Posted: June 11, 2004

Triathlon: Final Olympic Slots to be Determined in Bellingham

The final two slots on the U.S. Olympic triathlon team will be filled Sunday, June 13, at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Triathlon in Bellingham, Wash.

The four U.S. elite triathletes who have already made the Olympic triathlon team - Hunter Kemper (Longwood, Fla.), Barb Lindquist (Alta, Wyo.), Andy Potts (Princeton, N.J.) and Sheila Taormina (Livonia, Mich.) - will be racing as well for part of the $35,000 prize purse.

Kemper and Lindquist qualified by being the first U.S. finishers at the Race to Athens - Honolulu on April 18. Taormina was the first U.S. (and overall) finisher at the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Triathlon World Championships on May 9 in Madeira, Portugal. Potts' slot rolled down to him in Madeira as Kemper was the first U.S. finisher and he was the second.

However, the final male and female Olympians will be chosen with an equation that looks at the athletes' finishes against the other Americans in all three qualifying races, and their ITU world ranking.

Each finish is given a numerical value (i.e. a third-place finish among the Americans gets a 3, a fifth-place finish among the Americans gets a 5) and the two high numbers are dropped. The athlete with the lowest score will qualify.

Going into Sunday's women's race, Laura Reback (North Palm Beach, Fla.) has a "7" from the Race to Athens - Honolulu, a "2" from Madeira and a "3" for her world ranking. If she finishes as the first or second American in Bellingham, giving her a "1" or a "2", the "3" and the "7" would be dropped.

Susan Williams (Littleton, Colo.) has a "2" from Honolulu, but she did not finish the race in Madeira due to a hamstring injury and her world ranking is "33." If she finished as the first American in Bellingham, she'd have a total of "3."

The dark horse is Julie Swail (Irvine, Calif.), who has a "4" from Honolulu and a "4" from Madeira. Her world ranking is "66," so the best possible score she could have after Bellingham is a "5" - one "4" plus a "1" from Bellingham should she finish as the first American.

On the men's side, Doug Friman (Tucson, Ariz.) and Victor Plata (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) will be battling for the final slot, with Brian Fleischmann (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Michael Smedley (Buchanan, Mich.) nipping at their heels.

World rankings will not come into play for the men, except if needed for a tiebreaker. If two of the men are tied after Bellingham, the one with the higher world ranking would make the team.

Going into Bellingham, Friman and Plata each have a score of "3" and a score of "5" from the first two qualifying races. Fleischmann and Smedley each have a score of "4" and a score of "6" from the first two races.

Other top U.S. and international elite triathletes will also play major roles in the race. Among those to watch is Joe Umphenour, whose hometown is Bellevue, Wash. Umphenour is ranked third in the United States, but struggled at the Honolulu race due to an injury and had to give up his slot at the world championships to Brian Fleischmann due to the same injury.

The U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Triathlon is part of USA Triathlon's Race to Athens series of International Triathlon Union (ITU) points races. ITU points go toward athletes' world rankings and toward Olympic qualifying. However, ITU points gathering for Athens is over. Any ITU points gained for the rest of this year would go toward the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The Olympic-distance, draft-legal race will begin with a 1.5k, two-lap swim in Lake Whatcom. That will be followed by a 40k, six-lap bike course that includes a climb up Alabama Hill, which has an 18-percent grade. Finally, the 10k, four-lap run takes athletes out of the parking lots of Bloedel Donovan Park and running on Electric Street to Whatcom Falls Park.

There will be a press conference at 5 p.m. on Friday in the Bellwether Hotel Ballroom in Bellingham.

Sunday's elite race will be preceded by the Baker's Breakfast Cookie Healthy Start Foundation International Triathlon for age group triathletes.

USA Triathlon sponsors Amino Vital, VISA and Baker's Breakfast Cookies will all be on hand in Bellingham to provide samples and support.

For more race information, go to www.trithecookie.com.