Ironman Triathlon interested participants. In 1990, with the help of Lew Friedland, Dr. James P. Gills acquired and purchased the Hawaii Triathlon Corporation, owner of the Ironman brand, for $3 million from Silk. With the Ironman brand, Gills established the World Triathlon Corporation with the intention of furthering the sport of triathlon and increasing prize money for triathletes. A number of non-WTC full distance triathlons have been held since the mid-1990s. The limited number of WTC-sanctioned events, and the limited number of entries available per race, have combined with a growth in the sport that has created demand for these non-trademarked events.
ITU World Triathlon Series races will be the ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships. 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 (ITU), to 2008. Beginning with the 2009 racing season the ITU Triathlon World Championship was changed to a series of events culminating with a grand final race. From 2009 to 2011 the events were known as the World Championship Series (WCS) before being relabeled World Triathlon Series (WTS) in 2012. In 2011 the sprint distance world championship