Bergson honoured for triathlon leadership
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/10/2025 (244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Perry Bergson — the Sun’s senior sports reporter — is usually the one who writes about athletes and coaches who receive accolades and awards, but this time the spotlight is on him.
Bergson has been recognized by Triathlon Manitoba for his years of dedication, leadership and passion for the sport, receiving the Michael Klatt Service Leadership Award.
“It’s really, really meaningful,” Bergson said Friday afternoon after receiving the news.
Perry Bergson received Triathlon Manitoba’s Michael Klatt Service Leadership Award on Thursday. The award is given to a person who has performed significant leadership roles within the sport and has a long-term record of dedication, initiative, resourcefulness and passion in serving triathlon. (Maria Bergson/For The Sun)
“I’ve had a smile on my face all day,” he added.
“I’ve done a lot of award stories over the years, and everybody always says they’re surprised, and everybody always says they didn’t do what they did for the recognition.
“And then it happened to me, so it’s all true. It’s really neat.”
The award was named after Michael Klatt, a past-president of Triathlon Manitoba who died in 2015. His family created the award with strict criteria to honour an individual who has shown long-term dedication and initiative.
There aren’t many people who have contributed to the sport at the level that Bergson has, said Jared Spier, Triathlon Manitoba’s executive director.
“It’s as close as we have to a lifetime achievement award for triathlon,” Spier said.
“It’s not something that goes to someone who’s done something nice once. This is an accumulation of years, and often decades, of contributions to the sport.”
Bergson was nominated by Ellis Crowston, the former race director of the Riding Mountain Triathlon and a friend of more than 20 years.
In his submission to Triathlon Manitoba, Crowston described how Bergson put his heart and soul into mentoring and motivating people who were new to the sport.
“The other aspect of why I felt he deserved the award is that there’s no one else in Manitoba who has written more about triathlon than Perry,” said Crowston.
“Triathlon gets picked up if someone’s training for the Olympics, or if it’s a high performance,” he said.
Bergson reacts as he crosses the finish line at Ironman Wisconsin in 2008. Bergson, who won a provincial award for his service to the sport on Thursday, did nearly 60 races during an 11-year tenure in the sport. (Submitted)
“But Perry always had the grassroots weekend-warrior type of coverage. It’s just so important for a sport like triathlon.”
Besides writing about the sport, Bergson has completed in “close to 60 Olympic and sprint triathlons.”
The Olympic event consists of a 1,500-metre swim, followed by 40 kilometres on a bicycle and a 10-km run. The sprint cuts those distances in half.
He has also done nine half Ironman runs and two full Ironman runs. The full course is a 42.2-km run, a 3.8-km swim and a 180-km bike ride.
Bergson hung up his running shoes and retired from racing in 2012, but still wanted to contribute to the sport, so he started coaching people who were new to it.
“I think we all reach a stage in our life where we think we know who we are and what we’re capable of, and for me triathlon reset that,” Bergson said.
“I wanted to share that, so that’s why I helped so many people try the sport themselves for the first time.”
Bergson also served as president of the Westman Triumphs club and organized the Brandon Try-A-Tri and Kids of Steel race for several years.
“I was raised in the way that you made things better than you found them,” Bergson said.
“And it just never occurred to me that I was doing anything extra for anybody. When you love something, the time you put in doesn’t feel like it’s time you’re giving away.”
Bergson comes out of the water at the Square Lake Triathlon in 2010 during a half-Ironman race. He is now a sports writer at The Brandon Sun.(Submitted)
The annual awards banquet for Triathlon Manitoba was held Thursday night in Winnipeg.
But Bergson wasn’t there. He was in the press box reporting on the Brandon Wheat Kings’ win against the Kamloops Blazers.
“It’s disappointing. I would have loved to have been there with everybody, because I used to attend those banquets all the time,” he said.
“But triathlon will always be dear to my heart, and because I’m a sports writer, I can still share it with people and get it out there, because let’s face it, it remains a fringe sport.
“Not a lot of people are going to try it, but the ones that do can find it very rewarding.”
» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com
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