Lucy Charles-Barclay

Lucy Charles-Barclay has had a meteoric ascent in triathlon. After a 10-year competitive swimming career that culminated in narrowly missing out on the UK place for Olympic 10K open water category 2012, she switched to triathlon and dived straight into the toughest endurance format there is: the iron distance.

It only took 38 months for Charles-Barclay to go from her first race to finishing second at the 2017 Ironman World Championship in her first year as a full-time pro. In Kona, the home of the world champs, she obliterated the swim course record that had stood for 19 years, recorded the second-fastest ever bike split and overall course time, and has never finished lower than second. All that before the age of 26 -- and she’s still getting faster.