It was one year ago—early winter 2009—and to all six of them it seemed like a heck of a good idea. They were all gathered in Argentina for the wedding of Augustina (Tina) and Sebastian (Seb). The recently crowned two-time Ford Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington and her longtime friend, worldclass mountaineer Billi Bierling, were staying at Tina and Seb’s home in the city of Mendoza. The wedding itself was a few hours away by bike, so Chrissie and Billi mounted up and rode three hours to the ceremony on their mountain bikes. “We had our dresses in our rucksacks,” laughs Wellington. When the party was over, Billi, Chrissie, Tina, Seb and their friends Rata and Helen took off on their mountain bikes on a journey that none of them would ever forget.

“Hey,” they figured, “why not rent a few mountain bikes, grab sleeping bags, panniers and tents and spend some time together riding over the Andes?” What a memorable way to spend Tina and Seb’s honeymoon, right?

What started out as an adventure honeymoon—“I don’t know if Tina invited us on the honeymoon or not, but we went anyways,” remembers Wellington—led to this sixpack of friends trying to make it over, around and through a mountainous region and over a pass that had never been biked before. “What I love about these adventures is that they represent sport at the absolute rawest,” Wellington says. “We are out there on this adventure simply for the love of the sport.”

That was the way the woman who has never been beaten at the Ironman distance, the now three-time defending Ford Ironman World Champion, spent her vacation. What started as a Jeep track became sand and then basically petered out to no trail at all. “We were bushwhacking over glaciers with 65 pounds in our panniers,” Wellington says. “I was beginning to question this whole honeymoon malarkey. There were times we averaged only two kilometers per hour for 10 straight hours.”

On day five, way behind schedule, the group ran out of food. “We went up to this farmer’s house, who was living quite happily without the six of us in his life,” Wellington recalls. “We told him that we were out of food and he offered to slaughter one of his goats for us. The next thing we know we’re at his table eating his goat.”

Eventually, after seven amazing days in the mountains, the honeymoon was complete. Chrissie Wellington—athlete, philanthropist and adventurer— was rested, recharged and relaxed, another exciting vacation stored forever in the memory banks…

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The Jane Tomlinson Appeal is delighted to announce that British Triathlete Chrissie Wellington is to become a patron of the charity.

Chrissie, 32, is reigning and triple World Ironman Champion (2007,2008 and 2009) as well as the current world ironman distance record holder and Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year.

“I am extremely proud and honoured to accept the invitation to be a patron of the Jane Tomlinson Appeal,” says Chrissie. “Jane’s unwavering determination, strength courage and selflessness in the face of adversity is an inspiration to each and every one of us. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to play a part in making sure that Jane’s memory and legacy lives in the great work of the Appeal.”

Chrissie has loved sport from a young age. Growing up in rural Norfolk, she attended the local state school where she was an enthusiastic member of most school sports teams. From the age of nine, she trained up to four times a week with the Thetford Dolphins swimming team and would compete in local competitions on the weekends.

“The best thing about sport,” she says “was the opportunity it gave me to spend time with my friends, keep reasonably fit and take my nose out of the school books.”

She attended the University of Birmingham but continued her sporting career, captaining the university swimming team as well as teaching children to swim during the long summer holidays. She ran the London Marathon for charity in 2002 and in 2004 did her first triathlon, even though she had never even sat on a road bike. But Chrissie was well and truly hooked on the sport and never looked back.

After a 16 month spell living and working in Nepal, she returned to the UK in 2006 and went on to win the World Age Group Championships later that year.. She turned professional in early 2007 and won the World Ironman Championships in Kona that October.

In 2008 she won Ironman Australia, Ironman Germany (the European Ironman Championships), Alp D’Huez Long Course Triathlon, Timberman 70.3, the ITU World Long Course Championships in Almere, Holland and retained her World Ironman Champion title for a second year in a row.

Last year Chrissie went on to win Ironman Australia, then won and broke the world ironman record at Quelle Challenge Roth, in Germany, before capping off a great season by winning the World Ironman Championships for a third year in a row.

Mike Tomlinson, whose inspirational wife Jane died in September 2007 following a long battle with cancer, says: “Completing the Ironman in Florida, was far and away Jane’s greatest athletic achievement and she’d have been extremely humbled that Chrissie would have heard of her, never mind been a patron of the Appeal. It’s an honour for us that she’s agreed to be a patron of the Charity.”

The Jane Tomlinson Appeal raises money for children’s and cancer charities.  The other event partner charities are Martin House Hospice, Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, Yorkshire Cancer Centre, Macmillan Cancer Support and the children’s medical research charity SPARKS.  To date, £2.6 million has been raised and Jane’s family led by Mike Tomlinson is determined to continue the great work she started.

-Ends-

Notes to editor

For more information about Chrissie please visit http://www.chrissiewellington.org/ or contact Ben Mansford, bmansford@wmgllc.com / 0121 711 2355

Any questions regarding the Jane Tomlinson Appeal please visit www.janetomlinsonappeal.com or contact Siobhan Curtis Siobhan.curtis@runforall.com / 0113 8129101

Chrissie Wellington has broken every record in the book for the gruelling long-distance triathlon. She tells Sophie Goodchild why she is prepared to train for six hours a day, seven days a week…

I can’t help staring at Chrissie Wellington’s arms. Britain’s “fittest” woman is wearing a crop
T-shirt which accentuates her feminine yet strong limbs. The muscles are so defined they look hand-sculpted. Her stomach is washboard-flat and she’s not even in peak condition, the cast on her arm the legacy of a recent fall from her training bike.

At 32, Wellington is unrivalled as the queen of endurance sport after breaking every possible record in long-distance triathlon. This gruelling race is known as the “Ironman” — although women compete too — for its eye-watering combination of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle, then a 26.2 mile marathon. Contestants start at 7am and have to complete the course by midnight. To date, Wellington, who lives in south-west London, has won the world championships in Hawaii three years running and has a personal best of eight hours, 31 minutes and 59 seconds. Her next major championship is this June in Roth, Germany, where she aims to crush her own record.

Fans include champion rower James Cracknell, who is “infatuated” with Wellington’s strength. But what makes her achievements exceptional is that she only discovered her phenomenal talent in her twenties. Until then, her day job was advising David Miliband on international development.

“My story shows anything is possible, and unless you have a go, then you’ll never know,” she says as we share a sofa during a rare break from training on her part.

“I’ve always been very focused, very driven. I love pushing my body to the limit. But I’d never have known if I hadn’t done endurance sports.”
The secret to Wellington’s success is an unrivalled talent and a training regime of six hours a day, seven days a week, 11 months of the year — she always takes a month off. Her calorie intake (not that she counts) is around 4,000 a day — or 8,000 when she’s racing (the recommended intake for a woman is 2,000). Nearly two-thirds of her intake is healthy carbs such as brown rice and buckwheat. The rest is fat. Red meat is allowed and “heaps” of fruit, seeds and nuts, oily fish and the occasional glass of wine, pizza slice or chocolate.

With success comes sacrifice. Her training regime means no late nights or last-minute weekend breaks. There is time, though, for a boyfriend, a fellow athlete (she won’t be drawn on the details).

“I did have a rich, varied life with weekends away and evenings out. Now it’s very limited. Spontaneity goes out of the door — it’s very monotonous and regimented.”

At 60kg and 5ft 8in, her body is honed to give her maximum power. It is a body she trusts completely and women with body issues depress her. Her mission is to inspire others to unlock their hidden sporting talents.

“If I lose too much weight I lose power and I need body fat for buoyancy [during swimming]. My body has carried me so far — I’m not disparaging about it. Women need role models.”

When Wellington was growing up in Norfolk she joined the local swimming club “for the social scene” and took a job as a swimming instructor in her holidays from Birmingham University. But her energies were mainly channelled into academic achievement (she’s a straight “A” student) and saving the planet.

In 2001, she landed a “dream job” with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and took up running as a hobby to shed a few pounds. Her first attempt at the London Marathon resulted in a time of three hours, eight minutes, well ahead of her three-and-a-half hour target. This success spurred her to join an amateur running group in Battersea.

But three years later Wellington became disillusioned. She left Defra for a sabbatical in Nepal. “I loved my job but felt hypocritical talking about poverty and at the same time flying around the world and staying in hotels.” She carried on running in an “obsessive but unstructured way” an hour every morning and an hour every night.

“The training I did wasn’t what a running coach would prescribe. I just liked running — I was strong and could go all day without a break.” In May 2006, she returned to the UK and decided to “take up triathlon seriously”. But there were setbacks. Her first UK race, the National Sprint championships, was a “disaster” thanks to her wetsuit, which was so big she had to be hauled out of the water.

Setbacks, says Wellington, make her work even harder. Australian coach Brett Sutton spotted her potential and put her through six months of “incredibly hard” training. First, though, he had to change her mindset. Control is important to Wellington but for once she had to let someone else take charge.

“I knew nothing about triathlon. I was put in a team house with three lads and they were told to make my life a misery. I had to earn their respect.”

Within weeks, she was on the startline in South Korea, with full sponsorship, for her first Ironman contest. It was 90 per cent heat and 90 per cent humidity but she “loved every minute of it”. Then came the World Ironman championships in Hawaii, the triathlon “Olympics”. She won in record time.

“All I wanted was to race my little heart out and get a top 10 place. I expected people to catch me — I didn’t know I’d overtaken last year’s winner. When I crossed the line and won I was totally blown away.”

Having found her niche, Chrissie’s aim is to inspire other women by setting up her own foundation.

“The gender boundaries that exist in other sports don’t exist in triathlon. And I love that.”

by Sophie Goodchild, Health Editor – London Evening Standard

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/health/article-23804031-meet-chrissie-wellington-the-worlds-fittest-woman.do

And to the other 473 athletes who rode fi’zi:k saddles in Kona, making us again the number one brand in the Triathlete Magazine saddle count, we extend a big homeland Italian thank you, grazie!

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http://ussa.edu/ballots/athlete-of-the-year/

Is it wrong to admit that prior to this year’s Ironman World Championships I was hoping for a different result from last year? ‘What!’ I hear you cry. And rightly so; with such a comment I know I could easily wave goodbye to my career and any respect from the readers of this magazine. But believe me when I say it wasn’t because I wished Chrissie any ill will. Far from it. It was just as a journalist I’d run out of superlatives to write about this woman. Seriously, I’ve looked, and there are no more words left in the English language to describe what this 32-year-old from Norfolk has done since she started out in triathlon just three years ago. I’ve used every amazing, stupendous, scintillating, mind-blowing, record-breaking, awe-inspiring and incredible there is. I’m out! But then on the 10th of October she did something else again – she broke one of the longest-standing records in Ironman history, that of Paula Newby-Fraser’s course record, which had stood firm since 1992. And in doing so joined an elite group of women, that includes Natascha Badmann and Newby-Fraser, to have claimed three successive titles. And another thing happened on that day – I was there to see it live.

Live from Kona

In a time of 8:54:02 she rewrote history, taking the record by 1:26mins, finishing 23^rd overall – let’s just make it clear here that that’s just 22 men who are faster than her in the entire world – and almost 20 minutes clear of second place. There really weren’t any words at that precise moment, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the press stand. Men and women emulating Chrissie’s mile-long grin, and all welling up for Wellington. With the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling pumping out along Ali’i Drive, and with Newby-Fraser’s record looking safer with each tick of the clock, the excitement and tension as we all waited for her to run through was something else. Bizarrely, when she crossed the line, she looked confused as to what she’d just done. But surely she can’t have been surprised? “You know, I still can’t believe I won the first time, never mind three times!” said Wellington, 10 days after Kona, talking on the phone from New York. “It all feels a bit surreal saying I’m World Champion for a third time. “And this is Ironman, you know, anything can happen. You can be the best-prepared athlete in the world but each race will throw up a variety of challenges, as it did last year with the flat tyre! You never know how your body is going to respond to the conditions and what the race throws at you. Honestly, it’s a huge relief when the hard work and effort that you put in pays off.” These pros are modest types. Wellington remains unbeaten in an Ironman-distance race; this year seeing her take crowns at Australia and Roth (where she also posted the fastest Iron-distance time ever of 8:31:59) to add to her wins at Germany and Korea. It’s also a year that has seen her ditch Simon Lessing, her coach, for whom she was with for nine months, to go it alone. “Although I’m ultimately self-coached, I do seek the advice of a couple of people whose opinions I really trust,” admits Wellington. “I also carry the lessons with me from previous coaches – not just Brett [Sutton] and Simon but also my running coach in the UK, Frank Horwill, and other coaches I have, so a lot of what I do is based on previous programmes.”

In the beginning…

Countless pages have been dedicated to the wonder that is Wellington and her rise from triathlon obscurity to multisporting royalty. From her sporty childhood growing up in Norfolk where she “never excelled and was always more interested in the social side of the sports scene”, to Birmingham University where she read geography. Another of Britain’s triathlon stars, Rachel Joyce, who finished sixth on her Kona debut, also studied at Birmingham, and can vouch for Chrissie’s interest in sport’s “other” side. “I can remember turning up to the swimming trials as a fresher,” recalls Joyce, “and Chrissie (the then captain) reassured me that it didn’t matter that I hadn’t swum for two years as the social aspects of the team were as important as the swimming bit! Needless to say we had a lot of fun!” From Birmingham, Chrissie spread her wings to go travelling around the world for two years. On returning home it was straight into a masters followed by work in international development in London. After clocking a 3:08hr marathon time in 2002 the competitive seed was sown, and she pushed for a sub-three hour a year later. But fate came a knocking when she was involved in a road accident in 2003. Suffering damage to her left quadriceps she couldn’t run or cycle as a result… but she could swim. Giving her first triathlon a go, it was evident that her bike was the weakest of the three disciplines. But 18 months working in the mountains of Nepal soon changed that. In June of 2006, she qualified for the Worlds by winning the Shropshire Triathlon in convincing form. Three months later, in Lausanne, she won her 25-29 age group and posted the fastest women’s time overall with a 2:17:32. “It was while watching the elites the next day when I started thinking about turning pro,” says Chrissie. Since then it’s been glory galore. Quitting her job in February 2007, and under the watchful eye of super coach Brett Sutton, Chrissie was steered towards her destiny. Winning her first Ironman, Korea, on debut, she qualified for Kona. The rest they say…

History in the making

Except with Chrissie, she’s still writing it. “There’s this little seed inside me that won’t let me stop until I’ve achieved the best I can be. I don’t think I’ve reached that yet. There’s definitely more to come and that’s important – the essence of sport is growth and improvement and change. I want to get stronger and I want to get faster. The more I achieve in the sport, the more I get out of it. And I love the burn, I’m a masochist!” Ironmen beware. But what about the women? Chrissie has displayed such speed since her debut, do they even stand a chance of beating her? Chrissie talked, pre-Kona, about how she was up against the strongest field she’s faced so far. Yet she still finished 20 minutes ahead of Mirinda Carfrae, in second place. That must have been a surprise? “In all honesty, yes,” admits Wellington. “I was expecting it to be closer. I set myself up for a great day with a strong swim and I was determined that the bike was going to be the ace that I wanted to play.” So why is she still so far ahead? Fellow champ Craig Alexander has some thoughts. “If you know Chrissie, her mindset and how she trains, it’s [her achievement] not that unbelievable really. She deserves every thing that comes her way because, although she obviously has a natural talent for the sport, I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as she does. She has passion for it and loves it, which is important.” Exercise physiologist Asker Jeukendrup has known her since before 2004, when she joined the BRAT (Birmingham Running and Triathlon) club. Back then he recognised the raw talent, despite not having “a clue how to handle a bike! Even two years later when she turned pro, I was holding my breath every time she turned a corner at high speed or tried to dismount the bike coming into T2. She was definitely too strong for her skills.” “But Chrissie seems to have an incredibly large engine,” Jeukendrup continues, “producing power that most men would be proud of. And this combines with a very low bodyweight to give her the highest power-toweight ratio of any female triathlete out there, and most likely in the history of the sport. “In addition to this she has excellent thermoregulation, and all together these characteristics make her virtually unbeatable in races that are hard, hilly and hot.” But what does the lady herself attribute her talent to? “That’s the million dollar question,” says Chrissie. “If I tell you I’ll have to kill you! No, I think it’s a combination. Of course, there’s the physical ability, the mental toughness and drive, but many athletes have that. I think the support I receive from my family, friends, sponsors and healthcare professionals… all of those people allow me to perform at my best. The equipment – the bike, the clothes, the shoes – all have an effect. I don’t know if there’s one specific skill that sets me apart. My love and passion for the sport shines through. And my ability to put it all in perspective! “Oh, and I got a marriage proposal from a banana at three miles – that gave me the energy I needed. That was the turning point!”

Digging deep

So a banana proposing marriage – the secret to Ironman success? Perhaps not, but it’s evident how much those crowds mean to Chrissie. Each word of encouragement pushing her forwards. So much so, that in Kona it started to look effortless. Although, she assures me, it was anything but. “This year’s race was probably the most difficult for me. I had to dig really deep, and mentally there was a lot of expectation that I put on myself and other people put on me. “I didn’t think about the course record a lot until the last five miles when I switched my watch over to actual time. I was trying to do the maths in my head, ‘It started at 6.45am and it’s now 2.30pm in the afternoon…’ And it was within those last five miles that people started telling me I was within the course record – that’s when it really started to hurt. Physically, I was really suffering at that point, but mentally it wasn’t as much of a struggle as I knew my body wouldn’t give out on me.” It seems Chrissie Wellington has been blessed with the X-factor of sport; that elusive combination that allows a person to race to their limits and beyond, and never settle for second best. She’s also blessed with humility, avoiding the pitfalls of complacency and using each victory to effect change, whether that be for herself or others. “I go into the race wanting to win. I’d never settle for the mediocrity of second place and I can’t understand athletes who go in there wanting to take second place. But I never take the win for granted.” And could a new achievement be Olympic success? Another “million dollar question” and one that yields a beguiling answer. “I’d like to explore the cycling time trial,” she admits. “The only way I can keep that option open is by doing time trials next year just to see how competitive I could be. That’s a possibility, but I’m not saying I could step straight into it. What the British cyclists have achieved is phenomenal, especially the women. They’re so talented, and it’s very competitive. It would be difficult for me to achieve the heights needed to represent GB, but it’s important that I give it a go.” All I can say is, watch out Emma Pooley. “Although 2012 seems a long way off, I need to put down any marker to my interest soon – in other words, next year. I have to be looking to do some time-trial races. It would be great training if nothing else.” But let’s get back to 2009. What she’s learnt from this year, surely her best to date? “I’m learning to listen to my body, to be more intuitive about my body, especially now I’m more self-coached. It’s a constant learning and growing process. Every race helps me identify areas where I want to improve and Kona was no different.” And how does this title compare? “My first Kona victory was my first world title, so that’ll always have a special place in my heart, but I didn’t really have an understanding of what I’d achieved. It was surreal and a whirlwind for me. The second year I was proud to win because it showed that I could cope with the pressure that comes with having a target on your back. This third victory, the pressure had increased further. I tried to use that to give me a boost rather than bring me down. “But no race I’ve ever done has been perfect. My best race this year was Ironman Australia. Faster swim, bike and run on the same course as the year before with similar conditions. It was my first race since leaving Brett so I had to deal with not having him in my corner and having one of his athletes against me! I’m most proud of that race.” So, Australia was Chrissie’s proudest moment in 2009, and come 2012, it might well be London! Like I said, exclamation exclamation marks, that’s all I’m left with.

Download the PDF

www.220triathlon.com

At the pre-race press conference on Thursday, Chrissie Wellington impressed the triathlon media with a deepened sense of herself. In answering questions about how she expected to go on race day, she was deliberate, firm and brimming with a confidence and purpose that was not muddled as it was when she first appeared on the Ironman scene two years ago. She voiced exactly zero doubt that she would be delivering a top performance. She also communicated with precision t her belief that, as a star triathlete, it was her duty to use that elevated status to inspire others and support good causes. Where before it sometimes seemed that Chrissie struggled with the image of selfishness required to be a great triathlete, she now resonated an acceptance that, yes, selfishness was required for her athletic goals, she could achieve a sense of balance and inner peace as long as she “used time management to ensure time for causes” she believed in.

The result in 2009 was a woman who would not be denied a world record she obviously had the talent to reach. Her sixth consecutive victory at an Ironman event, today in Kona the Brit punched through the swim in 54:31 and then, on the bike, wrangled a lead that could be rendered untouchable only by catastrophe. During her 3:03 marathon, Wellington—who said afterward that this was the “hardest race of my life”—having no pressure from competitors in the rear used the men’s field like a crevasses during a mountain climb. Despite the wicked-hot run, Wellington’s continued pressure allowed her to cleave a minute and a half off of Paula Newby-Fraser’s masterful (and long-standing) 8:55:28 set in 1992.

It was a breathtaking race, her sheer aerobic power laced with an irrepressible joy (her nickname is Muppet) that spilled out along the way as she smiled and laughed and cried and stormed her way to Ironman history.

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2009/10/news/the-inevitable-chrissie-wellingtons-kona-course-record_5217

“Oooo, off to see your girlfriend!” cooed my wife when I told her I was going to interview Chrissie Wellington.

Wellington’s domination of Ironman – an extreme form of triathlon – from her first race 2½ years ago, alongside a natural bias towards endurance sport, means I’m a very big fan. I’d planned to use this piece to bang the drum for her achievements after winning the World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, for the third straight year.

Quite rightly my support (or infatuation as my wife calls it) is not necessary: Wellington has already picked up an award during this long-lunching, back-slapping season and is on the short-list for BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Understandably, it is hard for people to realise just how good she is. Not many people are Ironman experts, most appreciate that it is a very long way, even less know it consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and is finished off with a marathon, and it is almost too immense for people to comprehend.

It is regarded as the pinnacle of triathlon by competitors and sponsors, despite the much shorter Olympic distance being included in the last three Games. What amazes me about Wellington, 32, is not that she wins, but by how much.

Like Usain Bolt, Wellington has burst on to the scene and destroyed the opposition. Those within athletics said (perhaps with hindsight) that Bolt was coming but Wellington came from nowhere and wins by a relatively greater margin.

Bolt was 1.36 per cent faster than the silver medallist in the 100 metres at the World Championships in Berlin. Wellington was 3.74 per cent faster than the second-place finisher in Hawaii: she won by three times as much in 8hr 54min 02sec, compared to Mirinda Carfrae who finished in 9:13:59.

A Brown-Darling massaging of statistics to fit the argument is always possible, but to give some perspective, my winning percentages at the Sydney and Athens Olympics were 0.1 per cent and 0.02 per cent respectively.

Her rapid rise to the top of a brutally tough sport is simply remarkable. Ironman is considered a minority sport, but with multinational brands backing it, more than $100,000 in prize money and Wellington’s 11 personal sponsors prove the event is more than capable of fighting its own corner.

Like many non-stadium sports it is difficult and expensive to film, which lessens its broader appeal. But a lot can be learnt from the sexual equality within Ironman. The sport has developed as one entity, so women are not second-class citizens with their performances mocked (as has been too often the case with women’s football, rugby and cricket)

The women race the same distance, unlike tennis where grand slam tournaments are best of three rather than best of five; or cycling, in which the recent World Championship women’s road race was 77 miles as against 163 for men.

I expect some of the men in Ironman wished that was not the case as one of Wellington’s favourite pastimes is “chicking” the men. For the guys this is a regular occurrence. At Ironman Australia only two of the men beat her in the marathon and she was 10th overall.

Genetics are only part of what makes Wellington successful. She admits: “I always put a lot of pressure on myself in academia and now sport.”

It clearly works. She gained a first-class degree in geography at university and after two years of travelling, witnessing many of the problems in the developing world, she went back to university, gaining a distinction in an MA on development studies.

Following that she worked for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as part of the team that negotiated for the UK at the World Summit on Sustainable Development before taking a sabbatical to work for a Nepalese non-government organisation.

That side of her life ended early in 2007 when, after winning her age group at the amateur world triathlon championships, she decided to give the sport a go full-time.

After such a short space of time with sport as her top priority I’d expected the novelty and luxury of being a professional athlete who divides her time between the sun of Australia and Colorado to resonate from her. Instead she said, “There are so many other things I want to do in my life”, sounding like someone who had done nothing but eat, sleep and train for 15 years rather than two.

“I’ve got this mono-dimensional existence life devoted to make sure I give myself the best chance of winning so different to how I used to life my life before; a profession with a rich and varied social life.”

I can relate to what Wellington says. When I began training full-time I found it mind numbing and realised I needed to keep my brain active when my ‘To Do List’ had ’shave’ and ‘post letter’ as the first two tasks.

Having had a career that she was passionate about before being a sportsperson, she is in the position of knowing what she wants to do after sport.

“I want to set up a foundation, piloted in the UK then move it overseas using sport to empower women and girls who have been the subject of domestic and sexual abuse,” Wellington said.

“More can be done by professional athletes to use the platform that they’ve got to affect change. My platform isn’t huge but I want to use it anyway I can.”

If she carries on winning world titles that platform will grow. Steve Redgrave dragged up the profile of rowing after five successive Olympics; Carl Fogarty did the same for superbikes with his four titles; and the track cyclists have been ramming continued success down our throats for a few years now.

Despite the obvious eagerness to get on with the next phase of her life, Wellington is not satisfied with what she has achieved in Ironman. “I want to leave when I’ve hit my full potential.” This must be worrying for her opponents as the nearest of them was 20 minutes behind at the World Championships.

Her approach to racing for nearly nine hours shows why she is successful: “I love racing that far, it goes incredibly quickly. Even if I’m struggling physically, mentally I have a huge amount of faith in my body to support me. It’s not that I don’t hurt I just don’t let that hurt bring me down mentally.”

I can understand where that faith comes from, despite being only 60kg and 5ft 7in her body looks tough and resilient rather than fragile.

In terms of a positive outlook she is a force of nature. That optimism combined with physical talent and self-motivation may lead her to try something different for the Olympics in 2012.

“I love a challenge and I never want to miss out on an opportunity to perform on the world sporting stage. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to explore any opportunity that came my way,” she said.

The Olympic triathlon does not suit her, the run is too short and her best discipline – the bike – allows drafting (slipstreaming) negating her talents and allowing others to benefit from them. Instead she is looking at the cycling time-trial.

Wellington was at pains to point out: “I’m under no illusions that it would be incredibly difficult to switch over and there are no cast-iron guarantees, but that was the case when I gave up my job to focus on triathlon.”

True, but there are enough indications to suggest it is worth testing the water. On the way to breaking the Ironman world record she averaged 24mph for 112 miles and still ran a marathon in less than three hours afterwards.

Whether she can increase her top speed on the bike to match that stamina is the crucial question. If she can then the platform she craves to be a positive change for good could well be a podium in London.

James Cracknell Full Telegraph Article Link

Chrissie Wellington is cycling through Hyde Park on Thursday when she stops to chat. Two days after being named The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, she repeatedly stresses that winning an honour that was the property of her heroes is surreal.

Though she has pulled over on her bike to interrupt her afternoon ride, there is no halting her career. A world record-holder and three-time Ironman Triathlon world champion, she now wants a fourth title. But that is not all. The London Olympic Games are less than three years away and she would also like to be there.

Given that cycling over the Himalayas was once Wellington’s normal morning ride, do not bank against her in another challenge that awaits one of the toughest women in British sport. The Ironman Triathlon remains the priority for Wellington, 32, but in the next 12 months she plans to compete in a series of cycling time trials to determine whether she has the speed to go for a place in the British cycling team. It is an opportunity to add another string to her bow. “It is amazing what the body and mind can achieve,” she says, “great things if you really set your heart to it. My parents taught me that.” Ironman is the ultimate sporting test, a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a marathon, all in less than nine hours.

Wellington, from Norfolk, this year broke the Ironman world record by more than 13 minutes in a time of 8hr 31min 59sec before winning her third world title in a course record in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. July’s world-record performance in Roth, Germany, saw her cycle for 4hr, 40min 28sec. The individual time trial in Beijing was won in 34min, 51sec by Kristin Armstrong of the USA — so much more a test of speed. “Next year I intend to just get a gauge of how good or otherwise I am,” Wellington says. “I am under no illusions. The British cycling team is absolutely phenomenal, so it would take an incredible amount for me to even tiptoe through the door.

“But I will never say never. I want to push my limits, test myself, test my body and mind. I always want to strive for more and that more could potentially be an Olympic sport. It requires a different skills set. My physical and mental attributes are more suited to longer-distance racing.

“It [time trialling] is a totally different sport. I have a clear idea of what it will take and that is why I need to test myself and put myself in these races to see how I fare. I don’t want to assume I would be able to step from one [sport] to another and I definitely do not want to take anything away from the British cyclists. But athletes have shown that they can cross disciplines. It is certainly worth exploring. If I did okay in those [time trials], then I could definitely speak to British Cycling about how I might pursue it.”

The best example of a British sportswoman switching sports is Rebecca Romero. At the Olympics in Athens in 2004, she won a rowing silver as a member of the quadruple skulls; four years later in Beijing, she won track gold in cycling’s individual pursuit.

When Wellington arrived at the David Beckham Academy near London’s 02 Arena last week for the 2009 Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards, held in association with Brittany Ferries, she read about the previous winners. Two hours later, after world champion sprint cyclist Victoria Pendleton had come third and world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis second, Wellington was stunned when she found out she had won.

“I was looking through the brochure at all the names of the women, phenomenal athletes, who have won this award — Tanni Grey-Thompson, Sally Gunnell, Ellen MacArthur — many of whom were childhood heroines of mine,” she says. “To have my name among those is a huge honour and something I did not expect to happen. There are so many fantastic female athletes who have achieved so much this year and over time, and triathlon is still not a mainstream sport, it is a minority sport, though the number of participants are growing. I did not expect the British public to vote for me. I am incredibly happy and it is great to represent my sport and to raise the profile of my sport.”

Wellington, who worked as a policy adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), became aware of her talent for endurance while on a sabbatical with the charity Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN). “My passion was international development and I also wanted to get some experience working in development on the ground,” she says. “That is why I took a sabbatical. When you are working at the high level of policy-making [with Defra], you can effect change but you cannot see that change in effect.

“I went to live and work in Nepal for over a year, working for RRN, a large charity. I was a jack of all trades. I was managing a water, sanitation and health project, I was piloting a new approach to sanitation in Nepal, I wrote papers, editing books on the impact of the civil war on poverty. I earned a massive $100 a month.”

When she was not working, she was mountain-biking. “Every morning before work, for a couple of hours, and then all weekend, we would go away on these big rides,” she says. “I cycled over the Himalayas on my bike with my friends and that is when I realised I had more of a talent for endurance activities. I could keep cycling and cycling all day and did not really get that tired.” Those rides formed the beginning of a journey that is far from finished.

There is another big year ahead for Wellington and Ennis, who, as she celebrated coming second in the awards,revealed her plans to compete at the world indoor athletics championships in Doha in March. “I have never done a world indoors,” she said. “Hopefully it will be my first. A lot of it is to do with missing a whole season last year and now making the most of everything.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/related_reports/sportswomen_of_the_year/article6907796.ece