Canada’s triathlon head coach will not be in Tokyo according to social media post

While the official announcement of Canada’s Olympic triathlon team won’t be until tomorrow, according to a social media post that has since been taken down, Canada’s head coach, Jono Hall says he will not be attending the Games.

The post still appears on LinkedIn.

“Selected as Heach Coach for the Canadian Triathlon Team last week but I’ve declined to travel to Tokyo to take up that role given many factors and I’ll be calling the shots for medal potential athlete Tyler Mislawchuk from my US base in Scottsdale, Arizona,” Hall posted on his Facebook account yesterday. “It’s been a strange 18+ months but strange is the new normal when pursuing performance.”

In the post Hall included a photo of his Olympic credentials. Athletes on the Canadian team have been instructed not to publish any information about their selection (or non selection) to the team and have been told not to post pictures of their accreditation.

Hall has been to three Olympics as a coach. He was the Australian team coach at the 2008 Games in Beijing, was the head coach for the American team at the 2012 Games in London, and was the head coach for Canada at the 2016 Games in Rio.

Based on the Olympic qualifying criteria, there are six athletes who could be named to the Canadian team tomorrow, including Tyler Mislawchuk, Matthew Sharpe, Alexis Lepage, Joanna Brown, Amelie Kretz and Dominika Jamnicky. Of that list Mislawchuk and Lepage are both coached by Hall. Matthew Sharpe left the national team program last year to work with Lance Watson, Brown is coached by Craig Taylor, Kretz by Alex Serrano and Jamnicky by Kyle Boorsma.

Triathlon Canada says that all details on the Olympic team will be announced tomorrow.