How easy it is to stir up a scandal without any real argument. How simple it is to stain a white shirt. What is happening now in World Triathlon could happen in any other federation or sports body and, nowadays, with social media and the digital age, it is difficult to fight against the trace they leave behind, no matter how unfounded they may be. Too much importance is given to opinions without legal certainty, which collapse under their own weight as soon as the situation is analyzed for just five minutes.

The latest series of complaints against this international federation begins with a striking argument: “There is corruption in World Triathlon, and this was reflected in its elections!” More or less, this argument portrays two-thirds of the electorate as corrupt and, more specifically, claims that all those who did not support the losers in the elections are conspirators and corrupt. Is there any legal basis for such an offensive assumption about WT members?

Elections with a clear result

The accusations resurfaced almost a year after the presidential elections held in Torremolinos. On October 21, 2024, Antonio Arimany was elected as the new president with 90 votes, far ahead of Ian Howard (29), Mads Freund (19), and Tamas Toth (2). The result was overwhelming, and the question is whether it makes sense now to question the legitimacy of a process with such support.

Peter McCrory, from the Canadian Triathlon Federation, filed a complaint on September 25 before the World Triathlon Tribunal. In it, he referred to corruption, manipulation, and pressure on federations to vote according to “predetermined lists.” What is new about this? Little or nothing: many of these arguments had already been published on some website, were repeated by the Danish Triathlon Federation, and are now being presented again without offering new evidence or legal credibility (just like last time). Nothing but noise.

At the same time, the Canadian Triathlon Federation itself had proposed, for approval at the General Assembly, that the members of the WT Tribunal travel in business class, barely 20 days before filing its complaint before that very same body. Does anyone have anything to say about this?

What CAS says about this noise

The presidential report prepared for the upcoming Congress in Wollongong on October 18 recalls that one of the sanctions imposed by the World Triathlon Tribunal ended up at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). And the resolution of the case, far from questioning the electoral process, closed it without casting doubt on the legitimacy of the elections. At the same time, the international federation emphasizes that there are no open proceedings related to those elections.

Given this scenario, several questions arise: what value do accusations have when they appear again and again with the same content? Why do they not lead to effective sanctions or higher-level legal proceedings? And, above all, how do they fit with the reality of a Congress that elected its president with such a wide margin?

Noise, always before a key date

The background seems more related to internal political disputes than to evidence. There is talk of a supposed “group” that allegedly controlled the elections, but the facts contradict this: financial reports, resolutions, and strategic plans were approved with almost unanimous support in Congress meetings.

In the absence of firm decisions, what remains is an open debate. The accusations against the current leadership of World Triathlon are repeated, expanded with new and secondary nuances, and reappear at critical moments in the organization’s political agenda, such as now, on the eve of the upcoming Congress in Wollongong. Time will tell whether any of them reach the level of verifiable evidence or whether, as so far, they remain noise that clashes with the strength of the 90 votes that placed Antonio Arimany at the head of the federation.

It is a pity that if everything remains just noise, not only will the pace of growth and development of a federation like World Triathlon be slowed down, but the discredit will also extend to the entire international triathlon community, a minority of which failed in the elections and seems unable to accept the results at the polls, whose legitimacy has even been confirmed by CAS.