Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team

Logo of the "Bahrain Endurance 13 Team"

The Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team is a triathlon team with international participation based in Bahrain .

organization

Team Leader Chris McCormack , 2008

At the beginning of 2015, Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa founded the Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team and officially presented it for the first time in May. He wants to draw attention to the achievements in endurance sports among the people of the Gulf States .

The goal of this team is international success on the long distance triathlon and thus the Ironman Hawaii World Championship in October is one of the highlights of the current season. The team was led by Australian Chris McCormack (two-time Ironman world champion).

Current members of the international athlete team in the "Bahrain Endurance 13 Team" are (as of March 27, 2020):

• Kristian Blummenfelt (since 2020)
• Alistair Brownlee (since 2017)
• Jan Frodeno (since 2015)
• Ashleigh Gentle (since 2018)
• Javier Gómez (since 2015)
• Vicky Holland (since 2019)
• Ben Kanute (since 2018)
• Holly Lawrence (since 2017)
• Vincent Luis (since 2019)
• Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa (since 2018; team manager)
• Lauren Parker (since 2019)
• David Pleše (since 2015)
• Daniela Ryf (since 2015)
• Terenzo Bozzone (since 2015)

Other athletes who started for the team are

• Paul Ambrose (2015)
• Mikel Calahorra (2017)
• Jodie Cunnama (2015-2018)
• Fredrik Croneborg (2015-2017)
• Ben Hoffman (2015-2018)
• Sebastian Kienle (2015-2016)
• Brent McMahon (2015-2018)
• Caroline Steffen (2015-2017)

successes

Season 2019

2018 season

The Swiss Caroline Steffen and the Swede Fredrik Croneborg have been part of the team since 2015 and in 2018 the Australian Ashleigh Gentle and the US American Ben Kanute were added to the team of 13.

2017 season

The British Holly Lawrence (reigning Ironman 70.3 world champion) and her compatriot Alistair Brownlee (double Olympic champion short distance) as well as the Spaniard Mikel Calahorra (as the first age group athlete), however, have joined the team for the 2017 season left again after his first season. The German Sebastian Kienle is no longer in the team in 2017.

2016 season

In May 2016, the Canadian Brent McMahon won the Ironman Brasil and set the second fastest time ever achieved in an Ironman race with his winning time of 7:46:10 hours - only twelve seconds behind the world record of Belgian Marino Vanhoenacker (2011, Ironman Austria ).
In July, the reigning Ironman world champions Daniela Ryf and Jan Frodeno won the Challenge Roth . With his winning time of 7:35:39 hours, Frodeno set a new world record on the long distance and Ryf set the third fastest time ever achieved by a woman after 8:22:04 hours.
Caroline Steffen became ITU Vice World Champion on the long distance in September.

In 2016 he was able to qualify eight athletes from the team for a starting place at the Ironman Hawaii : the two defending champions Daniela Ryf and Jan Frodeno as well as Jodie Swallow , David Pleše , James Cunnama , Terenzo Bozzone , Ben Hoffman and Brent McMahon .

2015 season

In July 2015, the team at Ironman Germany with Daniela Ryf and Jan Frodeno was able to provide the European champions in the men and with Sebastian Kienle and Caroline Steffen achieved second and third place respectively. At the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, Ryf and Frodeno also became world champions in the middle distance. With Kienle in second and Gómez in third place, the team was able to take the entire podium in the men's category. In October, the team at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii with Daniela Ryf and Jan Frodeno was able to provide both the winners in the women and men.

Paul Ambrose left the team after this season.

Criticism of the team

Human rights organizations point out that athletes who start for this team can be used as figureheads and sympathizers for a country and its government that is characterized by massive human rights violations and views violence as a legitimate means of achieving political goals.
In particular, the founder of this team, Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa , excelled in addition to sporting achievements ( Ironman Hawaii Finisher, 2018) through problematic statements on dealing with political opponents and foreign enemies. Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa is the Supreme Commander in the Royal Guard. He is fourth in line to the throne.

The team's name “Bahrain Endurance 13 Team” can be traced back to 13 human rights lawyers, the “Bahrain 13”. After the protests in the country in 2011 ( “Arab Spring” ), they had drawn attention to human rights violations, including torture.

The German Jan Frodeno has been part of the Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team since 2015. Frodeno is not uncritical about his sponsor, but avoids personally distancing himself from the founder and leader of the team or criticizing his violent, militant attitude that does not shy away from torture and retaliation.

“I definitely don't want to ignore the fact that the founder of this project will certainly make dubious decisions. I just want to emphasize that this (ie the promotion of sport) is maybe a positive thing that this person started ... We are really there, changing things there, spending time there, we are not just giving a name , but rather deal with young people and bring people of all minds together through the triathlon. "

- Jan Frodeno during an interview as part of the Triathlon made in Bahrain program in October 2019

Frodeno justifies his membership in the team by saying that he hopes that the team’s sporting successes will contribute to the popularity of the endurance sport triathlon in Bahrain and in this way promote the inner peace of the country and encourage understanding.

Sebastian Kienle had prematurely released himself from the contract with his sponsor after the 2016 season due to the dubious reputation of his sponsor and he speaks of considerable financial support.

“That was the wrong decision and I bought myself at that moment. I like my sport so scary because it allows me to enjoy extreme freedom, and then accepting money to represent a regime that takes away other people's freedom, no longer worked ... For the first time there was a pretty nice number for that what we have been paid to represent that. "

- Sebastian Kienle during an interview as part of the Triathlon made in Bahrain program in October 2019

Web links

• Official website of the Bahrain Elite Endurance Triathlon Team

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gomez leads new triathlon team (May 6, 2015)
2. ↑ Bahrain Endurance Team: Final team line-up with Sebastian Kienle revealed (May 10, 2015)
3. ↑ NEW ATHLETES IN THE BAHRAIN ENDURANCE TEAM (January 30, 2018)
4. ↑ Alistair Brownlee starts for the Bahrain Endurance 13 Team (February 14, 2017)
5. ↑ Brave eight chasing Kona dreams (October 5, 2016)
6. ^ Wenzel Michalski (Human Rights Watch), Andreas Schüller (European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights)
7. ^ Bahrain 13 - Read About Members of the Bahrain 13 (February 28, 2013)
8. ^ Frank change; Simon Müller: Carbon & Laktat from December 11, 2019: Ironman 70.3 Bahrain and Team Bahrain Endurance 13 (podcast). In: Podcast Carbon and Lactate. Triathlon Magazin, December 11, 2019, accessed on March 27, 2020 (German). 
9. ↑ Triathlon made in Bahrain. October 10, 2019, accessed October 11, 2019 .