The Russian Triathlon Federation (Федерация триатлона России) is the official national governing body for the sports of triathlon, duathlon and winter triathlon and represents Russia in the ITU.
The president of the RTF is Sergey Bystrov (Russian Сергей Алексеевич Быстров, born 13 April 1957 in Tver Oblast). In 2000, Bystrov was the vice coordinator of Putin's election campaign in Tver Oblast, from 2001 to 2004 he was Vice Minister of Labour and Social Development, from 2004 on he has worked in various functions in the Ministry of Transport and has been in charge of the infrastructure and logistics department for the Olympic Games in Sochi.
Elite Male: Alexander Bryukhankov, Ivan Vasiliev, Yulian Malyshev, Valentin Meshcheryakov, Artem (Artyom) Parienko, Vyacheslav Pimenov, Dmitry Polyanski, Vladimir Turbayevskiy, Ivan Tutukin; reserve: Andrey Bryukhankov, Denis Vasiliev, Ivan Kalashnikov, Anton Kozlov, Andrey Lyackiy, Igor Polyanskiy, Anatoliy Fedotov, Dmitriy Esaulov.
Elite Female: Irina Abysova, Anna Burova, Elena Danilova, Olga Dmitrieva, Lyubov Ivanovskaya, Anastasiya Polyanskaya, Alexandra Razarenova; reserve: Yevgeniya Sukhoruchenkova, Svetlana Ushakova, Natalia Shliakhtenko, Mariya Shorets, Arina Shulgina.
U23 Male (Юниоры): Pavel Agapov, Georgiy Kaurov, Vladimir Kostelcev, Maxim Nikiforov, Denis Seliverstov, Dmitry Khabibullin, Daniil Khvatov, Alexey Khmelevskiy
U23 Female (Юниорки): Olga Agapova, Alena (Alyona) Adanichkina, Anastasiya Vasilieva, Zoya Kacheyeva, Anastasia Protasenya, Anastasiya Uvarova,
Junior Male (Юноши): Egor Astakhov, Dmitriy Baruzdin, Ilya Vidineyev, Dmitriy Litvyakov, Mikhail Neznamov, Ilya Prasolov, Alexander Shcherbinin, Svyatoslav Yurgel;
Junior Female (Девушки): Anastasiya Gorbunova, Evgeniya Zalogina, Mariya Molyarova, Alena (Alyona) Polukhanova, Ekaterina Rodkina, Anastasiya Shakhmatova;
In the year before the Olympic Games in London 2012, two male triathletes and one female triathlete have emerged as the greatest Olympic hopes: Alexander Bryukhankov, Dmitry Polyanski, and Irina Abysova:
Igor Sysoyev took part in two Olympic Games and can be considered Russia's most successful triathlete of the last decade. His wife Irina Abysova, who has been the dominating figure among the Russian female triathletes of the last decade, had a bad bike accident and was seriously injured in Beijing. According to her World Championship results, Abysova should have achieved a good Olympic Games result as well.
The RTF is not only one of the biggest triathlon federations, the RTF also seems to be one of the influential federations, as some incidents suggest:
Inna Tsyganok, a Ukrainian born Russian triathlete, was allowed to take part in various ITU competitions «representing ITU» because, when moving to Russia, she obviously did not fulfil the nationality criteria for about half a year and should not have been allowed to participate in any ITU events. The ITU did not answer to questions as to why Tsyganok «represented ITU» without a nationality.
Anastasiya Gorbunova, a clear DNS case at the Junior European Cup triathlon in Tabor (31 July 2011), was eliminated not only in the ITU result list, but also in the ITU start lists immediately after the triathlon in order to prevent her from being cancelled in the start list of the European Youth Championships in Lausanne. According to the Continental Cup rules, a triathlete who withdraws too late must be removed from all start lists for the next 30 days, hence Gorbunova, the best Russian female junior triathlete, should have been banned from the Youth Triathlon European Championships in Lausanne (27 August 2011). Gorbunova was present in full armour at the check in and the line up but did not go to the pontoon when her start number (83) was called. The ITU does not answer to inquiries as to why Gorbunova was eliminated after the race even in the ITU start list.
Surprisingly, a local Russian Cup triathlon in Penza was upgraded to a European Cup (3 July 2011) and Junior European Cup (2 July 2011) triathlon although the official ETU calendar did not include any ETU competitions in Russia. All international competitors being absent from this local event, the Russian participants could easily gain points in the ETU and ITU rankings.
National female triathlon team (with Irina Abysova among other athletes) was sponsored for two seasons (2012–13,2013–14) by Russian businessman and Ironman triathlete Alexey Cheskidov. In 2014 Mr. Cheskidov founded the first series of amateur triathlon and marathon events in Bronnitsy (Moscow Region). The series was called Titan with its logo and concept being highly influenced (or inspired) by non-present in Russia Ironman Triathlon and World Triathlon Corporation.
