Online Voting for People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year Runs through Jan. 31, 2014
Climber Adam Ondra
Photograph by Van Conrad
Adventure Educators Amy and Dave Freeman
Photograph by Bernardo Gimenez
Big-Wave Surfer Greg Long
Photograph by Bruno Lemos
Alpinists Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted
Photograph by Raphael Slawinski
WASHINGTON — National Geographic has announced the 2014 Adventurers of the Year, whose extraordinary achievements in exploration, adventure sports, conservation or humanitarianism have distinguished them in the past year.
Online voting for the People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year is now open and runs through Jan. 31, 2014. Fans can go here to vote every day for their favorite honoree. The adventurer with the most votes at the end of the voting period will be announced in February as the 2014 People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year.
This year’s 13 honorees include a long-distance swimmer who was the first to swim from Cuba to Florida without protection from a shark cage; a skier who is re-imagining his sport in urban landscapes; two veterans dedicated to establishing connections between veterans and the outdoors; and a snowboarder committed to helping brain injury survivors.
The 13 Adventurers of the Year for 2014 are:
- Stacy Bare and Nick Watson — American adventurers and veterans who launched an organization that links veterans to the outdoors and the outdoors community;
- Greg Long — American big-wave surfer who won the 2012/13 Big-Wave World Tour, despite nearly losing his life in a massive wipeout a few months earlier;
- Amy and Dave Freeman — American adventurers and educators who completed a three-year, 11,647-mile journey across North America by kayak, canoe, dogsled and foot, connecting with students and teachers along the way;
- Diana Nyad — Sixty-four-year-old American long-distance swimmer who recently completed a swim between Cuba and the United States, on her fifth attempt;
- Kevin Pearce — American snowboarder who, after surviving a traumatic brain injury, launched the “Love Your Brain” campaign to encourage the use of helmets for kids;
- Kilian Jornet Burgada — Spanish “skyrunning” ultrarunner whose new brand of running involves blazing up technical terrain such as glaciers, rock ridges and steep snowfields;
- Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted — Canadian alpinists who were the first to summit Pakistan’s K6 West, one of the last great unclimbed peaks in the world, despite danger and political turmoil in the region;
- Adam Ondra — Czech rock climber who takes climbing to new frontiers of difficulty;
- JP Auclair — Canadian skier who is best known for his special style of urban skiing;
- Sarah Marquis — Swiss hiker who has just completed a three-year trek from Siberia to Australia.