Caroline Ashby is a farmer, mother of two girls and an Ironman athlete (3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42km run) who has successfully completed at the pinnacle of Ironman events including 5 x Hawaii World Championships. Living in a remote area of WA, Caroline has beaten the odds to achieve many Ironman titles.

Having being struck down with an injury at the beginning of 2019, Caroline had spent five years rebuilding her mind, body and soul trying everything holistic ready for the biggest comeback of her life. The essence of Caroline’s talks are to dream, believe, achieve, remain resilient and grateful for everything you have and to remember no matter what your circumstances are – “Anything is Possible”.

Caroline Ashby is one of Australia’s toughest athletes, having completed 10 Ironman events, qualifying for the World Championships 5 times, and been ranked in the top 1% of Ironman athletes across the world several times. Caroline has accomplished all of this while raising a family on a livestock and cropping farm in Western Australia – far from any traditional training facilities. Her training regime consists of swimming laps in a dam, riding her bike alongside roadtrains, and literally running around the farms gravel tracks. And this isn’t a story about an athlete who grew up in the city and moved to the country for love – Caroline was raised on a sheep and cattle station 3 hours from Broken Hill, with no regular access to sports lessons or facilities.

So, how did this bush kid fall in love with athletics? And, what motivated her to pursue it at the highest level when she was living in the middle of nowhere?