COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 20, 2003) - USA Triathlon has announced its qualifying procedures for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, pending approval from the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The 2004 Olympic Triathlon Team will be picked on the basis of three International Triathlon Union (ITU), draft-legal races between April and June of 2004. They will be open to both U.S. and international competitors, but only U.S. citizens who carry a USA Triathlon elite license are eligible to make the U.S. Olympic team.

The races will be selected as Olympic qualifiers by virtue of meeting draft-legal, prize money, media coverage, race-course layout and location requirements. Assuming the United States qualifies to send three men and three women to the Games, the team will be chosen as follows:

Event No. 1 will be the world championship qualifying event in April 2004 (date and place to be determined). This event, which will be an ITU points race, will qualify U.S. elite triathletes for the 2004 triathlon world championships on May 7 in Madeira Island, Portugal. The first male and female U.S. finishers at this race will also earn Olympic spots. To be eligible to compete in this event, athletes must be ranked in the top 125 of the ITU world rankings that included races held the Sunday before Event No. 1.

Event No. 2 will be the 2004 World Championships on May 7 in Madeira Island, Portugal. The first male and female U.S. finishers at this race will earn Olympic spots. If either of these athletes have already earned and Olympic spot, then it will role down to the second U.S. finisher.

Event No. 3 will be an ITU points race held in June, 2004 at a date and place to be determined. While a slot will not be awarded directly from this race, the result of the race will be used in the computation of the score used to determine the third Olympic team members. Athletes with an ITU world ranking of 125 or better as of May 7, 2004, are eligible to compete for a third Olympic team berth at this race.

For the complete equation that will go into choosing the third male and female Olympic team members, please go to the USA Triathlon web site at www.usatriathlon.org and click on the story posted to the right side of the front page.