World Triathlon Corporation

From Freepedia

The World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) is a corporation which organizes the Ironman Triathlon series of triathlon races, and owns the Ironman trademark.

The Ironman race series culminates each year in the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, held in Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawai‘i.

WTC Ironman races are not sanctioned by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) and are therefore not official triathlon world championships. However, the WTC and the Ironman are both older than the ITU and are, if anything, better known among the community.

History

In 1990, Lew Friedland assisted Dr. James P. Gills in the acquisition and purchase of the World Triathlon Corporation. Friedland subsequently served as a member of the Board of Directors and as Vice President of WTC until his promotion to President in 1998.

Throughout his tenure, Friedland attended more than a dozen Ironman Triathlon World Championship races in Kona, Hawaii. After celebrating Ironman’s successful 25th anniversary in 2004, Friedland expressed interest in significantly reducing his role and amount of travel.

Ben Fertic, formerly Vice President of Information Systems, succeeded Friedland as President of WTC in 2004. Fertic, an Ironman finisher, joined WTC in 2000 and has been heavily involved in the business operations and day-to-day decision making for WTC. During Fertic's tenure as VP, he was instrumental in creating Ironmanlive.com, the online presence of the Ironman Triathlon, which helped bring the race's online presence and the races themselves to a new level, including online video streaming of the events.