The ITU World Triathlon Series is the International Triathlon Union's annual series of triathlon events used to crown an annual world champion. There are multiple rounds of competitions culminating in a Grand Final race. Athletes compete head-to-head for points in these races that will determine the overall ITU world champion. The elite championship races are held over two distances the standard and the sprint distance. As of 2018 a mixed relay series is to be run in tandem, where national teams compete in mixed team relays for prize money and Olympic qualifying points. One of these races will be the ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships.
History
With the establishment of the International Triathlon Union in 1989 it was quickly established that the governing body should host a yearly world championship to establish the men's and women's world champion. With the creation and hosting of the first ITU Triathlon World Championship in 1989 the ITU had established itself and the sports premier event but the sport overall lacked cohesion with races of varying lengths and prize pools, which increased the difficulty for triathletes to train and plan for seasons ahead. So in 1991 the ITU created the ITU Triathlon World Cup a year long series of races all hosted by the ITU with regular distances and prize money. With a world championship and a regular season established the ITU's attention moved onto other issues including earning the sport a place at the Olympics. Then in 2008 the day after the 2008 men's Olympic triathlon race the ITU announced starting next year it would be replacing the single race world championship with a six-race World Championship points super series culminating in a Grand Final, it was to be called the World Championship Series. The ITU believed it would help grow the sport and increase the reach to the level of major sports whilst gaining a bigger TV audience. Most athletes and professional coaches were happy at the announcement believing it would help the sport become more popular and increase professionalism and pay for the top level athletes. However, there were major monetary concerns one week after the announcement as the ITUs main sponsor BG had pulled out of its nine-year sponsorship deal after only two years. By its start in 2009 the series had gained a title sponsor in Dextro Energy in a $2 million deal allowing for each World Championship event to feature a $150,000 prize purse and for the Grand final to have $250,000, this also meant that $700,000 was available at the end of the series. This influx of cash meant that athletes would be to earn almost triple what they had previously helping to draw more into the sport. In 2011 the sprint distance world championship was incorporated into the series giving the same points and prize money as any other event, from this point on sprint distance events would make up a part of the series. In 2012 Dextro Energy ended their title sponsorship in tandem with the series rebranding itself as the World Triathlon Series. Then in 2013 the prize pool saw an increase to $2.25 million certifying the world triathlon series as the richest series in triathlon. In 2018 with the growing popularity of the ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships and the disciplines' addition to the Olympic program it was decided that at three of the events on the 2018 calendar a mixed relay event would be held alongside the men's and women's competition; these three events would grant points towards Olympic qualification and constitute the new ITU mixed relay series.
Disciplines
Currently there are three different distance disciplines:
Standard- A 1500m swim followed by a 40 km cycle followed by a 10 km run.
Sprint- A 750m swim followed by a 20 km cycle followed by a 5 km run.
Mixed Team Relay- A 4 x where each athlete completes the swim bike run before tagging the next athlete, with the order of the athletes always being female, male, female, male.
In all instances the swim will be a mass start in open-water and the cycling will be draft-legal. There is an allowed leniency of 10% on each segment of courses route for the standard and sprint distances, with more discretion being allowed for the mixed relay. The standard distance was also known as the Olympic distance as it was the only distance competed for in the Olympics, however the ITU has tried to enforce the use of the name standard distance saving the name Olympic on for official Olympic events.
Champions
Men's championship
The athlete won his first title as World Champion under the old world championship system.
Women's championship
The athlete won the title of World Champion under the old world championship system.
Medals classification
Hosts
;World Triathlon Series locations The world triathlon series has visited 27 cities in 19 countries since its founding in 2009. Where GF = Grand Final, Mr = Mixed Relay event ;World Triathlon Series Grand Final locations The final race of each season is known as the grand final and has extra points, prize money and prestige associated with it, when a city bids to host the grand final it also bids to host many ITU events such as the amateur Age-group world championships and the Paratriathlon world championship. The age-group world championships have featured in two popular autobiographical books. One by BBC newsreader Louise Minchin called Dare to Tri: My story from BBC Breakfast Sofa to Team GB triathlete, and one by author and journalist Helen Croydon called This Girl Ran: Tales of a Party Girl turned Triathlete. Coincidentally both wrote separate stories of taking to triathlon in later life and both culminated at age-group world championships in Chicago in 2015.
The world champion was formerly crowned in the ITU Triathlon World Championship, a single championship race that was held annually from 1989, the same year as the formation of the International Triathlon Union, to 2008.
