Sean Conway named sport’s personality of the year by UK radio station

Southern African endurance athlete Sean Conway – who now lives in the UK – has won the Dee Sports Personality Award in Chester. The record-breaking adventurer, who attended Clifton Nottingham Road school and Hilton College in KZN, said he totally “didn’t see that coming”… but his fans did.

Chester’s Dee Radio says the Outstanding Sports Personality Award “is to recognise an outstanding sporting achievement”.

Sean recently broke a world record by completing 105 ironmans in 105 days! He’s also the first person to swim the length of Britain, holds the world record for fastest self-supported cycle across Europe, and is the founder of the global running challenge, The 496 Challenge. He’s also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in a penguin costume and has accomplished so much more! And inspired others to never give up when things go wrong.

Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, Sean grew up climbing trees and chasing elephants out of his garden. He then became a professional photographer for about ten years before finally chasing his athletic dreams.

He moved to London in 2002 and in 2011 decided to pursue his dream of cycling around the world… but he was in a severe accident. Instead of giving up, he stuck to his dream and cycled another 12,000 miles around the world! Since then he’s become one of the most accomplished ultra-endurance athletes of his generation, according to his website.

Writing on social media today, Sean said: “Winning the Dee sport’s personality of the year took me by quite the surprise. As in all achievements in life, most of the crap jobs, the important jobs, the tough repetitive job are done by other team members and crew who equally deserve acclaim. I had the best crew in the world. They worked hard to make sure that all I had to do each day was swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and then run a marathon. Oh, and all the eating. Just want to say thank you to my crew. This is for you too.”

A couple of weeks ago, Sean shared in a post how it wasn’t until he was 30 that he discovered his own resilience. “It’s amazing how in the blink of an eye you can be 10 years down the completely wrong path. So in the summer of 2011 I sold my photography business to my business partner for £1 and walked away with no real plan or idea of what I would do next. Then it hit me, I should cycle around the world. And that was the beginning of my new life. That was 12 years ago. It’s been quite the ride ever since. Never forget your dreams and fight hard to chase them.”

One of the secrets that helps Sean have such a strong mindset to accomplish what appears impossible is his firm belief that: “You make an agreement with yourself, really believe in it, then you just crack on.”

Visit Sean Conway’s website: https://www.seanconway.com/