The triathlon, which is a popular post-high school/college destination for competitive swimmers, has taken an important next step toward becoming an official NCAA sport, as the organization’s Committee on Women’s Athletics is asking for proposals to add women’s triathlon as an “emerging sport” for women.
Thus far, schools submitting letters of support for women include Arizona, Air Force, Denver, Drake, Monmouth, UNC-Asheville, Northern Iowa, and Stanford on the Division I level; Adams State and Colorado-Colorado Springs on the Division II level; and Maine-Farmington and Marymount on the Division III level.
This makes triathlon the first sport considered for “emerging” status since sand volleyball in 2009 (which has been a relative success). Sand volleyball, rugby, and equestrian are all currently in this limbo status.
This status is significant, as once sports are on this list, they are considered for NCAA minimum sports sponsorship requirements, and in Division I and II minimum financial aid requirements (though, even without emerging status, schools can still use any varsity program to meet Title IX requirements).
In effect, this gives universities encouragement to continue the development of programs in these sports, as there is acknowledgement that with continued growth, it will become an NCAA Championship sport. To hit that level, there needs to be 40 varsity programs for individual sports and 28 varsity programs for team sports (triathlon likely falls in the category of the former) within 10 years. After 10 years, if that goal isn’t met (or there isn’t significant progress toward it) a sport can be removed from emerging sport status.
The most impactful sport to come from this program for our readership is probably women’s water polo, which is now a championship sport. Women’s rowing was also once on the emerging sport list and has since graduated to championship status, and this is another sport that pulls heavily from the high school ranks of swimming.
The 2013 USA Triathlon sponsored championship attracted more than 400 participants in Tempe, Arizona, with strong participation from programs like Colorado, Cal, UCLA, the Naval Academy, and Arizona, who were the top 5 finishers in the co-ed team results. Other swimming powers with big contingents include 8th-place Texas A&M, 11th-place Ohio State, 12th-place Michigan, and 13th-place Stanford. In total, over 100 schools turned out athletes (though in many cases, those were male only), and not surprisingly the Military Academies were huge participants.
Arizona’s Ben Kanute and Colorado’s Michelle Menhert won the Olympic race distances individually; Kanute doubled by winning the men’s sprint race, and another Colorado competitor, Erin Jones, won the women’s sprint.
No exact format for how an NCAA Championship would be laid out has come forward yet, but that is what the CWA is asking for: proposals on different possible formats.
The benefit to swimmers is that an increase in participation in aquatic-based sports overall at the collegiate level could lead to both an increased value for investment in facilities by colleges, and an increase in the value of swimming knowledge.