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A Tough Transition for Women’s Triathlon

Melissa Teeple of Marymount University in Virginia competing at the collegiate national championships this month.Credit...Mark Rebilas for The New York Times

Triathlons can be grueling tests of endurance and grit, but the sport itself is facing a challenging course among N.C.A.A. programs.

The N.C.A.A. in January adopted women’s triathlon — a race combining running, swimming and cycling — as an “emerging sport,” giving it a decade to attract at least 40 varsity teams in order to become a championship sport.

More than 160 colleges and universities have triathlon clubs, and at least a dozen universities told the N.C.A.A. in a letter that they would consider adding a varsity program.

But when asked about that commitment, only one — Marymount University in Virginia, which already has a varsity program — said it planned to compete at the N.C.A.A. level.

“Right now, we’re not planning to offer it,” said Troy Dannen, the athletic director at Northern Iowa, which signed the letter. “There’s a lot of us waiting to see how it plays out.”

Athletic directors at other colleges had similar answers. Without more of a commitment, triathlon could face the same fate as women’s archery, badminton, squash or handball, all former emerging sports that never caught on.

From a participation standpoint, triathlon seems like an obvious choice as a college sport. About 1,200 collegiate triathletes compete at the national championships, said USA Triathlon, the sport’s governing body. Athletes flocked to Tempe, Ariz., during the first weekend of April for the most recent championship races.

USA Triathlon spent five years working with other groups to persuade the N.C.A.A. to adopt triathlon, said Rob Urbach, the group’s chief executive. The decision “shows we’ve arrived,” he said.

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The swimming competition at the national championships in Tempe, Ariz.Credit...Mark Rebilas for The New York Times

“We think it has the potential for some early adopters,” he said, adding that he had received calls from several universities interested in the sport. The group also held an informational meeting about starting N.C.A.A. triathlon programs for about 75 coaches and other college athletic officials at the Tempe event.

The N.C.A.A. is particularly interested in emerging women’s sports because of gender-equity rules that require proportionate numbers of male and female athletes at each college. With more than 100 male athletes playing for most college football teams, sports like triathlon could help universities come closer to leveling the numbers.

The collegiate triathlon will include a 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike segment and a 10-kilometer run, a total length of about 32 miles. The distance is far more manageable for most people than an Ironman triathlon, which totals more than 140 miles.

The sport has boomed since 2000, the first year triathlon was included in the Olympics. USA Triathlon had fewer than 30,000 full-year members in 2000 — the organization also has hundreds of thousands of one-day members who sign up for a race day — and now has more than 176,400 annual members.

More than one-fifth of those members are younger than 16. Triathlon’s N.C.A.A. recognition will increase that percentage, said Gwen Jorgensen, perhaps the United States’ best female triathlete.

“It’s really exciting for the sport,” Jorgensen said in a telephone interview from Australia, where she was training. “People are going to be starting earlier.”

Among the youngsters who are already part of the triathlon scene is Gabrielle Niko, a 15-year-old freshman at Diamond Bar High School in Los Angeles County, who plans to seek a triathlon scholarship in college. She finished last season ranked 34th nationally in the women’s 15-and-under category.

“It’s really fun because you can do it through your whole life,” said Niko, who competed in her first triathlon on her 13th birthday and has an eye on the 2020 Olympics. “I know a 71-year-old who won a triathlon I was in.”

Unfortunately for Niko, Stanford University and the Air Force Academy — her top two choices — said they had no plans to offer the sport. Neither university offered an explanation why they had signed the letter asking the N.C.A.A. to adopt the sport.

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Melissa Teeple, center, with Marymount Coach Zane Castro, right, and the assistant Calah Schlabach.Credit...Mark Rebilas for The New York Times

Monmouth University in New Jersey also signed the letter without any plans to add the sport. The university cannot afford triathlon at the moment, Athletic Director Marilyn McNeil said, and pressure from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference has forced it to prioritize other sports.

“To me, when it first came up, it was a no-brainer,” McNeil said. “We’re a mile from the ocean and we’ve got a lot of trails to run. I’d love to add it.”

At Marymount, the athletic department did not wait for N.C.A.A. recognition before giving triathlon varsity status. The university sponsors men’s and women’s teams, which compete against other colleges’ club teams.

For now, Coach Zane Castro is benefiting from the lack of other varsity programs, which gives him something of a leg up in recruiting. As an N.C.A.A. Division III university, Marymount does not offer athletic scholarships.

“My goal here is to make Marymount a little bit of a hotbed,” said Castro, who helped build Ecuador’s triathlon program and also coaches Marymount’s cross-country and track teams.

One of his first challenges will be scheduling. The national triathlon championships are held in the spring, but the collegiate women’s championship will be in November, putting the men’s and women’s teams on different training tracks.

The change led Castro to send just one female triathlete to compete in Tempe this month. USA Triathlon officials said they were not yet sure how they would run November’s N.C.A.A. championships if Marymount remained the only varsity program.

Several of the current triathlon hotbed colleges are in Colorado, including the University of Colorado at Boulder, a perennial contender in the team competition. Athletic officials there said they had no plans to sponsor a triathlon team “in the foreseeable future,” despite the university’s success at the club level.

Kaye Sitterley, a 20-year-old vice president of the Colorado triathlon club, said the university should reconsider. Collegiate triathlon would attract generations of athletes, she said.

“If I had known there was an option to do triathlon in college, I would have totally changed my route,” said Sitterley, a North Carolina native. “I played ice hockey my entire life and had planned to play in college. But once I did my first triathlon, I switched paths.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: A Tough Transition for Women’s Triathlon. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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