Could Chrissie Wellington win an Olympic Distance Tri such as The Hy-Vee Tri in Des Moines with a cash prize of over $200,000? Or is she only dominate over the longer distances?
Difficult to say. There is a complete list of her (professional) race results on her Wikipedia article, and that suggests not. But I am quite sure that, if at all possible, she wants to race and win the 2012 Olympics, and that might have something to do with her choice of Lessing as coach. She is relatively weak in bike handling skills (not having learnt to ride a bike as a child), and her great strength is going hard, hard, hard on the bike for a long time - an advantage largely negated in ITU draft-legal racing. But she is one determined lady, she still has 3 years to get ready for the Olympics, and with time and correct coaching, I reckon it’s possible she could do it, but it won’t be easy.
Anything is possible!
I’m hoping to see her on the start line in some Toyota Cup races…anyone know if she is?
Short answer is, “no”.
She would miss the front pack on the swim, do OK on the bike but would also not fare that well on the run either compared to the other very fast women runners on the ITU circuit.
If you have ever seen her run, she runs very well but she has a very short, choppy and clipped running style that works well in longer events like IM, but when the speed really picks up, she may have a problem opening up that stride.
Of course, she is an exceptional athlete, and I could be proved completely wrong - just making some observations from afar.
she is no doubt a winner the speed in the swim and run might be a challenge but my guess is if she focused on it, anything is possible!!
Your answer seems to be at direct odds with your sig line.
if she is focused with a plan, not just hoping…
Could Chrissie Wellington win an Olympic Distance Tri such as The Hy-Vee Tri in Des Moines with a cash prize of over $200,000? Or is she only dominate over the longer distances?
She probably has a better chance of winning an Olympic event in cycling.
what, win ANY Olympic distance race?
she already has:
http://www.chrissiewellington.org/pages/results-schedule.asp
Well that settles that . . .
2007 Zurich Olympic Distance Triathlon (1.5km / 40km / 10km)
1st Place
2007 Subic Bay ITU Triathlon Asian Cup (1.5km / 40km / 10km)
1st Place
2007 Bangkok Triathlon (1.5km / 40 km / 10km
1st Place
http://www.chrissiewellington.org/pages/results-schedule.asp
She is beastly at Olympic distance. After the 2008 Ironman, she said that she is now targeting the 2012 Olympics. (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/7697565.stm _
I guess I was interested in knowing if she could win the Hy-Vee tri specifically, with such a competitive field due to such a high winner’s purse. Would she need the longer course against the olympic distance elite? It’s got to be tempting to her seeing how she’s based out of Boulder now…
Last April she raced the ITU Tongyeong World Cup race against a reasonable but not stellar field, she came into T1 in the second swim pack, spent most of the bike leg on her own, but didn’t manage to bridge the gap to the first bike pack. She finished 22nd - 9minutes behind Sam Warriner and Hollie Avil. However, Chrissie has improved her swim lately and if she could make the first bike pack things could be different…
Results here:
http://www.triathlon.org/zpg/zresults-evt-dtl.php?call=TVRFdw==&id=MTExNg==&rsid=2448
I believe she has her work cut out for her.
Clearly she can ride with anyone. But making the first pack on the swim will be a tough. And if you look at two of the Olympic distance races (Bangkok and Subic Bay) she won, she ran 37 min in one and 43 min in another.
That’s a long way from the 33-34 minute 10K’s ladies like Fernandes, Bennett, Moffett and Snowsill can run.
I am a huge fan of hers…it will fun to see how she does.