Louise Minchin, 50, is best known for hosting BBC Breakfast. However, the BBC favourite recently competed one of the world’s toughest triathlons, Norseman, the latest in a string of gruelling competitions she has finished. The extreme triathlon consists of a 2.5-mile swim from the ferry to the shore in Norway, a 112-mile bike ride, then a marathon. The presenter managed to cross the finish line in 16 hours and 46 minutes. Opening up about the tough challenge, she told The Times: “Six years ago I couldn’t run, let alone swim, 25 miles.
“I went to the gym a couple of times a week in a half-hearted attempt to try to keep fit,” Louise recalled.
She went on to open up on how being self-conscious about her body as a teenager had affected her love of physical activity.
“Growing up I had been different,” she said. “I had loved sport, particularly swimming.
“I would, if I could, spend hours lapping any pool available. I loved to train and loved to race.
“But, aged 15, I gave it up. I looked in the mirror, decided I didn’t like my muscly shoulders, and stopped swimming just like that,” she explained.
The BBC Breakfast host went on to say her “30-year break from competitive sport” was curtailed when she took part in the BBC Breakfast presenters’ Christmas Challenge seven years ago, which saw the stars go head-to-head cycling in Manchester’s Velodrome.
Louise noted how the adrenaline she felt after crossing the line and winning with her co-star Charlie Stayt, now 57, had inspired her to return to sport.
It wasn’t long before she competed in her first triathlon, which, she said, saw her have a panic attack during the swim because she couldn’t see her hands in the muddy water of the river.
Since then, she has completed several triathlons and continued to test herself with physical challenges.
The BBC Breakfast star said she now embraces her figure, muscles and all.
“My last few years of constant exercise have changed me physically and mentally,” she said.
“I am fitter, stronger and more resilient than I was in my twenties, thirties or early forties — and I am finally proud of my muscly shoulders.
“It has also helped me feel happier, less vulnerable and to be a better version of myself while going through a tricky menopause.”
Elsewhere, Louise Minchin revealed the health reason behind the “cold” BBC Breakfast studio in a candid chat about her health.
Speaking to this week’s Hello! Magazine, she said the studio had been adjusted to accommodate her hot flushes.
“The studio is really cold now,” she said. “We have the ‘Louise’ setting on the air conditioning.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily at 6am on BBC One.