 Gurney in 2019 | |
| Personal information | |
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| Full name | Stephen Bruce Gurney |
| Born | 8 July 1963 Christchurch, New Zealand |
Stephen Bruce Gurney MNZM (born 8 July 1963) is a New Zealand multisport and triathlon athlete. He has won the Coast to Coast race a record nine times.
Up until 1994, he was a professional multisport and triathlon athlete. From there he moved into what is known as adventure racing. In New Zealand, he has competed in races such as the Speights Coast to Coast and the Southern Traverse. Internationally he competed in race events such as the Raid Gauloises, Eco-Challenge and Extreme Games. He won the Coast to Coast a record 9 times, more than any other person, in 1990, 1991, and 1997 to 2003. [1] Steve brought increased exposure to the race by surprising the nation and becoming the first nudist on NZ Breakfast TV. He represented New Zealand at the Mountain Bike World Championships twice. Gurney also starred in the New Zealand TV shows "Clash of the Codes" and "Dancing with the Stars". [2]
In 1994, a severe Leptospirosis infection caught from bat dung in the Mulu caves whilst racing in Sarawak jungles in Malaysia very nearly cost him his life with respiratory and renal failure. His determination and patience allowed him to fight back to full fitness and 7 of his Coast to Coast wins came after this infection.
During his racing career Steve heavily used his engineering degree and experience to push at the edges of the rules and possibilities to give himself and his teams a winning edge. Inventing items such as a bike pod, improved kayak seats, anti-chafing solutions and more.
Gurney was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to endurance sport in the 2004 New Year Honours. [3]
On 8 August 2007, he announced his retirement from the sport due to a two-year fight with an ankle injury. He said he was disappointed that he could not win a 10th Coast to Coast title and also that he finished his last competitive race in 2nd place. [4] He now presents motivational talks, develops new sports related products and undertakes unique challenges around the world [5] Together with Christchurch adventure racers Steve Moffatt, Gurney recognised the strong talent in Anton Cooper, a cross-country cyclist, and organised financial support from various business people. [6]
As part of the Mad Way South team Steve holds two world records:
During the journey he experienced a high speed crash, at the time a local hospital reported no broken bones and he continued the journey despite being in significant pain. On returning to New Zealand and completing new scans he discovered he had 4 facial fractures, a 6 cm piece broken from a scapula, a badly torn rotator cuff and a damaged eardrum. He has since fully recovered from all injuries.
Gurney lost his home in the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes as it became uninhabitable and the land it was built on became unstable. After helping front a well orchestrated and prolonged battle with local insurance companies he took the opportunity to move to Queenstown, New Zealand's capital of adventure sports.
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the disciplines included. The word is of Greek origin, from τρεῖς or treis (three) and ἆθλος or athlos (competition).
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 competition 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 mix and in size from two to five competitors, however, the premier 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.
A multisport competition is a family of athletic competitions in which athletes race in a continuous series of stages or "legs", and rapidly switch from one athletic discipline to another in order to achieve the best overall time. Most multisport events are endurance races, consisting of aerobic activities such as cycling, running, kayaking and cross-country skiing.
Robin Austin Judkins is a New Zealand sports administrator. He created the Alpine Ironman and the Coast to Coast, races that are often credited for being the origin of adventure racing. He has published an autobiography, Mad Dogs: Life on the Edge.
John Howard is considered the central pioneer of adventure racing.
The Coast to Coast is a non-standard multisport competition held annually in New Zealand. It is run from the west coast to the east coast of the South Island, and features running, cycling and kayaking elements over a total of 243 kilometres (151 mi). It starts in Kumara Beach and traditionally finished in the Christchurch suburb of Sumner, but since 2015 finishes in New Brighton. The event was created in 1983 by Christchurch personality Robin Judkins, who sold the rights to Queenstown-based tourism company Trojan Holdings in 2013. Richard Ussher took over from Judkins as race director in 2015.
Christine Ann Wellington is an English former professional triathlete and four-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion. She holds, or held, all three world and championship records relating to ironman-distance triathlon races: firstly, the overall world record, secondly, the Ironman World Championship course record, and thirdly, the official world record for all Ironman-branded triathlon races over the full Ironman distance.
Clash of the Codes was a New Zealand television programme which aired in 1993 and again in 1996. It pitted athletes from different sports codes against each other as teams in a series of physical challenges.
Terenzo Bozzone is a professional triathlete from New Zealand who races primarily in long distance, non-drafting events. He is the winner of the 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
Cycling in New Zealand, while relatively popular as a sport, is a very marginal commuting mode, with the share hovering around 1–3% in most major cities. This is due to a number of factors, principally safety fears.
Richard Arland Ussher is a New Zealand multisport athlete. He has represented his country at the 1998 Winter Olympics and is a five-time winner of the Coast to Coast multisport race, and formerly held the New Zealand Ironman-distance Triathlon record at 8hr 2min 15sec. Since 2015, he has been the race director for the Coast to Coast.
Terri Schneider is an endurance athlete, motivational speaker, author, coach, and consultant. In 1990, she won the Escape from Alcatraz and took third place at the 1990 Ironman World Championship.
Miriam Sheppard is a former New Zealand athlete. She was the 2009 ITU Paratriathlon World Champion in TRI3 classification. In addition, she represented New Zealand at the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games. in Athens, Greece, in swimming, as well as at the 2005 CPISRA World Games – in both swimming and track & field. Jenkins is affected by mild cerebral palsy in her left side.
Kate McIlroy is a New Zealand cyclist, triathlete and former runner. She won the World Mountain Running title in 2005 and was later named New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year at the Halberg Awards.
Lindy Hou, OAM is an Australian tandem cyclist and triathlete from Hong Kong. Arriving in Australia with her family in 1974, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in the mid-1980s and became legally blind in 1996. She has won six medals at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Paralympics.
Para triathlon is a variant of the triathlon for athletes with a physical disability. The sport is governed by World Triathlon (TRI), and was first held as a Paralympic event at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Anton Cooper is a New Zealand cross-country cyclist who races for the Trek Factory Racing XC Team. He is the 2015 World Under 23 Cross-country Mountain bike champion and the 2012 World Junior Cross-country Mountain bike champion. One of the two contenders for the country's 2016 Summer Olympics quota spot, he developed chronic fatigue earlier in 2016 and the nomination went to Sam Gaze instead. Cooper represented New Zealand at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, finishing sixth in the Men's Cross-country Mountain Bike final.
Sir Graeme Dingle is a New Zealand outdoor adventurer and mountaineer, who founded the Graeme Dingle Foundation. He is also known for his writing and humanitarianism.
Kathleen "Kathy" 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.
John Jacoby is an Australian adventure racer. In the mid-1980s, he dominated the world in canoe marathon, winning three successive world cup canoe marathons before becoming the inaugural ICF canoe marathon world champion at the 1988 event in Nottingham, United Kingdom. After the 1988 World Championship, he retired from International Canoe Federation (ICF) events and concentrated on adventure racing.
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