How young is to young?

In my area, you can find kid-specific races with shorter distances.  Assuming you're in SC, I would bet you could find something in the Charleston area, if you don't have anything local.  A kids race might be a good introduction.

You should look around for kids' tris or duathlons.  Those are probably a better way to introduce her to the sport and are geared for kids a little younger to a little older than your daughter.  Some of the races I do have kids' runs and duathlons connected to them and my kids enjoy doing those.

I don't know the answer to your question (though some races to have minimum age restrictions).  All kids are different and you just have to find out what is fun for them.  Fun, being the operative word.

1).  A pet peeve of mine - use "too" and not "to" in that sentence.  Thanks.

2). What do you mean by your use of the term "encouragement", i.e. talk positive and let her feel comfortable with her own training, or just letting her do her own thing with you just being there keeping a watchful eye, or trying to influence your own tips/techniques/etc.??

My second son (at the time was around 9-10 years old) did his first kids' triathlon - 100 yard swim, 5 mile bike ride, 1 mile run.  If anything, LOTS of positive praise and let them enjoy it with no pressure.  Most of all, YES, get the swimming lessons in!  It helps!

Have fun and good luck!

I participated in CSTS#1 as well; hope you enjoyed it and come back for the rest of the series.

There is a kids' triathlon held on Daniel Island every year.  This year it's June 18th.

I was talking to someone that did the Mt. Pleasant half this year and they were telling me there was a kid's tri there as well, just another thought.

I don't think there is a too young to "train" for it I mean it is swim, bike, run. I did those things all the time when I was a kid so I doubt it would be deterimental to adding structure within acceptable limits, I'd say IM might be out of reach...

They have a kid's triathlon series where I live and you can sign up really young kids, 5 or 6 years I think.  My daughters did these for a couple of Summers but we decided not to do any more.  I was hoping they would be an opportunity for my girls to develop confidence, have fun and put their athleticism to some sort of small test. But, what they mostly ended up being were a way for parents to do the race for their kids.  It was  really frustrating the amount of interference over-zealous parents demonstrated.  The parents pulled them out of the pool, ran them to T1, changed their clothes, put them on their bikes, got them off their bikes, did all T2, etc.  

I'm not jaded and bitter because my daughters did poorly.  They won every tri they did but it was really discouraging the weird and odd behavior exhibited.  Too much for me anyway.  It was hard to enjoy watching your kids have fun and do something different when such shenanigans were going on.

Agree she should stick to kids' tris for now. I teach and coach kids age 9-11 and some of them (swimmers who run/bike with parents) are perfectly capable of completing a sprint tri. One has completed several 10 and 15K's and a half-marathon.  For tris,  the issue would be safety. In an adult race, they'd be mowed over on the swim, and probably pose a safety hazard on the bike due to their size, speed, and bike handling skills.  Kids also don't tend to hydrate properly when they're excited and are more vulnerable to heat exhaustion/heatstroke.

That being said, choose kids' events carefully. My "tri"-ing students have complained that there is a lot of cheating (i.e. kids winning age categories they appear too old for, no age verification required, kids cutting the course, cutting each other off with bikes) in some local events. Maybe talk to a parent whose kids have done the event before. If your daughter is particularly interested in running, personally I think local races up to 5 K's are fine, as long as it's fun and low-key. Or look for swim teams, kids' running clubs, or kid-specific cycling events, if she's into that. 

I heard a local kids tri coach talk this past weekend and he suggested that kids focus on speed as opposed to endurance.  Therefore, he recommended kid & junior tris as opposed to sprints & longer.

My 8 yo has completed three tris and my 6 yo is scheduled to compete in her first tri in August.

I signed my 9 year old up for a Lifetime kid's tri this summer.  My 6 year old wanted to do it too but you have to be 7 by August 1, so he missed the cutoff by a couple of weeks.  This one is really manageable.  50M swim, 2.5 mile bike, and 1/2 mile run.  If anything I think those distances are awfully short.  They've ridden 10 miles with me before on training runs and 1/2 mile run for them would be no problem.  With the right dose of HTFU my oldest could do the sprint distances.  However, he's just starting to get the hang of swimming so I'm pretty happy the distance there will only be 50M (and a pool swim, not OW).

So for kids distances it would seem about age 7 on up.  For sprints I'm thinking 10-11 is a good age, depending on their swimming ability.

You might want to check out the Ironkids races; they put on a great event.

Last year, my (then) 6-yr old girl did a couple local races, and then took 1st at the Seattle Ironkids. We went to Nationals in Florida, had a great vacation, and she came in 3rd.

This year, they cancelled the Seattle event due to a venue problem and we were all bummed. She's already done one race this year. So now, she's a veteran of 6 races, and I've only done 1.

FYI, they'll enjoy it more if they do it with friends.