Michellie Yvonne Jones ( ; born 6 September 1969) is an Australian

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...

. She has won two

ITU Triathlon World Championships The World Triathlon Championship Series is an annual series of triathlon events organised by World Triathlon. The series is used to crown an annual world champion since 2008. Previously, the ITU (the former name of World Triathlon) world champio ...

, an Olympic silver medal, and the 2006

Ironman World Championship The Ironman World Championship is a triathlon held annually in Hawaii, United States from 1978 to 2022, with no race in 2020 and an additional race in 1982. It is owned and organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. It is the annual culminat ...

. She won a gold medal at the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

as a guide for Katie Kelly, when paratriathlon made its debut at the Paralympics.

Personal life

Jones currently lives in

Carlsbad, California Carlsbad is a beach city in the North County area of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is north of downtown San Diego and south of downtown Los Angeles. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of ...

. She is a graduate from the

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (UOW) is an Australian public university, public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately south of Sydney. , the university had an enrolment of more than 33,000 s ...

with a Diploma of Teaching in Primary Education in 1990. She has a twin sister, Gabrielle Jones.

Athletic career

Jones started competing in triathlons in 1990. In 1992 and 1993 she won the ITU Triathlon World Championships. In 1996, she won the inaugural

XTERRA Triathlon XTERRA is a series of cross triathlon races, i.e. three-sport races which include swimming, mountain biking, and trail running. The XTERRA Global Tour is owned and produced by XTERRA Sports Limited. The XTERRA race series is the best-known serie ...

World Championships. Jones would go on to further expand her triathlon résumé by winning the

ITU Triathlon World Cup The World Triathlon Cup is an annual series of triathlon races staged around the world. The series is organised by the World Triathlon, the world governing body of the sport. Inaugurated in 1991, the World Cup began as an attempt to create a regula ...

in 1998 and 1999. At the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

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. 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. 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 An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), consisting of a swim, a bicycle ride and a marathon run completed in that order, a total of . It is widely consid ...

Kailua-Kona Kailua-Kona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is most commonly referred to simply as Kona (a name it shares with the district to which it belongs), but also as Kona To ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

in 9:18:31. 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 Gregory John Welch (born in 1964 in Campsie, Sydney), known as Greg Welch, is an Australian triathlete. He is known for having won "The Grand Slam", which includes the ITU Triathlon World Championships (1990), The Ironman Wo ...

. In May 2015, it was confirmed that Jones would be Australian paratriathlete Katie Kelly's new guide in the lead up to the

. With Jones, she won the World Paratriathlon Event held in

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

on 16 May 2015. Kelly with guide Jones won their first World Championship title after a come-from-behind victory at the 2015 World Championships Final in Chicago. At the

2016 Rio Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 Sept ...

, Jones was the guide for Kelly when they won the gold medal in the Women's PT5 event. Jones reflects on her medal win with Kelly stating: "This is so much better because when I think of everything KK ( Katie Kelly) has been through and to be able of doing everything she’s done in such short amount of time,” she said. “To me this is the best thing that I’ve ever done.” Jones expresses further explaining "Disability doesn't define you, it's what you do with it that does" She was made a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Michellie Ironman world champions 1969 births Living people Australian female triathletes Olympic triathletes for Australia Olympic silver medalists for Australia Triathletes at the 2000 Summer Olympics Triathletes at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Triathletes at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Commonwealth Games competitors for Australia Olympic medalists in triathlon Sportswomen from New South Wales Sportspeople from Carlsbad, California University of Wollongong alumni Triathletes from Sydney Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Members of the Order of Australia Paralympic medalists in paratriathlon Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees 20th-century Australian sportswomen 21st-century Australian sportswomen