Consider Mark Allen; multiple Nice Long Course Worlds titles, wins around the world at every distance, capped by an astounding six Hawaii Ironman titles. Or sprightly Greg Welch, who won ITU Olympic-distance triathlon, ITU duathlon and ITU Long Course Championship titles, Aussie sprint national titles, Alcatraz, Chicago and of course added the 1994 Hawaii Ironman title to his illustrious career.

True, a string of Hawaii wins puts you squarely in that category. With six Ironman world titles, Paula Newby Fraser and Dave Scott earn the title of legend by virtue of an astounding eight and six titles, respectively, in Kona. And also Switzerland’s Natascha Badmann, with her six wins and two times as runner-up, can rest assured that she will attain legendary status.

But a female athlete with a truly rounded resume to warrant the “legend” status, with wins akin to Welch and Allen, has been nonexistent.

Until now.

Leading from nearly wire-to-wire to dominate the 2006 Hawaii Ironman, Australian Michellie Jones cemented her claim to all-time greats with a 9:18:31 victory. The title goes on a bejeweled mantle that includes two ITU World Championship titles, an Olympic silver medal and numerous short- and middle-distance titles, making her the most widely decorated triathlete in the sport’s history.

“One of the reasons this win is so unbelievable is I never thought I would do it,” Jones says of Ironman racing in general. “In only my fourth Ironman to be able to walk away as the Ironman World Champion, it’s very hard to express in words. It’s surreal and really emotional for me. I still don’t believe it!”

The fact she did Ironman at all was a stretch. After earning a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as one of the finest female short-course athletes in the sport’s history, Jones was shocked when she was passed over for the Australian national team for the 2004 Athens Olympic games. She was devastated. “I was ready to retire, she said, “but (husband) Pete (Coulson) issued me a challenge. He said ‘do you want to go on winning the same races you have all your career like Chicago and Alcatraz?’ I said ‘sure,’ but he was really looking to put a challenge to me, and Ironman was that challenge.”

After winning her first ever Ironman at Ironman Florida in 2004, she went into her Kona debut leading all day, save for the last 10 kilometers, when Badmann pranced past to take her sixth world title.

The 37-year-old Jones was thankful for the experience and understood that with Ironman, nothing is gift-wrapped – especially to a newcomer – no matter the resume. “Sometimes you learn a lot more from a race you don’t win than one you win,” she said. “At Florida I still won but had tremendous nutritional troubles. I learned from that. And last year here, I learned I needed to strengthen the last half of my marathon, so I worked on that for this year.”

Coming into the race, the marquee was dubbed Badmann vs. Jones: the rematch. In her 2005 Hawaii Ironman debut after switching gears to race long course, Jones led for all but six miles of the sport’s centerpiece race as Badmann pranced past to take her sixth title. This year, Jones had a more dominant win at Ironman Arizona, but it was one important year of added practice and experience.

The race was truly decided in the water; Jones came out of Kailua Bay fourth female in 54:29, after American Linda Gallo ripped to exit the water third overall, sprinting past pacesetter Faris Al Sultan to get to her bike before most of the men. Jones started the bike behind German Ute Mueckel and had the race lead just a few miles onto the Queen K. Leading the chase of Jones was hard-charging American trio of Joanna Zeiger, fellow former ITU pro Gina Kehr and Dede Griesbauer. Kehr was hoping to put to good use an aerodynamics session at the San Diego wind tunnel months before the race, as well as to bury forever the three past forgettable years off the racing circuit due to stress fractures.
 

Surprising was how many marquee names were well out of the mix from the outset. Australians Kate Major and Belinda Granger, Americans Desiree Ficker and Heather Gollnick, New Zealand’s Joanna Lawn, German Katja Schumacher and Canadians Heather Fuhr and Lisa Bentley all exited the water several minutes from one another, and about seven minutes off the lead, but only Granger, Lawn and Athens Olympic gold medalist Kate Allen of Austria were making a game effort of moving forward.

Most surprising of all was the 1:06:43 swim of defending world champ Badmann, who spotted Jones an enormous 12-plus minute lead on the bike. But it would quickly be one of the least of her worries. It only took the first two miles of the bike before she began vomiting. The day was unraveling for the Swiss star.

After Peter Reid’s prediction to watch out for his ex-wife, former champ Lori Bowden also suffered a sub par swim in 1:07, starting the day in a deep hole.

Reveling in the calm, cool, wind-free conditions on the bike, Jones powered away to gain on all her pursuants. Despite those conditions, some pulled the pin, including 1997 World Champ Fuhr, who said she may take a respite from Hawaii to compete in other global Ironman events.

As the bike wore on, the question became ‘how quickly can Badmann negate Jones’ lead?’ By Hawi, Jones’ lead over her prime competitor was a steady five minutes, and it was becoming clear that the expected battle between the Boxing Kangaroo and the Swiss Miss might not happen.

Meanwhile, American Desiree Ficker was having a very good day. After exiting the water behind Major, the woman who sought Peter Reid for council before the race for advice was delivering on the bike. First she passed Bentley. Then Karen Smyers, Gollnick, and Allen came into view on the climb to Hawi, and were in her rear view mirror before the turnaround. “I fully expected them to stay with me but to my surprise I had gapped them at the turn around point,” Ficker said. By mile 90, Ficker had joined Zeiger, who was beginning to pay for her hard early pace.

Late in the bike, the cards were totally reshuffled as a collection of women moved to the fore of the chase. As Zeiger was fading to her hot early pace and fellow former short-courser Kehr was fading, Australian Belinda Granger, the recent winner of Ironman Canada, was blazing a trail toward Jones, riding into second position just past Ficker with American Griesbauer and Dane Lisbeth Kristensen close behind. In the meantime both Zeiger and Kehr slipped back past the power bikers.

And one more surprise: Badmann was back. After a sour early bike, the diminutive swisswoman chewed her way through the field up to third place late in the bike, behind Jones and Denmark’s Lisbeth Kristensen. Maybe the head-to-head battle would happen after all.

Jones started the run with a six-minute lead over Kristensen and Badmann, with Zeiger and Ficker a minute back. Meanwhile Granger sat idle in the transition sin bin, paying for a questionable passing zone call biding the time for her release.

While Ficker was reeling off a solid 7:15 mile pace, Zeiger, the Ironman Coeur d’Alene winner who has a history of cross luck in Kona, again fell victim to the island heat and was forced to pull out just a few miles into the run.

That moved Ficker into the catbird seat. The rising Tri Dubai star, smiling most of the day on the bike, wore a look of determination on the run. With a stoic look, she ascended Palani Road out onto the Queen K, and a mile later captured and passed Badmann, who was again faltering to nutritional upset. “She stuck right on me for a while and as we sped up she yelled out, ‘Great running, Desiree—keep this pace up and you will be better!’ I could hear her stop at the aid station as she was getting sick and not feeling well—what a champion that woman is.”
 

Kehr was making a resurgence as well. After being relegated late in the bike to the lower top 10 of the field, she began picking them off once on the run, also moving past Badmann toward the front again. Nearly retiring from the sport after a series of chronic leg injuries, she was presenting her finest effort in her career as she moved back past Kristensen and Granger, then Major, Allen and Badmann and into third in pursuit of Ficker.

Meanwhile Canadian Bentley was in full flight just a minute back headed into the Energy Lab, with Major, Allen and a resurgent Joanna Lawn followed in close succession.

Unaware of the swirling battles being waged behind, Jones strode alone into the Energy Lab unabated, finally seeing her competition for the first time since the bike turnaround as she made the right back onto the Queen K toward home. “I wasn’t concerned with what was going on behind me at all,” Jones said. “I could only control my race. Once I got to the top of the energy lab I backed off a bit, just to make sure I got to the finish.”

As the chasers exited the lab, the battles for remaining podium positions got tighter.

With 10 kilometers left, Kehr made a solid bid for second, passing Ficker. The Austin, Texas resident had to make a decision: join Kehr’s pace or stay in tempo. She opted for the former. “Her friends were yelling at her ‘This is your day, Gina!’” Ficker recalls. “My friends were yelling at me “It’s one hour of suffering in your whole life, Des!” We ran like this for at least a mile until I pulled up next to her.”

After two miles of recovery, Ficker was then the one to counter-attack Kehr, surging away on a rise with four miles to go. “I felt a little guilty about doing it because she had pulled me along for almost two miles before my legs started to feel better,” Ficker said. “I just had to go.” The move worked.

The effort cracked Kehr slightly, as she was passed with a mile to go by the steady Bentley for third position.

Meanwhile at the finish line, the throngs awaited the arrival of Jones. As she strode across the finish tape, she and husband Coulson embraced, and both burst into tears. She then hugged her twin sister Gaby and her coach, Newby-Fraser. “This is unbelievable!” she said, with a convincing smile across her face. “I just won the Ironman World Championship!”

Experiencing the race of her life, Ficker claimed second in 9:24, by far her most illustrious result on the sport’s grandest stage. “I will never forget how lovely and soft the bright blue finish line carpet felt underneath my feet,” Ficker said. “I will never forget the look of surprise and happiness I could see on my own face as I looked straight into the Jumbotron.”
 

With the day’s fastest marathon, Bentley grabbed the final podium spot, while Kehr held fast for fourth, an amazing comeback from the Redwood City, Calif. real estate agent.

Having given two of her miniature pinchers dogs at her Carlsbad, Calif. Home names after where she claimed her world short-course titles (Skokie for her 1992 title in Muskoka and Manny for her 1993 title in Manchester, England) we were curious: can we expect to see a new pup joining the clan?

“No, but my horse is having foal in December” Jones says with a sly grin. “I think it’ll have a name something to do with Hawaii.”

The Hawaii title completes a palmares that includes her two worlds titles, numerous ITU World Cup victories, 2002 Sydney Olympics triathlon silver medal, multiple wins at short-course Escape from Alcatraz, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego International among others. “Pete says it’s better than my silver medal, but you know, they’re all different, a really different experience. And when I won my first ITU World title, I was like ‘holy cow’. To do something so different than that in Ironman and win the world title, it’s like, wow.”

Title comparisons aside, Jones can now boast being the one woman who has them all. And that truly is the mark of a legend.

Jones, who celebrates 20 years in the sport next year, has aligned herself with Felt for most all of her entire triathlon career. Arguably the most successful triathlete in the world, her major wins are almost impossible to keep up with. Silver Olympic and Goodwill Games medals, two ITU World Championships, myriad World Cup and non-drafting Olympic distance races, eight Escape from Alcatraz victories and three Ironman wins culminating in the World Championships in Kona last month.
 

In a similarly successful year that earned Felt the prestige of “best in show” (Interbike) from a number of key media journalists and triathlon aficionados, it was the new DA technology that caught both Jones’ and husband and manager Pete Coulson’s attention. “Winning Ironman really made me stand back and take a good look at what was out there in terms of new aerodynamic technology,” Jones said from her home in Carlsbad, CA. “I’m at the pinnacle of my career in terms of where I need to be physically and mentally. Going back to Felt in the knowledge that I’m riding the most advanced bike out there, coupled with the fact that it is a group of people who are dedicated to the sport gives me the added confidence to continue on this path and take my performance to a whole new level.”

 
Jones will race on the new Felt DA and train on the B2. Developed over two years using NACA aerofoil profiles, CFD flow modeling and wind tunnel experimentation, the DA frame system delivers unsurpassed aerodynamic advantage with incredible drive-train and steering stiffness. The DA also features the revolutionary Bayonet Steering System which moves the steerer outside of the frame, improving steering stiffness 60% over a regular fork while significantly reducing the aerodynamic drag on the bike.

Jim Felt, co-owner, said “This is not only a tremendous coup for the brand in the year that we brought the new DA triathlon technology to market, it’s a huge honor for all of us at Felt Bicycles to welcome MJ back into the Felt family. We are certainly looking forward to helping her stay on top of her game.”