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

[10] She describes herself as a "sporty kid, swimming, playing hockey, running, but never excelling and always more interested in the social side of the sports scene".

[4] 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).

[16] Her coach, Brett Sutton, believes this experience to have been very useful altitude training for her later professional career,[2] while Wellington herself regards it as having given her lasting mental strength.

[26] 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.

[32] She enjoyed some success in B and C grade cross-country events around London,[2] winning several races including the South of Thames Championship in December 2006.

[32] 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.

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.

Later the same month she entered her first longer-distance event, the UK half-Ironman race at Wimbleball, but suffered mechanical problems with her bicycle (forcing her to climb the steep Exmoor hills in too high a gear) and finished in 5th place.

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.

[36] 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.

[38] Only twenty days later, she attempted her first World Cup race, the Tongyeong BG Triathlon in Korea, but could only finish in 22nd place.

[41][42] 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.

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.

[54] 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.

"[61] On Saturday 2 January, during an intended 5-hour training ride in the Surrey Hills with her boyfriend and two other friends, Wellington fell from her bicycle when it slipped on black ice.

[63] She later acknowledged that the crash had a positive outcome, enforcing a mental and physical break and enabling her to focus on other areas of improvement such as her strength and to properly resolve her hamstring problems, which had been hampering her running.

"[5] In August Wellington set a new course record in her third consecutive victory at Timberman 70.3,[69] 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.

[71] On 21 November, having allowed herself six weeks to recover from her illness, Wellington set a new world record for an Ironman-branded race over the full Ironman distance in Tempe, Arizona of 8:36:13.

[77] On a routine training ride near Boulder, Wellington suffered a serious bike crash on Saturday 24 September, exactly two weeks before the World Championships in Kona.

She had to be lifted out of the pool, and given crutches to enable her to walk; her boyfriend Tom Lowe and coach Dave Scott had to carry her back to her car.

Six hours of tests showed that she had no fractures, nor any embolism, but that she did have damaged pectoral and intercostal muscles; the badly infected state of her leg was obvious from the appalling smell when the bandages were removed.

[86] YouTube video (6:59), showing the road rash injuries to Wellington's left leg during the 2011 Ironman World Championship race.

[...] 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.

[93][94] 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.

[11] 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.

Already this year she has done clinics in Thailand and the Philippines and now sponsors a young Filipino athlete to attend our group for the coach to work some magic.

To give you an insight into Chrissie Wellington's mind, her first talk to me about the media and the frenzy around her, was "Boss, I don't want us to lose sight of what we discussed about my goal.

[99] 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.