Triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Triathlon at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	Hyde Park
Dates	4 August 2012, 7 August 2012
Competitors	110 from 37 nations

Triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Events
men  women

The Triathlon competitions at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London, were held in Hyde Park. The women's was on Saturday 4 August and the men's on Tuesday 7 August. A total of 110 athletes, 55 men and 55 women, competed. Triathlon made its debut at the Summer Olympics during the 2000 Games in Sydney; the six gold medallists to date have come from six different nations.

Format and venue

Aerial view of Hyde Park

The Olympic triathlon contains three components; a 1.5 km (0.93 mi) swim, 40 km (25 mi) cycle, and a 10 km (6.2 mi) run. The competitions take the form of a single event between all competitors with no heats.

Both the men's and women's events took place in Hyde Park, one of the eight Royal Parks of London. The swim took place in the Serpentine which had a pontoon constructed to act as the start. The cycle involved athletes leaving the park via Queen Mother's Gate, travelling through Wellington Arch, down Constitution Hill and on to Birdcage Walk in front of Buckingham Palace before returning to the park to complete the event with a four lap run around the Serpentine.

A temporary 3,000-capacity seating area was constructed in the park in June 2012 and a three-metre-high temporary fence surrounded the events. It was the first games where triathletes had to serve penalties in a box, having previously just had the time added on at the end of the race. The time in the penalty box was taken at some point on the run section.

Qualification

Main article: Triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Qualification

The qualification period ran from 1 June 2010 to 31 May 2012. Triathletes for each gender qualified at the end of this period. Points were awarded based on finishes in a range of international events and athletes could use their best 14 results for their Olympic qualification – six from the first year and eight from the second.

Qualification events had four different levels with points awarded on a sliding scale. Level one events carried 1000 points for the winner and were the World Championship grand finals in 2010 and 2011 as well as the Olympic qualification event in 2011. There were 800 points available to the winner of the ten World Championship series events held over the qualifying period, 500 points for the level three World Cups and 400 points for the level four Continental Championships. In all races athletes must finish in the top 50 and within 5% of the winner's time, for men's races, and 8% for women's races.

Thirty-nine athletes qualified via the ranking, next to the 5 continental champions and the top 3 in the International Qualifying Event, held in London on 6–7 August 2011. In the end, a further 5 places were distributed to countries without any quota.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1). All event times are subject to change.

Event	Date	Start Time
Women's Triathlon	4 August	9:00
Men's Triathlon	7 August	11:30

Medal summary

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's individual	Alistair Brownlee  Great Britain	Javier Gómez Noya  Spain	Jonathan Brownlee  Great Britain
Women's individual	Nicola Spirig  Switzerland	Lisa Nordén  Sweden	Erin Densham  Australia

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain	1	0	1	2
2	Switzerland	1	0	0	1
3	Spain	0	1	0	1
3	Sweden	0	1	0	1
5	Australia	0	0	1	1
Total		2	2	2	6