Triathlon: Australia first up for the trifecta

The scenario goes like this. At 1.45 pm today (NZT), three blonde-haired Australian women will mount the podiums in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Then, with the famous harbour dazzling in the background, the first medals of the 2000 Olympics will be placed around their necks. Gold, silver, bronze; one, two, three. A clean sweep for the host nation.

Fantasy? Far from it. Women's triathlon is the first medal event of the Games, and Australia's three contenders - Michellie Jones, Loretta Harrop and Nicole Hackett - top the world rankings. Difficult to beat anywhere, they will be competing on a familiar course, with a home crowd of 150,000 yelling its support.

What better way for Australia to start the Olympics, launching its quest for 60 medals in a blaze of glory while showcasing Sydney at its most scenic. If the dream comes true, it will be no happy coincidence. Sydney has been plotting this day for a decade. Mindful of triathlon's popularity in Australia, its bid document urged the International Olympic Committee to adopt it as an Olympic sport.

A more picturesque setting for an Olympic debut can hardly be imagined. The first leg, a 1500m swim, takes place in the harbour, just east of the Opera House, while the 40km cycle course and the 10km run wind through the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens and along the harbour foreshore.

It is a highly demanding sport, and the Sydney course is tough. The harbour is a frigid 15 deg C in September. The run is hilly and so is the cycle leg, which has technically challenging narrow sections and sharp corners.

Australian women filled the first five places in last year's world championships and have won eight of the previous nine world titles. But only three women could make it into the Olympic team. Jones, long regarded as the queen of the sport, has a bulging bag of titles ranging over the past 10 years, and at the age of 31 is still the world number one.

She was the only one of the three to be guaranteed selection early in the year. Harrop and Hackett found out only two weeks ago that their places were secure after Emma Carney's appeal against non-selection finally failed.

Harrop, 25, won last year's world championships and then saw the honour pass to 21-year-old Hackett in April.

The two younger Australians, both fearsome swimmers, are expected to make the early pace. They line up side by side on the start pontoon and have said they will work together in the swim and bike legs to try to open up a sustainable lead going into the run.

Both have had to overcome injuries, and the appeals saga cannot have helped their mental preparations. And while home support can be an advantage, the weight of expectation will heap massive pressure on to inexperienced shoulders.

Jones, however, is unlikely to be fazed by the screaming crowd and worldwide audience of billions.

"We all know how many people watch the Olympics and it's fantastic for our sport to open up the Games," she said. "But for me personally I'm focusing on my individual performance and once we're in the water it will be just another race."

The triathlon's overall appeal has been heightened by there being sharks in the harbour. Or are there? Stories have proliferated about sharks lying in wait for a juicy triathlete, although there has not been a shark attack in Sydney between May and November for 208 years.

To the mirth of the competitors, they will be escorted by scuba divers with shark-repellent sonar devices.

No matter the result of today's spectacle, spectators who love triathlon should enjoy it while they can. Its status will be reviewed after the Games and insiders say that the IOC's commitment to the sport is lukewarm.

- INDEPENDENT