With just a fortnight away from the opening ceremonies of the Rio 2016 Summer Games and 30 days behind the first Olympic triathlon race at Rio de Janeiro, ITU launched, yesterday, a social media campaign “ThisIsTriathlon” to engage the followers of sport.
Through its social media handles; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, ITU will be releasing videos, photos, stories and statistics to get the public educated and excited about the elite triathletes and paratriathletes participating at Rio- in an interactive drive, ITU is also engaging fans to share their own triathlon journeys.
Speaking about the initiative, ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado said, “Triathlon is a community sport from grass roots to gold medals.”
Further said Casado, “We want to share the Road to Rio with that community, and in turn, we want them to share with their friends and family why our triathlon community is so great. We want to send off our Olympians and Paralympians to Brazil with the largest virtual support possible, because triathlon is not a sport that should be missed in August and September.”
Also the social media team of ITU encourages the fans to use either the hashtag #ThisIsTriathlon or #Triathlon2016, for submitting photos and videos illustrating what it is that they love about the sport. Each week, one lucky winner will be selected by ITU as the winning submission and the prizes at offer will be triathlon equipment, autographed gear and discounts to the ITU Official World Triathlon Store.
There would further be the chances to go on with the contest; the weekly winner will then be entered into the running for the Grand Final prize, which will include a travel voucher up to $2500 and a stay in Penticton, Canada over the ITU Multisport World Championships in August 2017 in what could be called as the perfect triathlon family getaway.
For the fans who would like to join the competition, they need to share why they train and compete in triathlon, what they love about the sport, and what it means to them. They need to Hashtag the photo and/or video with #Triathlon2016 and #ThisIsTriathlon on Instagram, Twitter, and/or Vine. Additionally, fans can join the fun directly on a landing page of the website which will collate all of the content in one single spot here.