Chrissie Wellington

Chrissie Wellington
OBE
Wellington winning the 2008 Frankfurt Ironman
Personal information
Nicknames
Born (1977-02-18) 18 February 1977 (age 47)
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Alma mater
AgentLizzie Chapman, Wasserman Media Group
Height1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1]
Weight60 kg (132 lb)[1]
Other interests
Websitewww.chrissiewellington.org
Sport
CountryUK
TeamteamTBB (2007–2008)
Turned proFebruary 2007
Coached by
RetiredJanuary 2012
Medal record
Women's triathlon
Ironman Triathlon World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2011 Kailua-Kona Elite
Gold medal – first place 2009 Kailua-Kona Elite
Gold medal – first place 2008 Kailua-Kona Elite
Gold medal – first place 2007 Kailua-Kona Elite
ITU Long Distance World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2008 Almere Individual
ITU Age Group World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2006 Lausanne Individual

Christine Ann Wellington OBE (born 18 February 1977) is an English former professional triathlete and four-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion. She 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.

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"[3] – 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."[4]

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 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."[5] Her record stood for 12 years until Daniela Ryf set a time of 8 hours 8 minutes 21 seconds in June 2023.[6]

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.

Before becoming a professional triathlete, Wellington worked for the British government as an adviser on international development and, for Rural Reconstruction Nepal, on development projects in Nepal. International development remains one of her passions. She is actively involved in supporting charities relating to international development and supporting and encouraging women and girls to take up sport.

She became, after meeting the parents of Jon Blais at her first world championship, an ambassador for the Blazeman Foundation, performing a "Blazeman roll" in his memory at the finish line of all her triathlon races since then.[7] She campaigns for full equality of women in prize money, sponsorship, and media reporting of sport, and equal opportunities, notably in cycling, for women to be able to compete on the same terms, and over the same race distances, as men.[8] She was a founding member of Le Tour Entier, which campaigned for a Women's Tour de France and improvements to women's cycling generally.

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference FAQ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Emmerson 2007-10-19 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sutton 2012-02-15 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference BT-2007-10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sutton 2010-07-20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heming 2023-06-25 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Wellington 2012, p. 238.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Butler 2013-08-05 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).