Michellie Jones

Michellie Jones
Personal information
Born (1969-09-06) 6 September 1969
Fairfield, New South Wales, Australia
Residence Carlsbad, California, U.S.
Height 180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 60 kg (132 lb)
Sport
Country Australia

Michellie Yvonne Jones (/mᵻˈkiːli/ mə-KEE-lee; born 6 September 1969 in Fairfield, New South Wales) is an Australian triathlete. She has won two ITU Triathlon World Championships, an Olympic Silver Medal,[1] and the 2006 Ironman World Championship.[2]

Athletic career

Jones started competing in triathlons in 1990. In 1992 and 1993 she won the ITU Triathlon World Championships.[1] In 1996, she won the inaugural XTERRA Triathlon World Championships. Jones would go on to further expand her triathlon résumé by winning the ITU Triathlon World Cup in 1998 and 1999.[3] At the 2000 Summer Olympics Jones took the Silver Medal in the inaugural triathlon event with a total time of 2:00:42.55, only two seconds behind Gold Medalist Brigitte McMahon. Her split times were 19:43.88 for the swim, 1:05:32.90 for the cycling and 0:35:25.77 for the run.[1]

After recently expanding into Iron distance competition, Jones took second place in the 2005 Ironman World Championship, losing the lead during the run to Natascha Badmann.[4] This was only the second time that she competed in an iron distance triathlon. Later she won the 2006 Ironman Arizona Triathlon, finishing with a time of 9:12:53, and the Ironman Triathlon in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in 9:18:31.[2] With this victory, Jones became the first Australian woman to win a World Ironman Championship and it made her the second Australian in history to win the event, behind 1994 Men's World Champion, Greg Welch.

In May 2015, it was confirmed that Jones would be Australian paratriathlete Katie Kelly's new guide in the lead up to the 2016 Summer Paralympics. With Jones, she won the World Paratriathlon Event held in Yokohama, Japan on 16 May 2015.[5] Kelly with guide Jones won their first World Championship title after a come-from-behind victory at the 2015 World Championships Final in Chicago.[6]

Personal life

Jones currently lives in Carlsbad, California.[7] She is a graduate from the University of Wollongong with a Diploma of Teaching in Primary Education in 1990.[8]

Jones has twin sister,[7] Gabrielle Jones.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Michellie Jones". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  2. 1 2 Staton, Ron (21 October 2006). "Stadler Wins Ironman Triathlon". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  3. ↑ "20yrs of ITU: World Cup Success". International Triathlon Union. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  4. ↑ Woodman, Jim. "2005 Ford Ironman World Championship Al-Sultan and Badmann take 2005 Honors". Active.com. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  5. ↑ Connery, Georgina. "Katie Kelly's rapid course to Rio 2016 Paralympics". Canberra Times. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  6. ↑ White, Chelsea. "Australia awesome at Paratriathlon World Championships". International Triathlon Union News. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Q&A with Michellie "MJ" Jones". GUenergy.com. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  8. ↑ "Outlook" (PDF). University of Wollongong. December 2000. Retrieved 24 September 2010.

External links

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