- We've already looked at the world's toughest triathlons,
so I thought it was about time,
that we looked at the world's toughest triathletes.
Narrowing it down isn't easy, as the sport of Triathlon
does tend to attract tough athletes.
Now there are incredible stories
that come from our sport every year,
and I'm excited to share some of those with you today.
We're gonna be delving back into the archives,
looking at stories from the beginning of Triathlon,
right up until the present day.
Narrowing this down has not been easy,
but for today's video, we've got our top 10.
(smooth electro music)
Right let's begin by rewinding
to the early years of Triathlon and Ironman, back to 1989.
We're actually gonna start with two,
because it's pretty much impossible
to separate on credentials of the toughest athlete,
between Mark Allen and Dave Scott.
This race was dubbed the 'Iron War' as Scott and Allen
battled it out shoulder to shoulder,
over the 140 mile Kona Ironman World Championship course,
and up until now, it had been more about
completion at the World Championships.
Never had we seen such a close rivalry, and as a result,
the course record was broken by almost 20 minutes.
Their performances are still iconic
within the Triathlon history.
The sheer determination that they demonstrated,
refusing to give an inch, and to put it into perspective,
their marathon times of a 2.40 and a 2.41 respectively,
still remain some of the fastest times
recorded on that course,
and that was almost 30 years ago.
And before we move on,
we can't talk about the toughest triathletes in the '80s,
without mentioning Julie Moss.
It was 1982 when she was in the lead,
just two miles to go to the finish, and dehydration hit her.
She ended up having to crawl to the finish,
but she was sadly passed by Kathleen McCartney,
and had to settle for second,
but that moment has become iconic,
and an inspiration to many, including Mark Allen himself.
I don't think there will be many of you
who haven't heard of Chrissie Wellington,
the four times Ironman World Champion.
She first became World Champion in 2007,
in her first year as a pro,
so she shocked not only her fellow competitors,
but the world of Triathlon itself.
She then went on to win another two years in a row.
Sadly in 2010, she had to drop out due to illness,
but it was her performance in 2011,
that has definitely marked her,
as one of the toughest triathletes of all time.
It was just two weeks before the World Championships,
that she suffered a bike accident, and as a result,
ended up with serious road rash.
She had damage to her intercostal muscles,
her pectoral muscles, so making breathing difficult.
Also walking difficult, she had to be helped
out of the swimming pool, even days before the race.
Many people didn't even think
she'd make it to that start line,
but she not only made it onto the start line,
she went and won her fourth
Ironman World Championship title.
Well we're not limiting this list to pros,
and this aged group athlete,
certainly couldn't be left off the list,
after her accomplishments in Ironman racing in 2016.
Rewind back to 2011, and Turia Pitt was competing
in an Ultra Marathon in Australia,
when she got caught in a grass fire,
and ended up with 65% of her body suffering severe burns.
She had to have her right hand amputated,
and two fingers off her left hand also removed.
Another side effect of those horrific injuries,
means that Turia can no longer
regulate her body temperature.
When she decide to race her first Ironman in 2016,
in Australia, and then went on to compete in Kona.
But it was the hot and humid conditions,
that really challenged her,
but she did manage to complete the course,
in an incredible time of 14 hours and 37 minutes.
Pro-Triathlete Susie Cheetham,
certainly proved her credentials
as a tough triathlete back in 2016,
when she was racing Ironman 70.3 in South Africa.
It was 70K into the Pike,
when she ended up having a bike crash.
She still had 20K to go, but she got back on her bike,
and made it into T2, where she received medical treatment
for a severely damaged elbow.
She had a lot of road rash as well,
but she wasn't gonna give up there.
She made it back out onto the run,
and it wasn't until she got to the finish,
that she realized quite how bad her injuries were.
She was whisked off to hospital,
and it was there they discovered,
she'd severely broken her elbow,
and actually required wiring to put it back together.
But despite all of that,
she had managed to run through the pain,
and still finished eighth woman overall.
Whilst we're on the topic of broken bones,
and racing through the pain,
we really have to include Holly Lawrence.
In 2017 she went into the World Championships,
at Ironman 70.3 as the defending World Champion,
but she didn't manage to defend her title.
She didn't even manage to finish that race.
As a result, she was determined
to prove her doubters wrong the following season.
While she began that return very strongly,
it was actually the end of 2017,
when she won the Ironman 70.3 in Bahrain.
Then this year in January she started off strongly.
She came third at 70.3 Dubai and then followed that up,
with a second place at Ironman 70.3 in Oceanside,
but this was really where she proved
her credentials as a tough athlete.
Because during the Pike she heard,
and felt a cracking feeling in her foot.
She completed the race, finishing second overall,
so managing a half marathon run at the end of this,
but it turned out she'd actually broken a bone in her foot,
and it's put her out for the rest of the season,
but she certainly did prove her doubters wrong
on how tough she is.
The ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final,
in Cozumel Mexico in 2016,
was going to be a very exciting race.
Going into that event, Johnny Brownlee was ranked second
in the overall standings, behind Mario Mola.
He nedeed to win, he also needed Mario Mola
to finish fourth overall if he was going to take the title.
We know that both of the Brownlee brothers
are both incredibly tough racers,
and great at raising their game when they need to,
and it looked like Johnny was doing just that.
He had a comfortable lead, with only one kilometer to go,
but then he started to suffer from heat exhaustion.
He was staggering all over the road,
and the Olympic bronze medalist Henri Schoeman
went past him to take the win,
and next coming up behind was his brother Alistair.
Alistair helped Johnny across the line,
they made it in second and third,
and then Johnny was whisked off to hospital.
It wasn't until after that, that he realized,
just how far he'd managed to push himself.
Tim Don has had an illustrious career in Triathlon,
spanning several decades, but it wasn't until
a horrific crash just days before
the Ironman World Championship in Kona last year,
that has really cemented his place,
as one of the toughest triathletes of all time.
It turned out that Tim had broken his neck,
and he was flown back to Boulder to have it operated on.
He was given three separate options,
but two of which would mean,
he would have restricted movement in his neck,
and most probably would be unable
to get back into that aero position,
which is essential for any Ironman athlete.
So he opted for the incredibly painful Halo brace.
Which basically involved a metal contraption,
being screwed into his skull,
in order to get the best recovery.
He had to endure several months of wearing
this incredibly uncomfortable contraption,
but he didn't lose focus.
In January he had it removed, and he was already training
for Boston Marathon just in April,
and he managed to run a 2 hour 49 marathon,
and he's still got his eyes set firmly
on Kona for this year.
Australian elite triathlete Lauren Parker,
was on a training ride just a week before Ironman Australia,
when she suffered a double blow out,
and ended up crashing into a guard rail.
She broke several bones, punctured a lung,
and most significantly broke her back, which resulted,
in her having no feeling from her legs downwards.
Once Lauren had begun to come to terms
with the fact that she might never walk again,
she managed to start to focus on Para-Triathlon.
And an incredible nine months after her accident,
she found herself competing, and ended up on the podium
at the Oceania Para-Triathlon Chapionships.
Then less than a year after her accident,
it was the Commonwealth Games,
so competing on home soil in Australia,
she went on to win the Bronze Medal.
April 2017, having only just turned pro,
Sarah Lewis suffered quite a serious bike crash,
when a driver pulled across the road,
in front of her without indicating,
and she went through the rear side window.
As a result, she required more than 60 stitches.
The week previously, she's only just had a collision
with another cyclist and still had hip injury from that.
But less than two months later,
she was racing at Challenge Denmark and finished fourth,
beating the likes of Ironman winner Michelle Vesterby.
She's had a strong start to this season,
and I certainly think she's one
of the tough triathletes to look out for.
You don't become Olympic Champion,
Ironman 70.3 World Champion,
two times Ironman World Champion,
and Ironman Distance world record holder,
without a certain degree of toughness.
Well Jan Frodeno certainly proved his mental
and physical toughness at Kona 2017, when he competed,
even though he was suffering a back injury.
Having won the previous two World Championships,
he went in as a strong favorite,
and didn't show any sign of injury.
Coming out of T2 he was in fourth place,
so still very much in contention,
but just a few kilometers into the 42 kilometer run,
we saw Jan Frodeno walking, and during that run,
at one point lay down to try and alleviate this back pain.
But he didn't give up, he run, walked,
limped to the finish, and came home in 35th place.
I don't know about you, but I am feeling
incredibly inspired after this.
Now at the beginning I did allude to the fact,
that his is a list of just 10 of the toughest triathletes,
and I'm aware that the list goes far beyond this,
so do let me know in the comments section below,
who do you think is the toughest triathlete in the world.
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and if you want to see our video
that we made on the toughest triathlons, that's just here.
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