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The traditional triathlon involves three events: swimming, cycling, and running. The indoor triathlon has the same three events, though with a slight variation. The indoor triathlon involves swimming in an indoor pool, cycling on a stationary bike, and running on an indoor track or treadmill.

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The indoor triathlon can be measured differently than its more common type. Some competitions will be measured by the distance travelled over a set amount of time. While other competitions are more traditional where competitors must finish the race in the shortest time over a predetermined distance.

In the case of the indoor triathlon, transition time is not included in the competitor’s total score. However, to maintain fair play in the sport competitors will be allotted a specific duration of time for their transition.

Indoor triathlons began in Europe and Asia in the late 1980s. These events were originally invitation-only which had professional athletes swimming in a temporary pool built in the middle of a track. The competitors would use the track for their bike and run.

The indoor triathlon underwent an upgrade throughout the 1990s in Ontario, Canada. A group of 4 triathlete friends hosted a race consisting of a 15-minutes indoor pool swim, a 5-minute break to get to the bikes, a 15-minute bike on a stationary bike, a 5-minute break to get to the track, and finally a 15-minute run on a track. In this event you were given points with a scoring of up to 1000 in each event. The points were determined based on how much distance you could cover in each segment of the race.

Interesting Fact: This race is meant to serve as a low cost, fun event to invite new triathletes into the sport.

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Similar Sports

• Triathlon — a race consisting of three events, usually swimming, cycling, and running in consecutive order.
• Winter Triathlon — athletes compete in running, mountain biking and cross-country skiing.
• Cross Triathlon — a variation of the traditional triathlon, with a swim stage, mountain-biking stage and a trail-running stage.
• Paratriathlon — for disabled athletes, involving a 750 m swim, a 20 km bike with handcycles, bicycles or tandems with a guide, and a 5 km wheelchair or running race.

Related Pages

• Complete list of sports
• The Encyclopedia of Sports