Paula Newby Fraser

Biography

She was born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and raised in South Africa, where she was a nationally ranked swimmer as a child.

She won the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii 8 times: 1986, 1988–1989, 1991–1994, and 1996. Because of her unprecedented winning streak, she is also referred to as "The Queen of Kona". Over 12 years Newby-Fraser won 21 of 26 Ironman races she entered around the globe, and dozens of shorter races as well.

Newby-Fraser won 24 Ironman races overall between 1986 and 2002. In the 1990s, she also competed in long distance duathlons like the PowerMan Zofingen, Switzerland and the 1990 World Duathon Championships in Palm Springs. She beat the Queen of the Duathlon, Liz Downing.

Among numerous other awards, the United States Sports Academy named her as one of the top 5 professional women athletes of the last 25 years (1972–1997). Paula Newby-Fraser held the Ironman Women's world record of 8:50:28, until 2008-07-13, when Yvonne van Vlerken of the Netherlands posted a time of 8:45:48. Paula Newby-Fraser is regarded as an icon for the Ironman distance in triathlon.

In 1991 Paula Newby-Fraser appeared with cycling master John Howard, in "John Howard's Lessons In Cycling" video produced by New & Unique Videos of San Diego, California. Newby-Fraser demonstrated the cycling technique called "The Hot Stop."

Later in her career, Newby-Fraser began running ultramarathons, which are running races of 50 km or more. At the Ridgecrest High Desert 50K in April 1997, she set a blistering pace and won with a new course record of 4 hours and 6 minutes.