Two-time winner Caroline Livesey has confirmed she will be returning to race the Patagonman Xtreme Triathlon again this year as she looks to complete an unprecedented hat-trick.

The only athlete to have ever recorded two victories on the fiercely difficult full-distance course, it was thought that her 2024 success would be her last – however, the lure of Chile’s Patagonian mountains has once again proven too great, and she can’t wait to line up again on December 6.

Regarded as one of triathlon’s most extreme tests, the Patagonman pushes athletes to their absolute limit as they race across the wilds of the Southern Andes.

One of the toughest triathlon tests

Brutally stunning, it is an event for competitors looking to take their endurance fix to the next level, with a 3.8km swim in the icy Aysén Fjord and a 180km bike ride passing through deep valleys and alongside glacial rivers, all finished off with a 42.2km run across rugged dirt and gravel.

As raw as it is spectacular, the Patagonman has fast become a favourite for extreme athletes, with the likes of Alistair Brownlee, Josh Amberger, Tim Don and Laura Siddall all taking the plunge.

And Livesey, who this summer set a new women’s world record for cycling the North Coast 500 route around Scotland, is excited to return for a race she won in 2022 and 2024 – with her 2024 time of 11:02:24 also being enough to place her third overall.

“The truth is that the last time I won Patagonman, I believed that it was the last time I would race there,” she admits. “But the universe seems to have other plans for me, and the draw of Patagonia is in my bones.”

Fresh from her NC500 world record

The idea of returning started to grow again this year, following one of the biggest endurance challenges of her sporting career.

In June, she rode the 830km NC500 around northern Scotland non-stop in 32 hours and 22 minutes, setting a new women’s world record for the route and taking more than four hours off the previous mark. The record was ratified by the World Ultra Cycling Association, and Livesey is now also listed as the Guinness World Record holder for the route.

The achievement reflects a sporting career that has increasingly expanded beyond triathlon. In 2025, Livesey became Scottish Gravel Champion and later won the elite women’s race at Dustman in Thailand, part of the UCI Gravel World Series.

It was after the NC500 record that Patagonman began pulling her back.

‘It’s like I am being drawn back there…’

“After the NC500 record this year, I started to think about the race again,” she said. “It’s like I am being drawn back there to have this incredible experience again. Each time is so different, and I am just excited to see what this year throws at me as an athlete and as a human.”

A new documentary film, edited by her husband Mark, has now been released on YouTube and charts her incredible NC500 feat, providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight into the effort required from both Livesey and her support team.

As she explains in the film, “People just see 32 hours on the bike… what they don’t see is the preparation, the planning, and the precision.”

Those are qualities she will need once again, and in abundance, as she bids to become the first athlete to win three Patagonman titles.