Tony Di Zinno

Howard's game face, the 1998 Raid Gauloses

19. John Howard
ADVENTURE RACER
Age: 44 Specs: 6 feet, 172 pounds
Home: Christchurch, New Zealand

THE CASE: This bushy-bearded window-washer who lives in a 30-foot bus on a 10-acre sheep farm doesn't look like your typical adventure racer. (More like Ted Kaczynski, really.) Though the sport attracts the most sinewy of athletes, it's Howard who's won more races than anybody, leading various teams over hill, dale, and scuzzy swamp to victory in three Eco-Challenges (1996, 1997, 1999), three Raids Gauloises (1989, 1994, 1998), and many others. His secret? He trains 365 days a year—rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and running barefoot through the woods. It doesn't hurt that His Eccentricness has a habit of freaking out his opponents: In one shocking display of orneriness, at the 1998 Raid Gauloises, he startled racers and locals outside a church in the Ecuadorian countryside by ranting, "Buenos días God, ya bastard!"

SECOND OPINION: "No one has come close to his enviable record," says former teammate Ian Adamson. "And anyone who pretends to be in his league inevitably fails miserably."

MOST HARROWING MOMENT: The 1997 X-Games adventure race in Baja, when temperatures rose to nearly 150 degrees. Participants' shoes melted, and racers collapsed all over the course. "It felt like we were inside a big ball of fire," says Howard.

WHAT'S NEXT: Getting into course design. "I think I could make the races more exciting," he says. Now the other competitors may really freak out. —Brad Wetzler

20. Bjorn Daehlie
NORDIC SKIER
Age: 33 Specs: 6 feet, 172 pounds
Home: Nannestad, Norway

THE CASE: In the oxygen-deprived nightmare that is nordic skiing, it helps to be a freak of nature. Thanks to an off-the-charts VO₂ max of 96, a resting heart rate of 45, anda hypermotivated training ethic, Daehlie has captured 12 Olympic medals—more than any other winter Olympian. Perhaps he's best known, however, for his histrionic come-from-behind finishes. After kicking past Swede Niklas Jonsson in the 50k freestyle in the 1998 Nagano Games, he collapsed at the tape and didn't stand for two hours. Melodramatic showmanship say some, but hey, what do you expect from a guy wearing pastel tights?

SECOND OPINION: "He's the complete package," says U.S. cross-country ski team member Justin Wadsworth. "He's got the genetic gift, the work ethic, and he can suffer better than anyone he races against."

MOST HARROWING MOMENT: Getting outsprinted on his home turf by Italian Silvio Fauner in front of 100,000 stunned spectators while racing the anchor leg of the men's 4x10k relay at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

WHAT'S NEXT: Barring catastrophe, Daehlie will compete in his fourth winter Olympics, in Salt Lake City. Should he win more medals, he may propel his record well out of reach. —Nick Heil

21. Shannon Carroll
STEEPCREEKER
Age: 22 Specs: 5-foot-10, 152 pounds
Home: Nevada City, California

THE CASE: Born buff and brassy, Carroll began paddling at 11, ran her first Class V at 15, and then raised the stakes even higher. Since then she's claimed the women's world-record waterfall descent (a 78-foot prayer off the McKenzie River's Sahalie Falls near Eugene, Oregon), won the women's world championship of surf kayaking, and put her churning aquatic luge maneuvers on display in Twitch 2000, a video of stupefying kayaking footage.But her first love is steepcreeking—running precipitous torrents that plunge as much as 500 feet per mile and are choked with logs and tenacious holes. It's just the type of paddling she grew up on in Thurmond, West Virginia. "I was lucky to get an early start paddling," she says, "and there are still frontiers to push."

SECOND OPINION: "Shannon's very aggressive on the water," says fellow competitor Jamie Simon. "Yet afterwards everyone loves to be around her. The only thing I enjoy more than paddling with her is listening to her sing."

MOST HARROWING MOMENT: Getting pinned on West Virginia's Upper Gauley with her bow wedged deep into a colander of rocks for 20 minutes. Just before going under, rescuers pulled her out by the stern.

WHAT'S NEXT: Trying to qualify for the U.S. rodeo kayaking team next season. —Jonathan Hanson