The 2008 ITU Triathlon World Championships were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from June 5 to June 8, 2008.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's Elite |  Javier Gómez (ESP) |  Bevan Docherty (NZL) |  Reto Hug (SUI) |
| Women's Elite |  Helen Tucker (GBR) |  Sarah Haskins (USA) | Samantha Warriner (NZL) |
| Men's U23 | Alistair Brownlee (GBR) |  Gregor Buchholz (GER) | Martin Van Barneveld (NZL) |
| Women's U23 | Daniela Ryf (SUI) | Jasmine Oeinck (USA) |  Mari Rabie (RSA) |
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the disciplines included. The word is of Greek origin, from τρεῖς or treis (three) and ἆθλος or athlos (competition).
World Triathlon, previously known as the International Triathlon Union (ITU), is the international governing body for the multi-sport disciplines of triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and other nonstandard variations. It is recognised as the international federation for the sport of triathlon and its derivatives by the International Olympic Committee, and it organises Olympic triathlon events on behalf of the IOC.
Elizabeth Nicola "Liz" Holst May is a female athlete from Luxembourg, who competed in triathlon from 2000 to 2013. May is a 2011 Aquathlon World Champion and is a 2009 European Championship silver medalist. May competed at the Olympic triathlon at the 2004 Summer Olympics and 2008 Summer Olympics. She finished in seventeenth place in Athens with a total time of 2:08:29.22.
Samantha Warriner is a retired triathlete who represented New Zealand in triathlons ranging from sprint distance up to the Ironman. She was born in Alton, Hampshire, England. She turned professional at the end of 2005 after competing internationally for 3 years while teaching full-time at Whangarei Girls High School.
Emma Laura Snowsill OAM is an Australian professional triathlete and multiple gold medalist in the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. She won the gold medal in triathlon at the 2008 Olympics. Snowsill is married to the 2008 Olympic champion in men's triathlon, Jan Frodeno.
Alistair Edward Brownlee MBE is an English triathlete. He is the only male athlete to hold two Olympic titles in the individual triathlon event, winning gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He is also a four-time World Champion in triathlon being Triathlon World Champion twice and World Team Champion twice, a four-time European Champion, and the 2014 Commonwealth champion. Brownlee is the only athlete, male or female, to have completed a grand slam of Olympic, World, continental and Commonwealth championships. Brownlee is also a one-time world champion in aquathlon. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest male Triathletes ever.
Francisco Javier Gómez Noya is a Spanish triathlete. He is the winner of five ITU Triathlon World Championships, he holds three ITU Triathlon World Cup titles, and won the Silver medal for Spain at the 2012 Summer Olympics in men's triathlon. He has also won world titles for Ironman 70.3 and XTERRA Triathlon.
The World Triathlon Cup is an annual series of triathlon races staged around the world. The series is organised by the World Triathlon, the world governing body of the sport. Inaugurated in 1991, the World Cup began as an attempt to create a regular season under its management in tandem with the ITU Triathlon World Championship race. However, this meant that there was a World Cup champion as well as a world champion. Following the 2008 series the ITU reorganized its top level competitions and created the World Triathlon Series, a series of races that was to be the successor of the World Championship. Meanwhile, the World Cup was relegated to become a second tier series, as a result the number of races in the World Cup were reduced. Since the reformat, points earned in World Cup racing are now applied only to an athlete's World Ranking.
The World Triathlon Duathlon Championships is a duathlon championship competition organised by World Triathlon. The race has been held annually since 1990. The championships involve a continuous run-cycle-run, with the format since 1994 being a first run of 10 km, a cycle of 40 km and a second run of 5 km.
The 2009 ITU World Championship Series was a series of seven triathlon events leading to a Grand Final held in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia in September 2009. The series was organised under the auspices of the world governing body of triathlon – the International Triathlon Union (ITU) – and was sponsored by Dextro Energy. The 2009 World Championship Series (WCS) was the first year of a change in format replacing the single World Championship race of prior years. Additionally, points accumulated in 2009 ITU Triathlon World Cup events would contribute to an athlete's overall point total in the Championship Series.
The 2008 ITU Triathlon World Cup was a series of triathlon races organised by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) for elite-level triathletes. There were twelve races held in twelve countries, each held over a distance of 1500 m swim, 40 km cycle, 10 km run. Alongside a prize purse, points were awarded at each race contributing towards the overall World Cup for which an additional prize purse was awarded. The 2008 World Cup was sponsored by BG Group. The 2008 World Cup series marked the final year of this race and championship format as the ITU shifted its focus to developing the World Championship Series.
The World Triathlon Long Distance Championships is a triathlon race held annually since 1994. The championships involve a continuous swim-cycle-run, over distances varying between that of an Olympic-distance and an Iron-distance triathlon race. The championships are organised by World Triathlon.
The 2009 ITU Triathlon World Cup was a series of triathlon races organised by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) for elite-level triathletes to be held during the 2009 season. For 2009, five races were announced as part of the World Cup series. Each race was held over a distance of 1500 m swim, 40 km cycle, 10 km run. Alongside a prize purse, points were awarded at each race contributing towards the overall ITU Triathlon World Championships point totals; which was a change in format to the World Cup series of prior years. The number of world cup races in 2009 were reduced as the ITU shifted focus to the Championship Series.
Non Rhiannydd Stanford is a British former professional triathlete, representing Great Britain and Wales at international level. Stanford was the ITU World Champion in 2013, part of the Great Britain world champion mixed relay team in 2012 and represented Team GB at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she finished fourth behind teammate and housemate Vicky Holland. Hindered thereafter by recurrent injuries, she struggled to repeat the dominant form of her early years. In her final year of competition, 2022, however she found an exceptional final flourish of form; she anchored Wales to silver in the team event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, her first Commonwealth medal and her first major championship medal since 2015 World Triathlon mixed relay bronze. One week later, in her final major Olympic distance triathlon race, Stanford won her first and only European championship.
The Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Series 2011 was a series of six World Championship Triathlon events leading to a Grand Final held in Beijing, China in September 2011. The Series was organised under the auspices of the world governing body of triathlon, the International Triathlon Union (ITU), and was sponsored by Dextro Energy.
Nicky Samuels is a New Zealand professional triathlete who has won the 2013 XTERRA Triathlon World Championship and the 2012 ITU Aquathlon World Championships. She is also the 2012 New Zealand cycling road race national champion. She represented—alongside Andrea Hewitt—New Zealand at the 2016 Summer Olympics in triathlon and came 13th.
The World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships, is an annual team triathlon competition organized by World Triathlon. The competition is completed in teams of four, two men and two women, with each member doing a super-sprint distance triathlon.
Shane Robert Reed was a New Zealand aquathlete and triathlete. He won three titles at the ITU Aquathlon World Championships. During his sporting career, he took part in over 65 ITU competitions, winning five medals and achieving thirty-one top ten finishes.
The World Triathlon Championship Series is World Triathlon's annual series of triathlon events used to crown an annual world champion since 2008. 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 World Triathlon champion. The elite championship races are held, with one exception, over two distances, the standard or 'Olympic' distance and the sprint distance. The ITU world champion between 1989 and 2008 had been decided in a single annual championship race.
The ITU Long Distance Duathlon World Championships is a long-distance duathlon race, held annually since 1997, except for a break in 2009 and 2010. The championships involve a continuous run-cycle-run. The distances are typically around two to three times those of the shorter ITU Duathlon World Championships, in both cases varying according to the venue; they have also varied over the years. The championships are organised by the International Triathlon Union (ITU).