Background
His father and mother (who was a swim coach) supported him.
His father and mother (who was a swim coach) supported him.
Born in Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa, Lessing completed school at Kloof High School in Durban.
In 2008 he retired from professional racing. Simon resides in Boulder, Colorado, United States, where he operates Boulder Coaching with Darren de Reuck. Early years
Table Mountain was the backdrop to his formative years.
When Lessing was 9, his family moved to Durban, a port city set on the East Coast.
Growing up, surfing and rugby were two of the major sports in Durban, but Lessing resisted the pressure to make the change to these activities. He trained an average of 3 hours a day in his areas of interest: sailing, swimming, track, cross-country and duathlon.
He developed an interest in hiking and hiked in the Drakensberg Mountain range. His swim coach, David McCarney, encouraged Lessing to try a family oriented race he organized at Kloof High School.
He was selected to represent South Africa in a biathlon but suffered a broken leg in an accident during a local triathlon.
Lessing moved to Britain at age 18 and continued his international sporting career in Europe. He was entitled to dual citizenship because his mother was born in England. Professional racing
In 1996, Lessing broke the Olympic distance triathlon world record with a time of 1 hour, 39 minutes, 50 seconds in 1996 at the International Telecommunication Union Triathlon World Championships in Cleveland.
Lessing competed in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon held annually in San Francisco Bay.
Lessing competed at the first Olympic games triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He took ninth place with a total time of 1:49:24.32.
Simon was Inducted into the International Triathlon Union Hall of Fame in 2014 and Inducted into the Boulder Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. Long course racing
Lessing"s first attempt at long course triathlon took place in 1993 on the Nice triathlon course, in the Côte d"Azur.
In 2005, he set a then course record at the Wildflower triathlon.
The next year he took first place at the Ironman 70.3 Vineman. = Ironman In his first appearance at the Ironman World Championships (2004) he dropped out halfway into the bike leg, due to the high winds and problems with his back. Lessing did not complete the marathon at the 2005 Ironman Coeur d"Alene and failed to qualify there for Ironman World Championship.
He raced again the same summer and qualified for the World Championships by taking 4th place at Ironman Canada in Penticton in a time of 8:43:13.
He did not complete the marathon at the 2005 World Championships.