November 24, 2016 (Quebec City, QC) – The 13th edition of the Pentathlon des Neiges presented by MEC winter-sports extravaganza to be hosted on Quebec City’s historic Plains of Abraham on Feb. 24-March 5, 2017 promises to uphold its reputation as the world’s largest multi-sport winter event with the International Triathlon Union’s (ITU) Elite S3 Winter Triathlon World Cup as its crown jewel on Feb. 26.

Francois Calletta, race director, is proud of the evolution of Pentathlon des Neiges: “We invented the discipline. We focused on making it accessible to everyone.” The strategy obviously worked, attracting more than 5,800 participants of all ages and abilities in 2016. For 2017, he aims to attract 6,000 entrants over the 10 days, including the 50-65 Elite athletes vying for $8,000 in prize money at the feature ITU World Cup event.

The Pentathlon des Neiges is based around five disciplines: running, skiing, skating, cycling and snowshoeing. The event’s schedule is packed with action, including corporate relay races, solo and team events, a para competition, North American Snowshoe Championships, university, elementary and high school challenges, as well as a 50+ athlete day. There is literally something for everyone.

“As we say, if you can run, ski, skate, bike or snowshoe for 20-40 minutes, you can participate in a team relay. It’s that easy,” said Calletta.

For the second year, Pentathlon des Neiges will host an ITU S3 Winter Triathlon World Cup. The S3 discipline features three different events, much like its popular summer counterpart. However, instead of swimming, cycling and running, this version consists of snowshoeing, skating and cross-country skiing for a total of 25 kilometres.

With S3 still in its development stage, advocates are eyeing a future berth for winter triathlon at the Winter Olympic Games, but it still has a long way to go.

“There is a lot of interest all around the world, but the discipline is still very young. Building a new sport is a long-term process,” said Calletta.

First, the S3 version needs to be recognized as the official ITU winter-triathlon format, since the original running, mountain biking and cross-country skiing formula remains prevalent in Europe, despite apparent criticism for not being wintry enough. The 2016 ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships in Austria has still applied the running, biking and skiing blueprint.

In 2014, the ITU used Quebec’s inaugural S3 as a test event for the new format and subsequently awarded it World Cup designation in 2016.

Calletta is hoping to attract more competitors from outside of Canada to this year’s Elite World Cup event, but it’s challenging. “As it is a new sport, there are no sponsored Elite athletes with large budgets. It is therefore tough for the athletes to make it to Quebec . . . but every year we seem to get more,” said Calletta.

He added that Triathlon Canada is supportive of S3, and it is making efforts to support Elite development. “We still need to understand that summer remains the main focus for both Triathlon Canada and the ITU.”

In addition to the Elite men’s and women’s S3 World Cup races, Pentathlon des Neiges also offers popular ITU age-group categories and includes 10km sprint races.

S3 is catching on, confirmed Calletta, citing a strong Quebec series – Coupe des neiges -along with well-attended events in other provinces.

According to Calletta, the biggest hurdle to potential organizers is access to a skating oval for use during the skating portion of the race. Quebec City is setting a great example for communities. “We now have two refrigerated outdoor-skating ovals that have become important tourist attractions. Projects are emerging everywhere in Canada,” he said, mentioning events in Alberta, as well as a proposed seasonal refrigerated outdoor-skating oval in Montreal. “As soon as it [the proposal] is confirmed, a winter triathlon will become a reality [in Montreal]. Ottawa is also working on a major project,” said Calletta.

He recognizes that one of the keys to growing S3 is focusing at the grassroots level. “We also need to understand that every community that has an outdoor hockey rink by a park could organize a small popular winter-triathlon event. You do not need a 400-metre oval for a local event. A regular hockey rink also works to initiate everyone to the sport,” he said, adding that many Canadian towns have outdoor hockey rinks.

By starting on a local scale in 2005, Calletta and his organization created the world’s largest winter multi-sport event in a matter of a dozen years. Using their successful formula, it seems that a fledgling sport such as S3 Winter Triathlon might follow the same path.

Just the Facts
Pentathlon des Neiges
762, Jacques-Berthiaume, porte 6, Québec, QC G1V 3T1
Tel: 418-907-5734
info@pentathlondesneiges.com
www.grp5.ca