathlons aren’t too far behind, awesome news.