Biography

Triathlon Australia Hall of Fame inductee (2009)
Born 9 June 1969
First Triathlon - 1988

Michellie Jones is widely considered as the sports of triathlon’s most decorates athletes, one of the top 10 female triathletes of all time. With over 175 career victories at all distances, she dominated the sport for over 20 years. Michellie competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics winning a silver medal for Australia.

When it comes to sustained success over the course of a triathlon career, Australia’s Michellie Jones is the undisputed queen. From her first ITU World Championship in 1992, to a bronze medal in her final ITU World Championship race in 2003, she collected eight ITU World Championship podiums in her career. That’s including a three-year break from the circuit in the mid-90s. Only three times she did compete an ITU World Championship race and not make the podium, her debut race in 1990, and then in 1999 and 2002 when she finished fourth.

Michellie is one of only ten triathletes to have been inducted into the Triathlon Australia Hall of Fame. She is one of two triathletes in the Sports Australia Hall of Fame – the top peer recognised sports honour in Australia. In a country of consistently high performing athletes, this is perhaps one of the highest personal honours. It is given rarely to truly outstanding athletes for their sporting performance and the manner in which they represent and contribute to the sport. Outside of her ITU career, Jones became one of the most consistent athletes ever, with a win tally that is reported to be over 175 across Olympic, off-road and long-distance events.

Jones also became the first Australian woman to win a World Ironman Championship and it made her only the second Australian in history to win the event, behind 1994 Men’s World Champion, Greg Welch.

In her sporting performances, Michelle made Australians feel particularly proud when:

• She won the ITU World Championships in 1992 and 1993
• An eight time podium finisher from 10 ITU TWC starts over a 12 year period – an unrivalled number of podiums in either men’s or women’s (see below)
• She won Australia’s first medal in the opening event of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Women’s Triathlon
• She won the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 2006.