With the establishment of the International Triathlon Union (ITU, now World Triathlon) 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 (WCS). 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. 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 mixed relay series. ==Disciplines==