Simon Whitfield and Paula Findlay

Triathlon Canada nominated Simon Whitfield and Paula Findlay to the Canadian Olympic Committee to be named to the 2012 Olympic team.

Simon has been my favourite triathlete since winning gold at the first Olympic triathlon race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He was Canada's flagbearer at the Closing Ceremonies. I have often written about Simon Whitfield on this blog (you can see those posts by typing his name in the search bar at the top left) or click here to read about my excitement seeing his jersey at the Victoria Front Runners store.

In 2008, Simon won a fantastic silver medal. Now 36 years old, he is the veteran of the triathlon team and I will be so excited to see him compete in his 4th Olympic Games. I'm hoping that Brent McMahon and Kyle Jones will join him on the team by qualifying next year. They were 3rd and 4th at the Pan Am Games (a 1st place finish was needed to qualify for London).

At 22 years old Paula Findlay is the future of Canada's triathlon team. In 2010 she was the surprise winner of the World Championship series event at the London Olympic course. She won on the world stage another 4 times before injuring her hip this past summer.

By being selected on the team, Simon and Paula can now concentrate on peaking at the Olympics rather than training for qualifying events.