I-tri Wins Contest at USA Triathlon Conference

I-tri, a nonprofit dedicated to building self-esteem among adolescent girls, was selected as the overall winner and was awarded $1,000 in a competition at the USA Triathlon Endurance Exchange conference in North Carolina. Similar to “Shark Tank” the TriTank contestants had to answer the question “What are you doing to innovate in the sport of triathlon?”

I-tri’s leadership team of Theresa Roden, Sharon McCobb, and Samantha Rothberg attended the conference that connects athletes with coaches, race directors, clubs, and industry professionals who share a passion for the multi-sport. Theresa Roden, i-tri’s founder and chief visionary officer was a featured speaker at the event alongside best-selling fitness writer Selene Yeager, USA Triathlete Reggie Waller and neuroscientist and athlete Dr. Scott H. Frey.

After hearing the i-tri pitch, event sponsor Ticket Socket pledged an extra $1,500, plus a woman in the audience pledged an additional $1,000 and the second- and third-place winners in the contest also donated their winnings, earning the local organization $4,750.

“It was an incredible weekend of learning and connecting with others in the multi-sport world. By its very existence, I-tri is innovating and changing the sport of triathlon. By exposing underserved middle school girls and nonbinary youth to the sport of triathlon, we are enabling a whole new demographic to take part in a very specialized sport. Being awarded first place in TriTank was an incredible honor in itself, however the subsequent pledges and donations that followed demonstrated the amazing generosity and camaraderie of the triathlon community as a whole, not to mention the effects of the USA Triathlon leadership to champion programs just like i-tri,” said Roden.