Why can elites draft in Olympic Triathlon competitions?
This is a very common question that once stirred up lots of strong feelings and opinions for many triathlon enthusiasts. Once you think about the situation in depth, you can gain an understanding as to why they allow drafting in the Olympics. Lets start with the start format for all racing. Most elite waves of a triathlon start at the same time. This is important for keeping the races spectator friendly. A time trial start where an athlete goes off every 10-20 seconds would leave the spectators clueless as to who is leading the race. Drafting is allowed in the swim for every style of triathlon racing and it allows for slower swimmers to drag right behind stronger swimmers. Drafting in the swim results in a huge bunch of swimmers exiting the water together in every elite wave. When you have 50 athletes getting out of the water together, it becomes an officiating nightmare to create a very long train of cyclists separated by three bike lengths while they are all jockeying for position. I
