Chrissie Wellington

In June 2019, Chrissie completed the Comrades Marathon, one of the world's toughest ultra marathons. She finished 14th in the women's 40-49 age category.

On 2 May 2015 Wellington married Tom Lowe. They have a daughter named Esme.

Her friends in Nepal remarked on how she never missed a morning bike ride, whether or not she was sick: "Chrissie saying, 'Oh, I have a stomach bug' was like saying hello every day, but no matter how many bugs were inside her tummy she would always train and push herself every second", said one friend, adding, "We all wondered how fast she would be if she had no bugs – and that thought was scary."

In October Wellington returned to Kona as defending champion and retained her title, setting a new Hawaii marathon course record of 2:57:44. Despite losing around 10 minutes because of a flat tyre – a delay which would have been greater if fellow competitor Rebekah Keat had not given her a spare CO2 cartridge – she finished some 15 minutes ahead of second-placed Yvonne van Vlerken.

Her hip had been in constant pain during the bike stage, but once she started on the marathon, her hamstrings began seizing up as well. She wrote, "I saw my family at mile three and gave them a smile, but inside the pain was unbearable." She described the pain on the marathon as "the worst I'd ever known. 'You are going to hurt like hell', I said to myself, because this is just the start." She ran the first half of the marathon in 1 hour 22 minutes – her fastest ever at Kona – increasing her lead over Carfrae to five minutes. Her body slowed down in the intense heat approaching the Energy Lab, where she passed Caroline Steffen to gain the lead. She crossed the finish line with a marathon time of 2:52:41, winning in an overall time of 8:55:08. Her marathon time was a course record until Carfrae crossed the line in second place 2 minutes 49 seconds later, in turn setting a new marathon course record of 2:52:09. Her overall time was second only to the course record she had set in 2009.

After the race, her coach Dave Scott told journalist T J Murphy that Wellington was "traumatised" by the effects of her injuries, and that despite her "stoic" attitude, her injuries were "worse than any of us might have imagined", adding, "I don't think Chrissie will appreciate me telling you this, but it's important." Murphy described her performance as "inspirational", but added, "it was more than that. It was chilling. [...] It was chilling to watch because you could see Wellington racing her way right to the hospital, paying literally no heed to her brain's internal governor – one that has been wired into the human body through millions of years of evolution."

Chrissie Wellington first discovered Parkrun when she came across 300 people lining up in Richmond Park on a Saturday morning, and spontaneously decided to take part. In February 2013, Chrissie joined Parkrun's staff as Head of Participation. She later became its Head of Health and Wellbeing.

Anyone that knows me has probably been on the receiving end of one of my rants. Like a stuck record I ramble on about development to anyone that will (pretend to) listen. It is my passion, and has been for a long time. Poverty, conflict, violence, crime, exclusion and so forth are not givens. They happen for a reason. We have the power to change things. And sport is one vehicle for doing so. It has the power to build bridges, to empower, to teach, to heal – this is what triathlon and every other sport should be about. I hope that I [...] can, in a small way, help to inspire people to take up sport, realise their own dreams and their full potential.

Leaving open the possibility that she might return to triathlon racing, Wellington formally announced on 16 January 2012 that she would be taking a one-year break from professional Ironman racing in 2012, in order to spend more time in the UK with her friends and family, and to "explore new opportunities" which she would otherwise be unable to undertake with the necessary focus and dedication. Two exceptional opportunities arising in 2012 were promoting her book A Life Without Limits (due to be published the following month) and the London Olympics. She would also be able to devote more time to her charity work, to raising the profile of triathlon in the UK, and to representing her sponsors. Among the charities she hoped to spend more time supporting were Jane's Appeal, the Blazeman Foundation for ALS, Girls Education Nepal and Challenged Athletes Foundation. Having missed the 2000 Olympics when she was in Australia, she was keen to experience the Olympics in her home country in any capacity, whether as a spectator, as a volunteer, or in the media. In August she joined the BBC's television commentary team for both the men's and women's Olympic triathlon events.

On 3 December Wellington announced that she had decided to make her retirement from professional triathlon racing permanent. She referred to the World Ironman Championships in 2011, with the enormous difficulties she overcame on that occasion, as her "perfect race", the race which "completed" her. She would continue to be associated with the sport, but not as a professional racer.

After 10 days of acclimatisation at her team's base in Thailand, Wellington won Ironman Korea, in very hot conditions, finishing over 50 minutes ahead of 2nd placed Yasuko Miyazaki, in 7th place overall. By winning this race, she earned a slot to race at the Ironman world championships in Hawaii.

On 18 July 2010 Wellington defended her Challenge Roth title in Germany in a new ironman-distance world record time of 8:19:13, placing seventh overall and bettering her own record by more than 12 minutes. In so doing, she set a new women's record for the bike split of 4:36:33, and then finished the race with a "stunning" 2:48:54 for the marathon, beating Erin Baker's record of 2:49:53 which had stood since 1990. Only three men recorded a faster marathon run, two of whom were less than a minute faster. Her winning margin (32:57) over second-placed Rebekah Keat was greater than her time (26:37) behind the winning man.

In August Wellington set a new course record in her third consecutive victory at Timberman 70.3, but at the last minute on the day of the Ironman World Championship, 9 October 2010 she decided not to start the race because of illness, describing it as "the hardest decision of her life to date." Subsequent blood tests, which also included an anti-doping control, showed that she had, or had had, bacterial strep throat, bacterial pneumonia and West Nile virus.

Having trained in Stellenbosch since mid-February, Wellington won Ironman South Africa on 10 April in a new "M-dot" world record time of 8:33:56, lowering her own record by a little over 2 minutes. She finished in 8th place overall, nearly 35 minutes ahead of runner-up Rachel Joyce, who in turn broke the previous course record by 8 minutes. Not only did Wellington set new female bike, run and course records, but her marathon time of 2:52:54 was also faster than all of the men.

Her coach had advised her to hold back on her swim speed, otherwise she might not be able to complete the race; together with the lack of power in her left arm, that meant her swim was much slower than usual at 61 minutes. In contrast with her previous races at Kona, where Wellington had dominated on the bike, she started the marathon stage with five women still in front of her. Wellington's main concern, though, was Mirinda Carfrae, the 2010 champion who was only a little over three minutes behind her, and the only woman who had run faster than her on this course – a serious worry, given Wellington's injuries.

She lowered the world record on all three occasions (2009–2011) she raced Challenge Roth (formerly Quelle Challenge Roth) at Roth in Bavaria, Germany. Her current record of 8 hours 18 minutes 13 seconds is more than 32 minutes faster than the record which stood from 1994 to 2008, when Yvonne van Vlerken broke it by just over 5 minutes. Following her 2010 world record, her former coach Brett Sutton described Wellington as "a person of true international sporting excellence that is overshadowed by no one in any other sport."

Paula Newby-Fraser's course record at the Ironman World Championships had stood for 17 years until Wellington broke it in 2009. At the time of her retirement, Wellington held the four fastest times ever recorded by a woman over the ironman distance, and had the greatest number of sub-9 hour times – nine, five more than Newby-Fraser's previous record. In addition to the Ironman titles, she was also the 2006 International Triathlon Union (ITU) Age Group World Champion and the 2008 ITU long-distance World Champion.

Despite suffering from shingles, Wellington set a new record for ironman-distance triathlon races of 8:31:59 on 12 July 2009 at the Quelle Challenge Roth, beating Yvonne van Vlerken's record set a year earlier over the same course by 13 minutes and 49 seconds. Rebekah Keat, who finished second, 7 minutes 25 seconds behind Wellington, also beat van Vlerken's time. Wellington's bike split (4:40:28) was also a new world record. Commentator Timothy Carlson wrote, "Superwoman Chrissie Wellington didn't just break it, she obliterated the one-year-old women's Iron-distance world record today."

Commenting on Wellington's record, Newby-Fraser said, "But the revelation I had was watching how hard she worked for it ... and it was clear she was going to the well. And I am certain she had to leave a little bit of herself out there to get it done. She didn't take a moment to enjoy until she crossed the line. Part of me was gratified by that. I know what she had to do to get it and I hope she realizes it's not that easy. I know it wasn't that easy for her. A race like that takes a piece of herself out there." A year later her coach Dave Scott revealed that she had an upper hamstring injury and that, "Deep down inside, she had a bit of a struggle in 2009." Even though she had broken the long-standing course record, Scott said, "But I knew, and she knew, and I told her in my ever-candid, callous style, that she didn't have her best day."

Chrissie Wellington was named the 2009 Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year at an awards ceremony on 23 November 2009, ahead of Jessica Ennis and Victoria Pendleton in an online public vote. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to ironman triathlons and promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to sport and charity. In December 2010, having previously awarded her the University's Sporting Achievement Award in 2007, the University of Birmingham granted her an honorary doctorate "as a tribute to her work in both her passions: sport and international development".

At the Ironman Australia Triathlon in April 2008, her first Ironman since Hawaii, Wellington again won by a margin of five minutes, finishing 9th overall. Her marathon time of 3:01:53 was beaten by only two men. Only twenty days later, she attempted her first World Cup race, the Tongyeong BG Triathlon in Korea, but could only finish in 22nd place. She wrote, "If I judged every day by whether I win or lose, yesterday would be considered a 'bad day' [...] But I need to have these days - because the 'defeats' expose my weaknesses, and enable me to grow, learn and develop as an athlete."

At the Ironman European Championship race held in Frankfurt, Germany on 6 July 2008, in perfect weather conditions, Wellington recorded the second-fastest time to date by a woman over the Ironman distance, just 32 seconds outside Paula Newby-Fraser's world record of 8:50:53 set in the 1994 Ironman Europe race, which was then held in Roth. Spectators were aware throughout the race that Wellington was close to breaking the world record, but she did not know exactly what it was, and in any case preferred to slow down to celebrate her victory over the last few kilometres, exchanging greetings and hi-fives with the crowd. Her coach said that her plan was "to do it as easy as possible" once she had got to the front. Other factors affecting her time were that she lost some of her nutrition on the bike (having to rely on the aid stations instead) and that the bike course was 2 km too long.

At her previous two attempts on the half-Ironman distance, Wellington had finished 5th (Wimbleball, mechanical difficulties) and 3rd (Singapore, less than three weeks after her first Ironman). On 17 August 2008 she achieved her first win at the half-Ironman distance at the Timberman 70.3 triathlon in Gilford, New Hampshire, placing sixth overall, 18 minutes ahead of runner-up Amanda Stevens.

She won the World Championship in three consecutive years (2007–2009), but could not start the 2010 World Championship race because of illness, then – while suffering from injuries so severe that her former coach Brett Sutton said she should "not even be on the start line" – regained the title in 2011. She is the first British athlete to hold the Ironman Triathlon World Championship, and was undefeated in all thirteen of her races over the ironman distance. She is the only triathlete, male or female, to have won the World Championship less than a year after turning professional, an achievement described by the British Triathlon Federation as "a remarkable feat, deemed to be a near impossible task for any athlete racing as a rookie at their first Ironman World Championships."

After winning the world amateur title, Wellington began to consider taking the risk of giving up her job in order to become a professional triathlete. In January 2007, on the recommendation of a friend, she travelled to Switzerland to ask the opinion of the Australian triathlon coach, Brett Sutton. Within 5 days she had handed in her notice at DEFRA, and in February flew out to Thailand to join Sutton's teamTBB at their base in Phuket.

On 1 August 2007, Wellington took on her toughest challenge to date, the long-distance Alpe d'Huez Triathlon, known for its difficult summer heat, its altitude, and its hard climbs on both the bike and running stages. Despite a puncture and being forced off the road by an oncoming vehicle during a fast descent, she finished the bike stage 19 mins 30 sec in front of her nearest rival, Sione Jongstra, and extended her lead on the running stage to win the race by over 29 minutes, in 9th place overall.

On 13 October 2007 (14 October UTC), Wellington won the Ironman world championship title at Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, together with US$110,000 prize money. She finished in 9:08:45, five minutes ahead of Samantha McGlone, running the marathon leg in 2:59:58, the second-fastest time recorded to date by a woman on the Hawaii course. Her victory was described as the "biggest upset in Ironman Hawaii history", "a remarkable feat, deemed to be a near impossible task for any athlete racing as a rookie at their first Ironman World Championships" and "one of the biggest shocks in the sport's history."

Chrissie Wellington has said she has two passions in life: sport and development. In her victory speech at the 2007 Hawaii Ironman, she referred to her experience teaching at Beaver Country Day School near Boston, where she first noticed the difference that sport can make to children's lives. She also noted, from her experience in Nepal, how sport can bring conflict-affected communities together. In an interview, her coach Brett Sutton said:

In February 2006 she entered the Coast to Coast, a 243 km, two-day endurance race across the Southern Alps of New Zealand involving running, cycling and kayaking. She finished 2nd in this race, despite having no previous kayaking experience, apart from some brief training before the race.

Shortly after her return to the UK she won the 2006 Shropshire Olympic Triathlon. This qualified her to enter the ITU World Age Group (Amateur) Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, a title which she won on 2 September 2006, beating her nearest rival by 4 minutes and 2 seconds. She later said she "trained really hard for this race for 10 weeks, juggling 20 hours [a week] of training with my full-time job."

On leaving Nepal at the end of 2005, she travelled to New Zealand, Tasmania and Argentina before returning to her old job at DEFRA in May 2006. She left this job in February 2007 in order to become a professional triathlete.

Disillusioned with "bureaucracy and paper pushing", in September 2004 Wellington took sabbatical leave from DEFRA to work in Nepal for Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), a Nepalese development NGO. Based in the capital, Kathmandu, she managed a community-led total sanitation scheme in Salyan, a conflict-affected district in the west of the country. She also performed many other tasks for RRN, including preparing project proposals, editing books and writing papers.

Wellington's first triathlon race was at the Eton Super Sprints on 16 May 2004, where she finished third. In the following two months, she won this race on both occasions. In July and August she sampled two longer (Olympic distance) triathlons: the Milton Keynes Triathlon and the Bedford Triathlon, finishing fourth and third respectively. August 2004 she was part of a 4 person team that won the mixed team British triathlon relay championship in Nottingham. She competed for BRAT (Birmingham running and Triathlon club - Her triathlon club at that time). The relay was in the 4xswimming, 4xbike, 4xrun format with each relay leg being the sprint distance.(750m, 20km, 5km). She had to put her triathlon racing on hold for her sabbatical in Nepal, where she was based in Kathmandu, at an altitude of 1350 m (4430 ft). Every morning before work she would cycle around the neighbouring countryside on her mountain bike, with a group of foreign and Nepali cyclists known as the "Mongolian Cycling Team". She would also go running along the many hilly trails in the Kathmandu valley. When riding around the outlying villages on her mountain bike she would often have to wait for male co-workers to catch up with her. During a religious holiday, she spent two weeks cycling with friends some 1400 km from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet to Kathmandu, crossing mountain passes over 5000 m, enduring sandstorms and blizzards, and reaching Base Camp on the northern (Tibetan) side of Mount Everest at 5208 m (17090 ft). Her coach, Brett Sutton, believes this experience to have been very useful altitude training for her later professional career, while Wellington herself regards it as having given her lasting mental strength.

During this period, like most amateur triathletes, she had also continued entering running races. She had previously run the London Marathon for charity in 2002, finishing in 3:08:17, making her the fastest woman from her running club in that race. That result prompted her to get a running coach, Frank Horwill – whom she regarded as "legendary and ever inspiring" – and to take her running training much more seriously. She had hoped to improve her marathon time in the April 2003 London Marathon, but in March she collided with a car while riding her commuter bike in Clapham. The accident resulted in a haematoma in her left thigh, causing – in an example of myositis ossificans – a 5 cm spur of bone to grow from her femur. Unable to run the marathon, she took up swimming again, leading her to try triathlon racing in 2004. After her ITU victory, she took up cross-country racing for the first time, as a means of building strength for her triathlon races. She enjoyed some success in B and C grade cross-country events around London, winning several races including the South of Thames Championship in December 2006.

After graduating with first-class honours in geography from Birmingham University in 1998, Wellington travelled the world for two years, which she described as opening her eyes to the "many problems that exist in the world, but also to the opportunity for positive change." In 2000, supported by a £10,000 scholarship from the Economic and Social Research Council, she enrolled in an MA course in development studies at the University of Manchester. Graduating with a Distinction in October 2001, she joined the UK government agency DEFRA in London to work on international development policy. At DEFRA, she was part of the team that negotiated for the UK at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and became involved in following up the UK government's commitments on water and sanitation. She also worked on post-conflict environmental reconstruction policy.

In October, Wellington won the world championship for the third time with a new course record of 8:54:02, beating Paula Newby-Fraser's record of 8:55:28 which had stood since 1992. She finished 19 mins 57 secs ahead of second-place Mirinda Carfrae, the 2007 Ironman 70.3 World Champion who, in her first Ironman race, ran a marathon time of 2:56:51, fifty-three seconds faster than Wellington's record of the previous year. Wellington's victory was described as "stunning" and "even more dominant" than usual. Only 22 men were faster than Wellington.

Christine Ann Wellington OBE (born 18 February 1977) is an English former professional triathlete and four-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion. She holds, or held, all three world and championship records relating to ironman-distance triathlon races: firstly, the overall world record, secondly, the Ironman World Championship course record (from 2009 until Mirinda Carfrae lowered it in 2013), and thirdly, the official world record for all Ironman-branded triathlon races over the full Ironman distance.

Wellington returned to competition on 6 June, when she defended her title at Ironman 70.3 Kansas. She won in a time of 4:07:49, more than 16 minutes in front of Pip Taylor, placing 11th overall (10th among the pro men).