Double amputee Billy Monger prepares for Ironman World Championship

Monger, who is from Charlwood in Surrey, was a kart racer as a child before joining the F4 British Championship in 2016.

He has since forged a career in broadcasting, featuring in the BBC series Celebrity Race Across the World and completing Billy’s Big Challenge in 2021, where he walked, cycled and kayaked across Britain and raised more than £3m for Comic Relief.

Monger completed Ironman 70.3 Weymouth in six hours, 41 minutes and 41 seconds. That course consisted of a 1.9km swim off the coast of the Dorset town before a 90km ride, followed by 21.1km on foot.

This weekend, he will compete in the longer Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, aiming to be the youngest double amputee to complete the course.

Competitors are required to finish the course within 17 hours, and must reach target times for each part of the race.

“It’s a 3.8km ocean swim, 180km cycling exposed to cross winds, volcanic barren lava fields and then you run around for a marathon at the end,” he said.

“It’s going to be a hell of a challenge.”

Germany’s Laura Philipp won the women’s world championship in Nice last month, finishing eight minutes clear of Great Britain’s Kat Matthews in second.