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Patrick Kelly to provide national coach mentoring and coaching support to National Performance Centre and Academy, Triathlon Canada to recruit new Para pathway coach

VICTORIA—Triathlon Canada has ramped up its coaching support structure in an effort to not only lead the nation’s best athletes towards their performance goals, but also to provide the leadership required to support the next generation of athletes and coaches.

Marc-Antoine Christin will continue to oversee coaching responsibilities for all athletes in the National Performance Centre as well as now taking the lead with athletes within Triathlon Canada’s Academy. Christin will concentrate more time in the daily training environment in Victoria, working with developing athletes in the system in addition to attending targeted international races at all levels.

“Marc-Antoine is going to play a critical role in helping us have more influence deeper into the pathway by spending more time working with our development level athletes at the National Performance Centre and Academy,” said Phil Dunne, high-performance director, Triathlon Canada. “Marc-Antoine is a proven performer within the development pathway so dedicating more of his focus to athletes in the Academy will reap significant benefits for our athletes longer-term.”

A kinesiology graduate, Christin has been Triathlon Canada’s national coaching ranks since 2018. Prior to joining the national body, he served a variety of coaching roles at the club and provincial level with Triathlon Quebec where he helped guide developing athletes to leading performances at national and international competitions.

Triathlon Canada has also named Patrick Kelly to the role of Coach Mentor and National Performance Centre Support Coach.

Kelly will take on a hybrid leadership role within Triathlon Canada where he will mentor developing coaches across the country and provide direct, enhanced coaching support to Marc-Antoine Christin for athletes in the National Performance Centre and Academy. Kelly will provide support coaching to Christin in Victoria and will lead the daily training environment when Christin is travelling with the elite-level athletes at camps and competitions.

Kelly brings nearly four decades of coaching and experience leading high performance triathletes around the world to his new position with Triathlon Canada where he will work alongside Christin to strengthen the high-performance environment in Canada for both athletes and coaches.

“Patrick’s extensive experience and expertise plays a critical role in our high-performance leadership team and will be counted on to provide the necessary coaching support and mentorship our coaches across Canada require,” added Dunne. “We are thrilled to have Patrick help us guide  this new generation of Canadian triathletes and coaches who are driven to succeed.”

Formerly the senior coach of Triathlon Canada’s National Training Centre between 2003 and 2012, Kelly has coached athletes to World Championship medals at every level: junior, Under 23 and Senior as a high-performance coach in Canada, Hong Kong and Japan.

He was the lead coach for six Canadian national team members including Paula Findlay during her electrifying run of five World Triathlon Series victories in 2010-11. Kelly moved to the Far East following the 2012 Olympic Games to take on head coaching responsibililties for the Hong Kong Sports Institute (2012-17) where he developed a talent identification recruitment program, worked closely with sport institutes and sports science staff and created long-term high performance plans.

Kelly called Japan home throughout the last Olympic quadrennial. As National Men’s Team Coach with the Japan Triathlon Union (2017-2021), he led all facets of the men’s squad towards Tokyo 2021 including: managing the integrated support team; performance planning; and budgeting. Working with the team’s sport partners, Kelly transformed the program from a DNF finish in Rio 2016 to the country’s all-time best Olympic performance with two, top-20 finishes at the Tokyo Games

Triathlon Canada will also not waver in the organization’s focus on ensuring it continues to deliver a world-leading Paratriathlon program well beyond the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

While Carolyn Murray will continue to hold the reigns of the Paratriathlon program as head coach, Triathlon Canada is currently in the midst of recruiting a Paratriathlon Pathway Coach to support the identification and transition of newly-identified paratriathletes onto the pathway to LA 2028. The new role will lead on athlete talent identification initiatives and provide coaching support to new athletes entering the performance pathway, allowing Murray to focus on our elite paratriathletes in the lead up to Paris 2024.

Murray entered the realm of coaching soon after her Olympic experience at the behest of Patrick Kelly, the head of the national program at the time. Starting out working with development level athletes in the Olympic stream, Murray took the helm of the paratriathlon program in 2014. Her efforts with the program have earned her many accolades while growing and developing Canada’s paratriathletes into Paralympic, World Championship and World Cup medal-winners.

“Carolyn knows what it takes to achieve excellence while creating a safe, friendly and inclusive daily training environment, and her knowledge and experience over the last 20 years will contribute significantly to the development of Canada’s athletes and coaches,” added Dunne. “The parasport world is not standing still, and nor should Canada. Adding a pathway coach provides Carolyn the ability to focus on leading our podium potential athletes, while not losing sight of growing the pipeline, ensuring the tradition of excellence for our paratriathlon program continues well into the future.”

Triathlon Canada is the governing body of the sport in the country. Triathlon Canada’s more than 22,000members include athletes, coaches and officials from the grassroots to elite levels. With the support of its valued corporate partners – 94 FORWARD, Training Peaks, Subaru Canada, Z3R0D, Tribe, ZiZU Optics – along with the City of Victoria, Government of Canada, Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee, and Own the Podium, Triathlon Canada develops Olympic, Paralympic and World Champions in all race disciplines. For more information on Triathlon Canada, please visit us at www.triathloncanada.com

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Chris Dornan

Triathlon Canada

T: 403-620-8731

E-mail: chris.dornan@triathloncanada.com