On celebration of International Women’s Day 2018, IRONMAN announced the expansion of the “Women For Tri” initiative into Europe in an effort to celebrate and encourage female participation in triathlon throughout the region. IRONMAN Maastricht-Limburg will serve as the first official “Women For Tri” event in this region on Sunday, 5 August 2018.
“Women For Tri”, a program of the IRONMAN Foundation, was launched in the United States in 2015 and to date has gained huge support. Expanding the initiative into the European region where female participation has been steadily rising over the past years, serves as the ideal opportunity to inspire, educate and support women who are actively involved in the sport as well as those who want to start their journey into triathlon.
As the official “Women For Tri” event for Europe, IRONMAN Maastricht-Limburg will feature a number of on-site activations for women participating in the event including an invitation to a race weekend event with guest speakers and female pro ambassadors, and commemorate wristbands. Male participants, spectators and supporters will also be encouraged to show their support for female athletes during the course of the race weekend.
To ensure driven targets for the program, IRONMAN strives to improve female participation across Europe from 15% in 2017 to 20% by the start of 2019.
“The growth of female participation in triathlon is a key focus for IRONMAN,” said Peta Bell, Head of Marketing for IRONMAN Europe, Middle East and Africa. “I’m extremely excited to be launching our Europe ‘Women For Tri’ campaign at IRONMAN Maastricht-Limburg as we set out to tackle the gender gap, and to encourage and support more women to participate and achieve incredible life goals through the great sport of triathlon,” Bell said.
In addition, $10 from every female registration will support “Women For Tri” grant program, which provide triathlon clubs with funding to support their efforts to increase female membership and engagement. The grant application may be found here. Additional efforts will be announced in the upcoming weeks to drive grassroots female participation through the “Women For Tri” initiative across Europe in 2018. For more information on the 2018 IRONMAN Maastricht-Limburg, please click here.