Caledon’s Webster earns Spartan World Champion title

Written By JAKE COURTEPATTE

Lindsay Webster was seeing double gold at Lake Tahoe, California last weekend, where she earned the title as one of the top super athletes in the world.

The Caledon native was crowned the Women's World Champion at the 2018 Spartan World Championship, as well as led Team Canada to victory in the adjacent Team World Championship.

The 29-year old Webster said winning the World Championships “means the world” to her.

“Words can't even describe,” said Webster. “I've spent months preparing for every aspect of this race, from practicing heavy carries, to preparing my muscles for the leg smash on mountain descents, to race simulations, and even coming out early to get acclimated to altitude.”

The top obstacle racers from over fifty countries converged on the 20-plus kilometer “Spartan Beast” course, forced to deal with 34 obstacles and elevations over 4,000 feet. Webster, who only picked up the sport of Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) four years ago, finished more than four minutes ahead of her closest competitor with a time of 2:25:27.

The team portion of the event saw Webster bring pride not only to town but to country, leading the Team Canada women's crew of three to four out of six victories over Team USA.

It was the second year in a row Webster was crowned Spartan World Champion, first reaching the top of the podium in 2017.

“It almost still hasn't even dawned on me,” said Webster. “It's such a surreal moment…this is everything that I've been working towards for years now.”

Both the Spartan World Championship and Team World Championship will air on ESPN in upcoming episodes of “Spartan: The Championship Series” later this year.

With the most monumental race of her career behind her, there is simply no time for rest in the life of a super athlete: Webster will have the opportunity to take home a million-dollar prize if she can replicate her first-place finish in both of the other legs of the Sparta World Championship, happening in Sparta, Greece in November and the 24-hour Ultra World Championship in Iceland in December.

Nicknamed the “Sparta Trifecta”, the prize is up for grabs to any athlete who can sweep the series: a goal Webster has now set her sights on.

“Some of the workouts I dreaded days ahead of time, sometimes I'd want to quit halfway through them but I never let myself even if it made me scream with frustration…because I knew my competition was working just as hard to prepare. Every second you can eek out matters when you're competing against this level of athlete.”

For her win in the Spartan World Championship, Webster split a pool of $125,000 with the other top-placing athletes. The Team portion saw the teams split a prize of over $10,000 as well.