Very few people in the world manage to complete a Ironman, the competition that requires swimming 3.8 kilometers, cycling 180 km and running a marathon. Doing it in extreme cold conditions, such as those experienced in the Antarcticais even more exceptional. In fact, the only one who achieved this feat was the Danish Anders Hofman, in February 2020.
Now, Begoña Alday (29), former captain of the Spanish Navy, proposes a unprecedented challenge: becoming the first woman to complete a Ironman on the white continent. It all started with an accident at sea that made her face the most extreme cold and, since then, she transformed that fear into a personal goal.
In order to prepare for the test, which will be in January 2026, he trained alongside elite athletes in some of the coldest places on the planet, competed in the Frozen Water World Cup on the Perito Moreno glacier and swam across the Beagle Channel, testing his physical and mental endurance.
Who is Begoña Alday and how the Ironman project came about
“In 2023, one night Sailing in Cape Horn we had an accident: a leak in the ship. The cold water entered like the Titanic. It was at night, it was extremely cold, and finally the Argentine Navy rescued us,” recalls Begoña, in dialogue with Clarín.
“That was my first contact with the real fear of freezing to death.”. and when “I came home, I thought: I need to reconcile with this.”he adds. From that experience «Ironhuman» was born, his most ambitious project: completing a long-distance triathlon in Antarctica.
Begoña is preparing to challenge the limits in an extreme triathlon in Antarctica. Photo: Ironhuman Press.Sport has always been with her. Passion led her to the professional field as a soldier in the armed forces and captain of the Spanish merchant navy. And that combination of physical training, discipline and adventurous spirit ended up coming together in his great challenge at the end of the world. “I wanted to reconcile myself with that ice water and with that idea of doing something extreme and that’s when I thought: Why not do a triathlon in Antarctica?he admits.
He Your project name is not random. It is no coincidence that I have left the word behind man (man in English), the athlete identifies as a non-binary person. “I called him Ironhuman because I want to break that idea of the IronMan. I think language is important: it is not a question of gender, it is a question of humanity. Far beyond what the world expects of you, there is what you expect of yourself,” she says.
Begoña admits that she was always “very cold”, the typical one who asks to raise the air temperature or who has cold hands and feet in bed. And perhaps that is why it is more surprising to hear her say: “Facing the cold makes me feel stronger. He taught me that the limit is much more in the head than in the body. Because with the cold there comes a time when the body can no longer do it alone, and it is the mind that has to help.”
Begoña seeks to face her fear of the cold in an extreme feat. Photo: Ironhuman Press.to train He traveled to several countries and also trained with great athletes. She practiced ice apnea with the Finnish Johanna Nordblad, who broke the absolute world record for ice apnea; he ran the Yukon Arctic Ultra, the coldest race on the planet in Canada and trained in Iceland and Greenland.
Later, participated in the Frozen Water World Cup on the Perito Moreno glacieran experience he describes as “5% swimming and 95% courage.” “The body goes wherever you take it, but it is the mind that has to resist the cold,” he reflects.
Also crossed the Beagle Channelthe strait located at the southern tip of South America, which connects the waters of the Pacific Ocean with those of the Atlantic, and in which the water temperature can reach 3°C. Each destination is part of the path towards January 2026, when he plans to stop in Antarctica to attempt what no one else accomplished.
Unlike official competitions that bring together hundreds of triathletes around the world, the Ironman that Begoña plans to hold will not be a race or an organized event. His project is «an expedition and a challenge that will be carried out independently and autonomously.»
But beyond sports, there is something in his proposal that also seeks to open spaces: “I wanted to put together an all-female team. Because when you go looking for a boat captain, a rescuer or a cameraman for Antarctica, a man almost always shows up. And it’s not because women can’t, it’s because they don’t have the access. “I want this project to be an example that we can also occupy those places.”
The Ironhuman team is entirely female. Photo: Ironhuman Press.The images of each training session and the challenge will be compiled into a documentary. Begoña not only seeks to make history in the extreme triathlonbut also challenge gender labels, embarking on a challenge that combines resistance, adventure and one of the most extreme environments on the planet.
