Athletes
ArchiveBy guest blogger Meaghen Brown Montana’s Mike Wolfe won the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile on December 3rd in 6:19:04, beating what some called the best ultrarunning field assembled in 2011. Both Wolfe and 21-year-old Dakota Jones broke the old course record—Wolfe by 15 minutes—after running…
Climbers are fond of saying that there's no such thing as a “best climber”, and in a broad sense, they're right. But in terms of pure difficulty, it's becoming harder and harder to deny Adam Ondra's dominance. On Tuesday, the 18-year-old Czech climber…
Trail shoes: minimal or maximal?I’m sponsored by Pearl Izumi, so I run in their Fuel XC or the Peaks, which is their lighter trail shoe. Sometimes I run in the triathlon shoe—it’s a very lightweight with holes in the bottom. I’m…
Love the idea of modeling, but don't have time for the agents, the makeup trailers, the long days on set in Hollywood? Send in a photo of yourself stripped down to your favorite Smartwool layer and a one sentence write up of what inspired you to do…
In the world of big mountain skiing, Dean Cummings is a legend. He was the captain of the US Freestyle Ski Team, has hundreds of first descents to his name, has been featured in dozens of ski films and shows, and for years was…
The other morning I had breakfast with Dean Cummings, a veteran Alaska heli-ski guide and all around big mountain badass, who was coming through Santa Fe to promote his new line of skis, H20 Outdoor Gear. That Dean has lived to see 46 is no small feat.
You're ready to act on those good intentions, but how do you know the organizations you're backing deserve your trust? Here are the 30 best—smartly managed groups with transparent financials, efficient spending, and track records of on-the-ground success.
Every time I see another video of Scottish trials phenom Danny MacAskill pogoing his bike off two-story buildings, I marvel not only at his skills but also at his bike. I mean, what kind of bike can stand up to that…
Salomon-sponsored Jennifer Pharr Davis broke the Appalachian Trail speed record on July 31, 2011 when she hiked and ran the 2181-mile trail in 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes—26 hours and 11 minutes faster than the previous record holder, Andrew…
Feeling pessimistic about the environment? If so, here’s a cure—or seven. Earlier this week in San Francisco, the Earth Island Institute doled out its annual Brower Youth Awards to seven of the country’s boldest young environmental leaders, teens and early 20-somethings who aren’t sitting…
Our exclusive interview with embattled three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador
At just 16, Mikaela Shiffrin is already being called the fastest skier the U.S. has ever produced. Can she back up that hype on the world stage?
The American Alpine Institute (AAI) is a 35-year old mountain school best know for its advanced trainings, expeditions, and exceptional instruction, as well as its committment to protecting public lands. Of course, they also know a thing or two about gear, and this summer at the…
How do professional triathletes negotiate international travel with three sports worth of gear?
And if the South African track sensation makes it to the start line for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, we may never look at disabilities—or competitive sports—the same way again.
They control the lands you play on, the athletes you worship, the gear you buy, even the food you eat. Meet the 25* most influential people in the world outside. *Ranked in order of influence
How does ultrarunner Ray Zahab—who became famous for expeditions traversing the harshest terrain on earth—up the ante? By taking high school kids on his next series of trips.
A few weeks ago we reported on Jeb Corliss's plan to shoot through a hole in China's Tianmen Mountain while wearing a wingsuit. This past weekend, the American flew through the 360-foot-tall, 96-foot-wide, 260-foot-long hole after jumping out of…
When 34-year-old Hobie Call lost the Death Race this past August, he also lost his chance to win $100,000 for sweeping the Spartan Races. So why does he keep competing?
Courtesy of Flik'r. Colorado's first ProTour level stage race in 23 years wrapped up yesterday, and I'm pleased to report it exceeded most expectations. Having attracted serious star power to the start line, including half…
Christian Vande Velde and Tom Danielson (left) warm up as Jonathan Vaughters talks about the course. They say that cycling is a terrible spectator sport, but that depends on where you’re sitting. On Thursday, thanks to a gracious invitation from Team Garmin-Cervélo, I had…
When the USA Pro Cycling Challenge rolls out on August 22, it will have a star-studded roster, including all three podium finishers from the Tour de France. One week ahead of the race, Andy Schleck and his…
Freestyle kayaker Dane Jackson grew up on the river, living out of his family’s RV and trying to keep up with his peripatetic, four-time world champion super-daddy Eric Jackson. Back in 2007, when I hung out with the Jacksons at their home in Rock Island, Tennessee, while reporting a …
Bouldering climbs are short, but they demand as much strength, agility, and puzzle solving as anything done on rock. Here are the fine points of a classic challenge—Paul Robinson’s V16 route Lucid Dreaming—to show how the game is played.
Ultramarathoner Josh Cox's attempt to break the 50K world record through proper nutrition and hydration
Behind surfing’s wall of silence, managers, sponsors, and the sport’s governing body knew Andy Irons had a problem. Now some of them are finally ready to talk about it.
John Stamstad (Photo courtesy of John Stamstad) John Stamstad lives to push limits. He earned a spot in the Mountain Biking Hall of Fame after completing the first crossing of Australia by bicycle, going 65 hours straight…
By Katie Arnold Dane, Eric and Emily Jackson shoulder their kayaks as their dog, Roxy, follows close behind near their home in Rock Island, TN. (©Corey Rich/www.coreyrich.com)Eric & his prodigal spawn, Rock Island, TN photo: Corey Rich/Aurora Images With four world championships…
The race is over, and I'm experiencing my inevitable, annual Tour withdrawal. (What fun are mornings without Cadel's awkward-but-effective mutton-busting riding style, a couple of whingeing Schlecks, and the Contador keep-us-guessing feint and dodge?) So this morning, in lieu of Stage 22, I contemplated a few of the new bikes…
The Badwater Ultramarathon started yesterday, July 11th, at Badwater, Death Valley, the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere at 280 feet below sea level. And after 135 miles and two days of what I…
When 28-year-old Kyle Dempster isn’t tending to his Salt Lake City Coffee Shop, he’s scaling some of the world’s hardest routes.
A cutting-edge blood therapy believed to speed recovery from sports injuries has never been more popular—or more controversial. Is the science as convincing as the hype?
It takes a particular kind of crazy to ride a 75-foot mountain of water—unless you’re Greg Long, a calm, well-adjusted dude who geeks out on his laptop and approaches surfing like he’s playing chess. Meet the oddly normal champion of big waves.
Most alpinists call it a great year if they summit one 8,000-meter peak. Last spring, a Swiss mountaineer tried to knock off three.
Inside Floyd Landis’s clandestine campaign to torment his former boss
The Emakumeen Bira doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But this hilly five-stage, four-day UCI-sanctioned race through Spanish Basque country, held annually since 1992, is one of the most important events in women’s professional cycling—the last big race before the Giro d’Italia Femminile, the Tour de France…
Tour De France Preview: Doping scandals or no doping scandals, we still love the Tour. Here's why you should, too.
(Noa Ginella on his way to 1st place in the SUP cross.) Last week I went to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado, to standup paddleboard in whitewater rapids. It’s hard to explain why whitewater SUPing is so…
The tennis champ talks about his career and honeymoon plans.
Friends, family, fellow dirtbags, and the man himself on one of the world's best aerialists
Hi, my name is Katie and today I'm launching this blog, Raising Rippers, about bringing up adventurous, outdoor kids. Before our first daughter, Pippa (that's her below), was born, a friend of mine gave me the best parenting advice I’ve ever gotten: Start off as you mean to go on.
Tyler Hamilton, the Olympic gold medalist who recently confessed to doping and accused Lance Armstrong of using performance-enhancing drugs, spent the weekend leading bike rides for ϳԹ in Aspen, an annual summit we host. Last night, Hamilton went to dinner with friends at Cache Cache [pronounced…
A gaunt Refsnider at the finish of the 2009 Tour Divide in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. If you think the Tour de France is the hardest bike race on earth, consider the Tour Divide. On this…
Courtesy of Rodale His middle name, Makalani, is Hawaiian for “skilled at writing,” so it's no surprise that Cincinnati Bengals' defensive captain Dhani Jones has a book out this month. In The Sportsman, he chronicles the…
Courtesy of Rodale His middle name, Makalani, is Hawaiian for “skilled at writing,” so it's no surprise that Cincinnati Bengals' defensive captain Dhani Jones has a book out this month. In The Sportsman, he chronicles the…
Courtesy of Flickr Five days before the 2010 Olympic snowboard trials, 23-year-old Kevin Pearce cracked his head on a halfpipe and sunk into a coma. He woke up six days later with memory…
“Old Man” Chris Horner decimates the field atop Sierra Road. via Flickr The 2011 Amgen Tour of California was one for the old men, and I’m not only talking about the GC. Yes, 39-year-old…
The fallout from the latest round of doping accusations against Lance Armstrong continues this week as key players publicly stake out their positions and investigations spin ahead. At issue is the tell-all interview with Tyler Hamilton that aired on CBS’s…
RMI Guide and First Ascent Climber Dave Hahn summited Everest for the 13th time this weekend, adding another climb to his own record of the most summits by a non-Sherpa. Hahn posted an account of the summit on the…
2011 Whitewater Grand Prix from Tribe Rider on Vimeo. The inaugural Whitewater Grand Prix is over. For two weeks, 25 top kayakers competed on Quebec's biggest whitewater–and survived. Dane Jackson, the 17-year-old phenom and son of whitewater patriarch Eric Jackson, took…
Today's reports that George Hincapie has flipped on Lance Armstrong don't bode well for the seven-time Tour de France winner (and frequent ϳԹ cover subject). Unlike previous Armstrong accusers Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, Hincapie didn't go public with his accusations—he reportedly told federal investigators, not a…
i2P Expedition Bolivia – Day 1: 30 KM from GOi2P on Vimeo. Ultrarunner Ray Zahab is in South America this week, running nearly 200 miles through Bolivia for the fourth stage of the impossible2Possible (i2P) World Expedition Series.
Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru, 24, died early this morning after falling from a balcony at his home in Nyahururu, Kenya. According to Reuters, Wanjiru's wife, Triza Njeri, had caught him in bed with another woman. “His death is a tragedy, but I’m 100 per cent sure…
South Africa native Ursula Grobler is out to prove she is the best lightweight rower on the planet.
Canada’s Ellesmere Island, a 75,000-square-mile chunk of ice and rock off Greenland’s southwest coast, has never been circumnavigated. Two men hope to change that fact. Three days ago, 26-year-old photographer Erik Boomer and 65-year-old writer John Turk kicked off…
COLD – TRAILER from Anson Fogel on Vimeo. Anson Fogel’s new film Cold is a gripping edit of the footage photographer and mountaineer Cory Richards’s shot during his February ascent of Pakistan's 26,360-foot Gasherbrum II.
Five days before the 2010 Olympic snowboarding trials, Kevin Pearce slammed his head on a rock-hard wall of halfpipe, suffering severe brain trauma that flipped the script of his life. A return to competition is out of the question--he's had to relearn how to walk and talk--but that's not enough to keep him off the mountain.
Photo by whileseated on Flickr The International Cycling Union (UCI) filed a defamation suit yesterday against cyclist and deposed 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, VeloNews…
—Stephanie Pearson writes the Gear Girl column for ϳԹonline.com Dimity McDowell is an Olympic-caliber athlete, “Runner’s World” contributing editor, ESPN columnist, mother of two, and the co-author of “Run Like A Mother,” a book published last spring…
Angel Collinson joins the team from Backcountry.com on Vimeo. Freeskier Angel Collinson announced yesterday that she has signed with Team Backcountry.com, whose roster includes such big-name skiers as Jenn Berg,…
Niccolò Ceria flashes Jack's Broken Heart, one of the problems Alex Puccio climbed in Magic Wood. Alex Puccio sent two of the hardest boulders of her career this weekend, climbing Jack's Broken Heart (V12) and The Right Hand of Darkness (V11) in Magic Wood, Switzerland. Jack's Broken Heart is a…
The eleventh annual Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards, often lauded as the Oscars of big-wave surfing, took place Saturday in Anaheim, California. A panel of 400 surfers, photographers, and surf media editors reviewed more than…
Ski guide and mountaineer Kip Garre and Allison Kreutzen were killed in an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada backcountry south of Bishop, California, earlier this week, according to reports from Powder.com and…
Meb Keflezighi shares his Top 10 thoughts after winning the 2009 NYC Marathon Elite marathon runner Meb Keflezighi plans to run both the ING New York City Marathon and compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials, Runner's World…
Lynda Wallenfels at the start of the AZT300. Photo by Caroline Soong. On Monday, April 11, after three days, four hours, and five minutes of riding, Lynda Wallenfels won the…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2GUOwU08ruY Norwegian Olympian Grete Waitz passed away today at the age of 57. Her six-year battle with cancer ended early this morning at the Ulleval University Hospital in Oslo. Waitz is best known for her nine New York City marathon victories, including her debut marathon…
Photo by Lauren Ross Photography Presenting the Olympian snowboarder’s advice on how to be green in your daily life. 10. Get a composter and let nature breakdown your compostable trash and use the remains as mulch for your plants. 9. Walk, skateboard, bike, car pool, or use mass…
Courtesy of Boston.com Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai, 29, won the Boston marathon this morning in a record 2:03:06 — 53 seconds faster than the 2:03:59…
Courtesy of Flickr Track-and-field superstar Carl Lewis is competing again — this time for the New Jersey state Senate. The nine-time Olympic gold medalist is running as a Democrat against incumbent Republican Senator…
©BMC/Tim de Waele. This Sunday, BMC Racing Team's George Hincapie will line up for his 16th Paris-Roubaix as the top American contender. At 37 years old, he's been trying to win this monument of…
These people in Norway know they're about to get thier tower buzzed by a couple of wingsuiters, but that doesn't make it any less thrilling for them or us. –Will Grant Via: ϳԹ Journal…
These people in Norway know they're about to get thier tower buzzed by a couple of wingsuiters, but that doesn't make it any less thrilling for them or us. –Will Grant Via: ϳԹ Journal…
©BMC/Tim de Waele. This Sunday, BMC Racing Team's George Hincapie will line up for his 16th Paris-Roubaix as the top American contender. At 37 years old, he's been trying to win this monument of…
Climbing the Eikenberg, Tour of Flanders. If you have ever fantasized about biking in Belgium, know this: Riding on cobbles is a painful, brutalizing business, like saddling up a jackhammer. I discovered this last weekend at the…
Climbing the Eikenberg, Tour of Flanders. If you have ever fantasized about biking in Belgium, know this: Riding on cobbles is a painful, brutalizing business, like saddling up a jackhammer. I discovered this last weekend at the…