08/21/2026
Kona Countdown: Never, ever give up.
It was the toughest call she had ever had to make. Three-time Ironman defending champion, Chrissie Wellington, was forced to drop out the morning of the 2010 race with a viral infection. With Chrissie not in the race, Australia’s Mirinda Carfrae won her first Ironman World Championship title.
So when Chrissie crashed hard during a group ride two weeks before the 2011 Ironman World Championship and ended up with contusions on her hip and shoulder plus extensive road rash from her thigh to her lower leg, she wasn’t sure if she could even get to the starting line. Before the crash, Chrissie knew she was in the best shape of her life heading into the 2011 race where she hoped to re-claim her title from Mirinda. In her mind, the last thing she wanted to do was not start the world’s most important triathlon for the second year in a row.
To compound the issue, doctors thought she might also have a torn pectoral muscle.
A few days before the race, she had to have her wounds scrubbed out to avoid infection. This would be Chrissie’s 13th Iron-distance race, and she was undefeated. Her margin of victory in 2007 had been about five minutes. In 2008 it was 15 minutes, and in 2009 it had ballooned to nearly 20 minutes. This was a woman who was used to dominating everywhere she raced and had ever been challenged.
But this time she was not only injured, she was going up against a woman who was the defending champion and was considered the best pure runner in the sport.
Off the bike, Chrissie was 22 minutes behind the leader, Julie Dibens, and ten minutes back of Rachel Joyce and Leanda Cave. Her time at the end was 8:55 and her margin of victory on Mirinda Carfrae was a mere 2:49, her closest race ever in Kona.
That turned out to be Chrissie Wellington’s last race.
After the race, I asked Chrissie what she had learned about herself through the experience. Her response, heard in this soundbite, illustrates the powerful essence of the Ironman World Championship and the strength it gives those who overcome its challenges.
