Robyn Benincasa

Last updated

Robyn Benincasa
Occupations
Known for
  • Project Athena
  • Guinness World Records
Notable workHow Winning Works : 8 Essential Leadership Lessons From The Toughest Teams On Earth

Robyn Benincasa is an American endurance racer, adventure racer, author, and motivational speaker. She was a competitor in several seasons of the Eco-Challenge: The Expedition Race reality television show. Her team won the 2000 Eco-Challenge in Borneo. She went on to found or co-found two companies focused on team-building for corporate clients. She is the founder of Project Athena, a nonprofit organization that helps women who have experienced medical challenges to fulfill their athletic ambitions. She holds three Guinness World Records.

Contents

Athletic career

While serving as a firefighter in San Diego, California, Benincasa became a successful endurance racer and triathlete. In 1995, she was a member of the second American team to complete the Raid Gauloises adventure race. [1] In 1997, she was on the Mountain Dew-sponsored team in the Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge in Queensland, Australia. [2] She was on the Eco-Internet team in 1999 and 2000, and contributed to that team's first-place victory in 2000. She was dropped from the team in 2001 due to a struggle with asthma brought on by exercise and altitude during a race in Switzerland. She was treated for the ailment, and stepped in to join Team Earthlink, which had lost one of its members for the 2001 Eco-Challenge in New Zealand. Benincasa and Team Earthlink finished in fourth place. [3]

Guinness Records

Benincasa has earned three Guinness World Records. [4] Her first was in 2010, for the farthest distance travelled by a woman by canoe or kayak on flat water. [5] In 2011, Benincasa set a Guinness World Record for the farthest distance travelled by a woman by canoe or kayak in 24 hours on moving water. She kayaked 371.92 kilometres (231.10 mi) on the Yukon River in Canada. [6] She secured her third Guinness Record in 2014, for the greatest distance travelled by a woman on a stand-up paddleboard in still water in 24 hours, covering a total of 146 kilometres (91 mi). She accomplished this by paddling laps around an island in Huntington Harbor in Huntington Beach, California. [4]

Business career

In 1998, Benincasa, fellow-firefighter and Eco-Internet teammate Ian Adamson, and ultra-marathoner Liz Hafer founded Colorado Adventure Training. The three co-founders brought their experience as teammates in endurance races to build team-building experiences that encourage participants to learn to ask each other for support and to provide it. [7] Following Adamson's dropping Benincasa from the Eco-Internet team in 2001, Benincasa ended her relationship with the company. She later founded Human Synergy, Inc., also focusing on corporate team-building, using a framework of "Eight Essential Elements of Human Synergy." [8] In 2012, she published the book How Winning Works : 8 Essential Leadership Lessons From The Toughest Teams On Earth. [9]

Benincasa was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in 2007 and was told that she might not be able to run again. Determined to continue her athletic endeavors, she underwent hip resurfacing surgery and ran the Sedona Marathon four months later. [10] Following her recovery, she founded Project Athena, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting women pursue their athletic dreams after suffering medical setbacks. [10] In 2014, CNN named Benincasa a CNN Hero, citing the work of Project Athena and the 140 women the project had supported at the time. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adventure racing</span> Multi-disciplinary team sport

Adventure racing is typically a multidisciplinary team sport involving navigation over an unmarked wilderness course with races extending anywhere from two hours up to two weeks in length. Some races offer solo competitions as well. The principal disciplines in adventure racing include trekking, mountain biking, and paddling although races can incorporate a multitude of other disciplines including climbing, abseiling, horse riding, skiing and white water rafting. Teams generally vary in gender and in size from two to five competitors, however, the main format is considered to be mixed-gender teams of four racers. There is typically no suspension of the clock during races, irrespective of length; elapsed competition time runs concurrently with real-time, and competitors must choose if or when to rest.

The Raid Gauloise or The Raid is considered by many to be the first modern expedition adventure race and was first held in 1989 in New Zealand as "la grande traversée". Its creator, Gérard Fusil, took the existing concept of long distance endurance races like the Whitbred Round the World Yacht Race, and focused on the team aspects, requiring each competitor to be part of a five-person co-ed team supported by a two-person logistics crew. The Raid had no set course, with competitors being required to rely on their wits and judgment to reach the specified checkpoints. The Raid was named after its original sponsor, the Gauloises Cigarette Company.

The Royal Canoe Club (RCC), founded in 1866, is the oldest canoe club in the world and received royal patronage in the 19th century. The club promotes canoeing and kayaking, focusing on flatwater, sprint and marathon disciplines. Members of the club have represented Great Britain at World Championships and the Olympic Games. The club is based at Trowlock Island on the River Thames in Teddington near London. The premises are also used by Walbrook Rowing Club, The Skiff Club and Kingston Royals Dragon Boat Racing Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land's End to John o' Groats</span> Traversal of the length of Great Britain

Land's End to John o' Groats is the traversal of the length of the island of Great Britain between two extremities, in the southwest and northeast. The traditional distance by road is 874 miles (1,407 km) and takes most cyclists 10 to 14 days; the record for running the route is nine days. Off-road walkers typically walk about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) and take two or three months for the expedition. Signposts indicate the traditional distance at each end.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-distance motorcycle riding</span>

Long-distance riding is the activity of riding motorcycles over long distances, both competitively and as a pastime. A goal of long-distance riding is to explore one's endurance while riding a motorcycle, sometimes across several countries.

The Waterside Series is a series of four marathon canoe races held on the Kennet and Avon Canal and finishing at the Newbury Waterside Centre.

<i>Eco-Challenge</i> American TV series or program

Eco-Challenge: The Expedition Race is a multi-day expedition length adventure race in which teams of four competed. It originally aired on TV from April 1995 to April 2002. Based closely on the Raid Gauloises adventure race, the broadcast of Eco-Challenge led to the popularity of the adventure racing.

The Patagonian Expedition Race is an annual endurance adventure race that takes place in the remote wilderness of Chilean Patagonia, run to help protect and raise awareness about the fragile environment in this region. Known as the 'Race to the End of the World', the 10-day event challenges co-ed international teams of four athletes in the disciplines of trekking, sea kayaking, orienteering, and mountain biking. The race takes place on a different course each year, with competitors using a map and compass to navigate through previously unknown terrain. Due to its challenging nature, it is also known as 'The Last Wild Race', and has been described as 'The World's toughest adventure race' and the ‘Dakar’ of adventure racing. The 13th edition of the race took place from 17 to 30 November 2018.

Don Starkell was a Canadian adventurer, diarist and author, perhaps best known for his achievements in canoeing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Skelton</span> English TV presenter (born 1983)

Helen Elizabeth Skelton is an English television presenter and actress. She co-presented the BBC children's programme Blue Peter from 2008 until 2013, and since 2014 has been a presenter on Countryfile. She also co-presented two series of the BBC One programme Holiday Hit Squad alongside Angela Rippon and Joe Crowley. She also presented the daytime series The Instant Gardener that ran for two series.

The Ski to Sea Race (S2S), widely known as the Ski to Sea, is a seven-legged, 93-mile (150 km) long, multi-event competition held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in Whatcom County. The race starts on the ski slopes of Mount Baker Ski Area, and ends at Marine Park in Fairhaven, on the shore of Bellingham Bay. The seven legs of the race are: cross-country skiing, downhill skiing or snowboarding, running, road biking, canoeing, cyclo-cross biking, and finally kayaking. The Ski to Sea Race is managed by Whatcom Events, with a race committee that includes a race director, an operations assistant, one or two chairmen to oversee each event, a volunteer coordinator along with nearly 900 volunteers.

Lauren Spalding represented the United States as a kayaker in the 2004 Summer Olympics. She is also a world champion outrigger canoe paddler and surfski racer.

Jo Brigden-Jones is an Australian kayaker. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in sprint kayaking.

Elham Sadat Asghari is an Iranian swimmer who claimed that she has set an as-yet-unrecognized 20 kilometers swimming record in the Caspian Sea in northern Iran in June 2013.

Michelle Russell is a Canadian sprint kayaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Leijerstam</span> British polar adventurer (born 1978)

Maria Leijerstam is a British polar adventurer. In 2013 she became the first person to cycle to the South Pole from the edge of the continent. Leijerstam started her expedition on the Ross Ice Shelf at the edge of the Antarctic continent, and cycled for 10 to 17 hours each day with no rest days, and the total distance cycled was 638 km (396 mi). Leijerstam's cycle was a three wheeled design, and she reached the pole faster than any previous skiing expedition.

Ian Adamson is a former competitive adventure racer, television professional and president of World Obstacle, the Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles (FISO).

Kathleen Lynch is a retired competitive cyclist from New Zealand who competed both on and off the road. With a talent for multiple sports disciplines, she won the canoeing events New Zealand White Water Downriver and Slalom Championships in 1987 and represented her country at the 1988 Canoe Slalom World Cup. Around the same time, she was also a successful triathlete, but did not continue with that sport. She bought her first mountain bike in 1988 at the age of 31 in order to compete in an adventure sport event, and within a year she had become the New Zealand national cross country champion. Around the same time, she also took up road cycling. She was included in the New Zealand team for the 1990 Commonwealth Games and was assigned as domestique for the top New Zealand road rider, Madonna Harris. Harris and Lynch finished in fourth and ninth places respectively. In September 1990, Lynch competed at the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and finished tenth. In November 1990, she became a household name in New Zealand by winning a 22-day multi-sport race the length of the country that had prime time TV coverage every night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Vincent</span> Canadian canoeist (born 1996)

Katie Vincent is a Canadian sprint canoeist. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's C-2 500 metres, winning a bronze medal.

References

  1. ↑ Lee, Janet (March 1995). "And what did you do on your vacation?". Women's Sports & Fitness. 17 (2): 28. ISSN   8750-653X – via EBSCOhost - Academic Search Complete.
  2. ↑ Benincasa, Robyn (January–February 1998). "Team Mountain Dew... does". Women's Sports & Fitness. 20 (1): 38. ISSN   8750-653X.
  3. ↑ Anderson, Kelli (November 12, 2001). "You Snooze, You Lose". Sports Illustrated. 95 (19): A6.
  4. 1 2 "Fan Choice: March 14 - Vote now!". Guinness World Records. March 14, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  5. ↑ Project Athena Foundation (December 28, 2013). "Third Guinness World Record for Robyn Benincasa". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Farthest distance by canoe (kayak) - 24 hours (flowing water) – Female". Guinness World Records. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  7. ↑ Blevins, Jason (September 26, 2000). "Colorado Firm to Offer Business Leaders Cutting-Edge Team Training". The Denver Post .
  8. ↑ Levack, Kinley (November 2005). "Teaming in a Flash". Successful Meetings. 54 (12): 124. ISSN   0148-4052.
  9. ↑ Benincasa, Robyn. (2012). How winning works : 8 essential leadership lessons from the toughest teams on earth. Don Mills, Ont. [Canada]: Harlequin Enterprises. ISBN   9780373892556. OCLC   754389902.
  10. 1 2 Windh, Jacqueline (December 2009). "Robyn Benincasa". Runner's World. Vol. 44, no. 12. p. 60.
  11. ↑ Clarke, Erika (April 21, 2015). "CNN Heroes: Helping women recover through athletic adventures". CNN. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
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