| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Simon Lessing at Lake Placid |
||
| Men's Triathlon | ||
| Competitor for Great Britain | ||
| ITU World Championships | ||
| Gold | 1992 Huntsville | Individual |
| Gold | 1995 Cancún | Individual |
| Gold | 1996 Cleveland | Individual |
| Gold | 1998 Lausanne | Individual |
| Silver | 1993 Manchester | Individual |
| Silver | 1999 Montreal | Individual |
| Bronze | 1997 Perth | Individual |
| ITU Long Distance World Championships | ||
| Gold | 1995 | Individual |
| ETU European Championships | ||
| Gold | 1991 | Individual |
| Gold | 1993 | Individual |
| Gold | 1994 | Individual |
| Ironman World Championship 70.3 | ||
| Silver | 2006 | Individual |
Simon Christopher Lessing, MBE, (born 12 February 1971) is a British triathlete who won five Olympic-distance world titles (1992, 1995(2), 1996 and 1998).[1] He also won races at 70.3, ITU long distance and Ironman-distance events. He set an Olympic-distance world record in 1996, and is noted for his 2004 Ironman Lake Placid win, where he set a course record of 8:23:12. Simon currently resides in Boulder, Colorado, United States,[1] where he operates Boulder Coaching with Darren de Reuck.[2]
Contents |
Born in Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa, he completed school at Kloof High School in Durban. Table Mountain was the backdrop to his formative years. His father and mother (who was a swim coach) supported him, and Simon was out of the blocks early and into competitive sport.
By the end of his fifth year at school, he had won honors in swimming, sailing and biathlon and was known as a cross-country runner. When Simon was 9, his family moved to Durban, a port city set on the East Coast.
Growing up, surfing and rugby were two of the major sports in Durban, but Simon resisted the pressure to make the change to these activities. He trained an average of 3 hours a day in his areas of interest: sailing, swimming, track, cross-country and duathlon. He developed an interest in hiking and hiked in the Drakensberg Mountain range. His swim coach, David McCarney, encouraged Simon to try a family oriented race he organized at Kloof High School.
In 1988, Simon was the South African triathlon champion.[3] He was selected to represent South Africa in a biathlon but suffered a broken leg in an accident during a local triathlon.
Simon moved to Britain at age 18 and continued his international sporting career in Europe. He was entitled to dual citizenship because his mother was born in England.
During the 1990s he and his great rival, fellow Brit Spencer Smith, dominated Olympic distance triathlon. Lessing won the ITU Olympic Distance Triathlon World Championship in 1992 Muskoka Canada, 1995 Cancún, Mexico 1996 Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and 1998 Lausanne, Switzerland.
In 1996, Lessing broke the world record in the World Championship triathlon (Olympic distance) with a time of 1 hour, 39 minutes, 50 seconds at Cleveland. This record stands as of 2008 (compare with the Olympic Games record by Simon Whitfield of 1:48:24.02).
Lessing is a regular competitor at the famous Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon held annually in San Francisco Bay. He has won the men's elite division there three times: 1996, 2003 and 2004.
Lessing competed at the first Olympic triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He took ninth place with a total time of 1:49:24.32.
His first attempt at Long Course Triathlon took place in 1993 on the Nice triathlon course, in the Côte d'Azur. A memorable race to many fans Lessing stayed with 9-time defending champion Mark Allen until within 5 kilometers of the finish. He went on to win the Nice race in 1995.
Lessing has won numerous Ironman 70.3 races on the World Triathlon Corporation Circuit, including the inaugural 70.3 at Walt Disney World Florida in 2004, and again in 2005. He won first place at the Vineman 70.3 in 2006.
In 2005 he set a new half-Ironman course record at the famous Wildflower triathlon.
Lessing qualified for the 2004 world championships with a 1st place win and course record at Ironman Lake Placid in July 2004, where he set a course record of 8:23:12. In his first appearance at the Ironman World Championships (2004) he dropped out halfway into the bike leg, due to fierce winds and problems with his back.
Lessing did not complete the marathon at the 2005 Ironman Couer d'Alene and failed to qualify there for Kona. He raced again the same summer and qualified for the 2005 Hawaii Ironman World Championships by taking 4th place at Ironman Canada in Penticton, B.C., August, 2005, in a time of 8:43:13. He did not complete the marathon at the 2005 world championships. Some say he was too worn out by the season of racing by the time he arrived there in October.
On Sunday 19 August 2007 Lessing won the Timberman 70.3.
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||