Celebrating Sporting Service Milestones!

31 Jan 2025

INTRODUCING THOMAS WARREN 

NSW Triathlon Technical Official and Macarthur Triathlon Club Member

 

Can you introduce yourself? I’m Thomas Warren. I’m the Secretary & Publicity Officer for Macarthur Triathlon Club (amongst other jobs), a passionate age-group competitor and Regional Technical Official. I’ve been involved in the sport for 15 years across New South Wales and South Australia. In my day job I’m a flight instructor for a major university.

How did you become a TO? I became a TO in 2020 as I decided I had time to broaden my skill set. My passions in the sport (apart from my own racing) are club racing, junior development and paratriathlon. I thought by officiating I’d be able to contribute to the development of these areas in different ways to those I was already involved with. I believe that the more I can experience in our sport, the better an administrator of the sport I will be.

What do you most enjoy about your role as a TO?  A lot of the racing I officiate involves our high-performance junior athletes. I enjoy seeing these young athletes build confidence and develop their racing and interpersonal skills. That these athletes and their families have placed their faith in me to provide them with fair racing, alongside our NSW Technical Team, is a blessing. I’ve made many friends, and they’ve also taught me new words which may or may not be appropriate for NSWT social media!

I’ve also made wider friendships throughout our sport across the technical team, athletes and amongst the people that make our sport work: the club and state level administrators.

Do you have a funny story you can share? It’s not a funny story but in fact the coolest experience I’ve had. Officiating during the World Cup & Australian Junior Championships in Wollongong was a great experience. Doing 100km/h on a motorcycle in the rain was eye opening. Being a part of a crucial Olympic points event that contained some of my friends was unique. Watching our NSW juniors perform on a national stage was great.

What would you say to encourage someone else thinking about taking an active role in their club community to become a TO? Every sport needs its officials. Being an official and an athlete don’t have to be mutually exclusive goals. Taking an active part in the running of an event can even help your race performance as you gain a deeper understanding of how everything works.

 

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