Triathlon at the Summer Olympics for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and remained the same for London 2012. In London, the women's triathlon took place on Saturday 4 August, with the men's event on Tuesday 7 August. Thirteen nations have split the thirty medals awarded in the triathlon events. Qualification spots in the triathlon are allotted to National Olympic Committees (NOCs) rather than to individual athletes. There are five ways for NOCs to earn spots in the triathlon. NOCs can earn a maximum of three spots, though only eight nations may earn that many. Nations beyond that may earn only two spots. The first five spots
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