Triathlon enters the U.S. presidential race
“Mr. Wright, Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor, was cocky, defiant, declamatory, inflammatory and mischievous, but most of all, he was all over the place, performing a television triathlon series of interview, lecture and live news conference that pushed Mr. Obama aside and placed himself front and center in the presidential election campaign.” - Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times, April 29, 2008.

We think Greg Welch would still be ranked number one if this newfangled triathlon caught on!

More New York Times fascination with triathlon.
The New York Times health writer Gina Kolata recently tackled an issue that perennially fascinates many triathletes: Is it possible to peak at more than one sport at once? Kolata’s short answer is no. Her main thesis was this: “The training necessary to excel in one sport will likely counteract what’s necessary to be good in another.” While triathlon’s cross-training is praised for helping obsessive athletes avoid injuries, she quotes triathlon authority Joe Friel about his athletes’ frustrations with the plight of the generalist: “I have conversations with them. ‘Do you really want to be a triathlete? If you want to run (really) faster, you have to give up swimming and cycling.’”

Aussies gird for Beijing jet lag and pollution
While China’s deadly 7.9-on-the-Richter-scale Chendung earthquake rattled cups from Thailand to Mongolia, Chinese authorities report that none of Beijing’s 31 Olympic venues suffered damage. That does not mean that there is an all clear on Beijing’s charcoal-hued air. Triathlon Australia high performance director Bill Davoren - along with his colleagues in cycling and swimming -- is advocating a “hit and run approach” to Beijing’s problematically polluted air. Davoren told Nicole Jeffreys of The Australian that Australian triathletes will remain in their home country during the opening ceremony August 8 and won’t show up until August 15, just a few days before the competition. “We noticed there’s a wear-down factor with China. Everything is difficult. The language is difficult, the traffic is difficult. It’s exhausting for everyone … I think we will be the last team to leave Australia.”

Australian swimmer fends off shark
Great Britain’s The Guardian correspondent Barbara McMahon reports that an Australian swimmer successfully fought off an attack by a great white shark Sunday by punching it and poking it in the eye. Jason Cull, a 37-year-old teacher, encountered a 13-foot shark while swimming 80 meters off the shore at Middleton Beach in Western Australia. “Initially I thought it was a dolphin, but it was much bigger,” Cull told The Guardian. “When it came up and banged into me, I realized what it was.” Cull at first tried to punch the predator, which failed to deter. The gray monster then grabbed him by the leg and dragged him under. Whereupon Cull says he “felt along it, found its eye and poked it - and that’s when it let go.” Bleeding and exhausted, Cull told The Guardian that he was near giving up his swim to safety when Joanne Lucas, 50, swam to his aid and helped him to shore.

The great white shark that attacked and killed triathlete Dave Martin, 66, in Solana Beach, California, on April 25 drew worldwide attention to the relatively rare phenomenon.

Kiwi Member of Parliament, a staunch environmentalist, is halfway to her goal of finishing seven triathlons
New Zealand Green Party politico Metiria Turei has vowed to finish seven triathlons before the New Zealand summer is over. "My primary goal is not to drown and, that achieved, then to finish,” she said in a news release. “As long as I am somewhere in the bottom third, I will be delighted.”