Lucy Charles

Lucy Charles-Barclay (born 15 September 1993) is an English professional triathlete specializing in the Ironman and 70.3 distances. Prior to taking up triathlon, Charles was an elite distance and open water swimmer. She attempted to gain selection for the British swimming team for the 2012 Olympic trials in both the pool and open water. She was, however, unsuccessful, despite having beaten open water trials winner Keri-anne Payne in the Great North Swim a month previously. Charles subsequently made her debut in triathlon in 2014 and went on to win the 18-24 women’s age category at the 2015 Ironman World Championship as an amateur. She subsequently turned professional.

Lucy Anne Charles-Barclay
Lucy Charles-Barclay at the 2017 Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt
Personal information
Born (1993-09-15) 15 September 1993
Hoddesdon
ResidenceLondon
AgentBPM Sport
Height170 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Weight58 kg (128 lb)
Websitelucycharles.com
Sport
CountryUK
Coached byReece Barclay
Now coachingPulse Fitness Triathlon
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)
  • Ironman: 8:36:32 (2018)
Medal record
Women's triathlon
Representing  United Kingdom
Ironman World Championship
2019Individual
2018Individual
2017Individual
Ironman 70.3 World Championship
2018Individual

During her first Ironman of 2018, the African Ironman Championship, she set a new personal best time of 8:56:10.[1] This beat her previous best from the 2017 Ironman Worlds, where she came in with a time of 8:59:48 and was a runner-up behind Daniela Ryf.[2]

Early years

Charles was born north of London, England. When Charles was 8 years old, she started with swimming. A year later she was beating kids that were three or four years older than her. She was the one convincing her coaches to let her compete in events like the 200-meter butterfly, which was the toughest competition there was. By the age of 16 she was national champion. In 2010, there was a test event where Charles competed in and finished as the top competitor from Britain in 16th place. She was only 17 years old at the time and it was her first ever 10K swim. In 2011, Charles figured there would be an even harder event for her to compete in. That year, the Olympic Games 2012 were hosted in London, and the 10K open-water swim, which can be seen as the marathon in swimming, was part of it for the second time.[3]

For the 2012 Olympics, Charles' biggest competitior was Keri-Anne Payne, who had already won an Olympic silver medal at the open water debut in 2008. Although Charles was doing really well on the build up towards the Olympics it wasn’t enough to be selected. Britain had only one slot, which went to Payne. Charles who was still a teenager at the time was so devastated, that at some point in 2013 she lost the motivation to only keep swimming for the next Olympic opportunity in 2016.[3]

In 2014, at age 19, she started her first triathlon. At the time Charles had no experience on running nor cycling.[3] In her second year, in 2015, Charles not only qualified for the World Championships but won in her age-group. In the same year, she became U23 World Champion in Ironman 70.3. In 2016 she turned to be a professional triathlon athlete.[3][4]

Triathlon career

In May 2017, Charles won Ironman Lanzarote.[5] Furthermore she also won the Challenge Family's The Championship. She also won a second place at the Ironman European Championships. She won the swim in that race in 48:29 minutes and finished the race only 4 minutes behind winner Sarah Crowley. At the Ironman World Championship in October 2017, she again landed a second place behind four time World Champion Daniela Ryf.[6][7]

In April 2018, at Ironman South Africa, Charles won her second Ironman race. In the same year she again won Challenge's The Championship. In September, she came second at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. At the 2018 Ironman World Championship in October she again landed in second place behind Daniela Ryf and broke the swim record with 48:13 minutes. Her overall time of 8:36:24 is the second fastest in race history.[4][8][9]

In 2019, Charles won Challenge Roth and the European Ironman Championships with her personal record of 8:31:09 hours for the entire race.[10]

She followed that with a third consecutive second place finish at the 2019 Ironman World Championship, clocking 8:46:44.

Charles lives in Hatfield (Hertfordshire) and is coached by her husband Reece.

Notable results

Some of Lucy Charles's notable achievements include:

Date Event Rank
12 October 20192019 Ironman World Championship2
7 July 20192019 Challenge Roth, Germany1[11]
7 April 20192019 Ironman African Championship, South Africa1
13 October 20182018 Ironman World Championship2[12]
1 September 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, South Africa 2 [13]
2 June 2018 Challenge Championship 1 [14]
15 April 20182018 Ironman African Championship, South Africa1 [1]
14 October 20172017 Ironman World Championship2 [15][16]
2 September 2017Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote2 [17]
9 July 2017Ironman European Championship Frankfurt2 [18]
3 June 2017Challenge Championship1 [19][20]
20 May 2017Ironman Lanzarote1 [21]
21 May 2016Ironman Lanzarote3 [22]
10 October 2015Ironman World Championship1 (18–24 age group) [23]
30 August 2015Ironman 70.3 World Championship1 (18–24 age group) [24]

References
  1. "09/1/2018 Results: IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship". Challenge - The Championship. Challenge Family. 1 June 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  2. Ingle, Sean (23 October 2017). "Iron woman Lucy Charles: 'I kept willing my body to fight that little bit longer'". theguardian.com. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  3. CulpAug 21, Brad; 2019 (2019-08-21). "Lucy Charles-Barclay is Rewriting the Rules of Ironman Racing". Triathlete. Retrieved 2019-08-29.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. "Lucy Charles". Red Bull. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  5. "Bruns steigt aus | Aernouts und Charles gewinnen Ironman Lanzarote". triathlon - Insider. Coach. Experte. (in German). Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  6. "Lionel Sanders und Lucy Charles gewinnen THECHAMPIONSHIP". triaguide - alles über Triathlon (in German). 2017-06-03. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  7. "The Championship: GB's Lucy Charles wins women's race as Alistair Brownlee retires". 2017-06-03. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  8. "Charles and Potts Voted the". IRONMAN.com. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  9. "The Championship: Lucy Charles, Lionel Sanders repeat in Samorin | Elite News". Tri247.com. 2018-06-04. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  10. "Lucy Charles-Barclay wins Challenge Roth". 220Triathlon. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  11. Carlson, Timothy (7 July 2019). "Lucy Charles-Barclay outswims, outruns women at Roth". Slowtwitch.com. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  12. Empfield, Dan (13 October 2018). "Ryf Resurrects Her Race From Ruins, Takes 4th Kona Title". Slowtwitch.com. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  13. "Ironman website". Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  14. "Challenge - The Championship". app.challengedata.io. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  15. "Ironman World Championship 2017 - Top Women". World Triathlon Corporation. 14 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  16. "Ironman World Championships: Lucy Charles second on debut". BBC. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  17. "Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote 2017 - Top Women". World Triathlon Corporation. 2 September 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  18. "Ironman European Championship - Top Women". World Triathlon Corporation. 9 July 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  19. "Challenge Championship - Top Women". Challenge Family. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  20. "The Championship: GB's Lucy Charles wins women's race as Alistair Brownlee retires". BBC. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  21. "Ironman Lanzarote 2017 - Top Women". World Triathlon Corporation. 20 May 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  22. "Ironman Lanzarote 2016 - Top Women". World Triathlon Corporation. 21 May 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  23. "2015 Ironman World Championship - Female 18–24 AG". World Triathlon Corporation. 10 October 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  24. "2015 Ironman 70.3 World Championship - Female 18–24 AG". World Triathlon Corporation. 30 August 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
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