The Vendee Globe around-the-world sailboat race is sailing's ultimate challenge. A single-handed, non-stop race including 13,000 miles through the most dangerous waters. Less than half the boats that start the Vendee Globe race finish it. Of those that don't, the luckiest drop out; the rest are claimed by the sea. At five feet, two inches tall, Ellen MacArthur, at 24 years old, was the youngest and smallest competitor in the 2000-2001 Vendee Globe race. In an event dominated by older men of the elite, French, long-distance racing fraternity, she was a long shot to even finishing. On February 11, 2001, Ellen MacArthur finished the race in second place. She became the youngest sailor ever to finish, the first woman to earn a top-three placing and the second fastest person ever to do so alone.
