Salterford Guide to Triathlon

Championship Countdown

This Week at Salterford guide to Triathlon

A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves  swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances.
This week, 12 members of Salterford got to experience a triathlon.  At an event ran by http://www.britishtriathlon.org/take-part/events/tata-kids-of-steel the children swam, cycled and ran with gusto and completed the course and were awarded a medal and goodie bag for their efforts.

Triathlon is an Olympic event.  At London 2012 there will be two triathlon races (men/women) and Great Britain has an excellent chance of a medal - even Gold.

Men's and Women's Triathlon
1.5km Swim
43km Cycle
10km run

These will take part at Hyde Park.  The largest of London’s Royal Parks, Hyde Park has been open to the public since 1637.

In the men's event, GB will be represented by three athletes.  Two are these are likely to be brothers.  Jonnie and Alastair Brownlee are two of the top triathletes in the world.

Alistair Edward Brownlee (born 23 April 1988) is an English triathlete who is the reigning, and back-to-back, ETU European Triathlon champion and a two time Triathlon World Champion having regained the title he first won in 2009 in 2011 in Beijing.

Jonathan Brownlee (born 30 April 1990) is a professional English duathlete and triathlete. Brownlee is the two time and reigning World Sprint Triathlon Champion and is the former Under 23 Trathlon World Champion (2010). In 2011 he finished second in the world following the conclusion of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series in Beijing.

Helen Rebecca Jenkins (born 8 March 1984 in Elgin, Moray, Scotland), is a British professional triathlete and the 2008 and 2011 ITU World Champion.

Championship Countdown

Focus on Swimming

One of the main sports of the London Olympics will be swimming.  Swimming has been in every Olympic games since 1896.  Men and women swim a variety of distances using the four main strokes.

Freestyle

Backstroke



Breaststroke

Butterfly

Did you know?

The first Olympic swimming took place in the Mediterranean Sea!

There used to be an underwater race.

Swimming goggles were first allowed in 1976

The tumble turn was first seen in the 1952 Olympics

They only started swimming in lanes in 1924

Until 1956, you could swim butterfly in the breast stroke race!

The swimming pool for the 1908 Olympic games was 100m long and was in the middle of the athletics track.

If you live in Nottingham, you will have heard of Rebecca Adlington.  In 2008 Olympics, she won two gold medals.  In over one hundred years, GB has only won 15 swimming gold medals.   To win two golds is amazing! 

This summer, Rebecca will try to add to that total.

Olympic Countdown Begins

Championship Countdown

Every week until the end of term, thisweekatsalterford.blogspot.com will be counting down to the Olympics 2012.
You will be able to find out more about all the sports and watch some classic moments from past Olympics.

The Olympic Torch

The Olympic Flame or Olympic Torch is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. According to legend, the torch's flame has been kept burning ever since the first Olympics.

The most amazing lighting of the Olypic Flame was in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics.  The flame was lit by an archer firing a flaming arrow into the air.