What’s in a good award nomination? Triathlon Manitoba isn’t just asking for you to say an athlete had a great year (because in our books, if you participated, we think that is great too), we are asking you to build a case for why your nomination stands out in their award category. But don’t fret… it isn’t that hard!
Step 1: Pick the correct category.
Unfortunately, you can’t just nominate someone for Elite Athlete of the Year, just because you think they are fast. Triathlon Manitoba has described each category to help you with this step:
Elite: Excellence at the highest Provincial, National and International level.
Youth: Performance at the Youth level, including provincial, national and international competition. We’re looking for athletes 13-15 years old.
Junior: Performance at the Junior level, including provincial, national and international competition. We’re looking for athletes 16-19 years old.
Age Group: Strong age-group performance at provincial races and/or national/international championships.
Rookie: Excellent results in their first year of competition.
Most Improved: Significant improvement from the previous year, this category considers both improvements in time and placing.
Long Course: At least two races longer than Olympic distance, including at least one Triathlon Manitoba-sanctioned event (Hecla for 2026).
Best Teammate: The athlete that consistently supported, motivated and encouraged others.
Best Achievement: An athlete that had outstanding year but doesn’t necessarily show up at the top of the results sheet. Had an epic race? We want to hear about it.
Step 2: Give us the cold, hard facts.
This is your opportunity to give us the evidence. The nomination form has a handy-dandy chart for you to list your nominee’s race times, locations, distances, placings, etc. The more information you include in the chart, the better your nomination!
You should include provincial races, but also let us know about national and international competitions. Final award decisions are made based on triathlons and other multi-sport events under the World Triathlon umbrella.
Step 3: Tell us a story.
Now that you’ve laid out all the facts, this is your time to beef it up. Instead of just saying “finished 3rd in St Malo sprint distance” give us some more context with something like “finished 3rd overall in the St Malo sprint triathlon, competing against 150 athletes and finishing within 90 seconds of the first place athlete.”
We love to see details like the field size, the level of competition, qualifications, margin for the podium, personal bests, whether the result was well earned and whether the athlete was making a comeback from a previous setback.
For the Most-Improved category, this is where your story matters even more. Tell us what your athlete did to get their results – strength training, cross training, joined a team, consistency, and more. It doesn’t hurt to breakdown paces in the sport that your nominee improved the most (eg. If your nominee went from a 2:30/100m swim to a 2:00/100m swim, tell us!).
For all categories, we love to hear about breakthrough performances, moving up distances or competition levels, mentoring other athletes, club involvement, representing Manitoba on a world stage, volunteering and general community involvement. Just remember – giving us an insight to the person behind the results will strengthen the nomination.
Step 4: Find an epic photo.
Triathlon Manitoba has free images from most of our events in 2026 – these can all be found on the Results and Awards page of our website. Click through these amazing photo albums and find a good photo of your nominee.
If this step is left up to the Triathlon Manitoba office… we might not find the best photo of your nominee (see evidence above). So find one that makes your nominee look fast – because this might just be published for the community to see!
