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ROBYN BENINCASA

ECO-CHALLENGE CHAMPION

Robyn Benincasa was born in Long Island, New York, but spent much of her youth in Tempe, Arizona, where she trained as a competitive gymnast. In high school, she competed at the state level in three sports, gymnastics, track, and diving, and was awarded an academic scholarship to attend Arizona State University. Her college days were filled with business classes and diving practice, culminating with a gold medal at the Pac-10 Diving Championships and honors as both the ASU Student Athlete of the Year and the Outstanding Graduate in Marketing in 1988.

A job offer in field sales with a pharmaceutical company next brought Benincasa to Encinitas, California, where she discovered the sport of triathlon. Between 1989 and 1993, she completed six Ironman triathlons, with 4th and 5th place finishes in her age division at the World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. Ever in search of a new challenge, Benincasa was drawn to the sport of Adventure Racing in 1994, and completed her first Raid Gauloises (Borneo) with an all-female team.

Adventure Racing was a perfect outlet for the physical strength and mental discipline she had developed throughout her life, and Benincasa realized quickly that THIS was the sport she was born to do. Subsequent strong finishes in the Raid Gauloises (1995) and the Eco-Challenge (1995/ 1996/1997) would further cement this belief. In 1998, Benincasa joined forces with Team Salomon/Eco-Internet, to date the most successful team in the sport of Adventure Racing, and became the first American to win the Raid Gauloises (Ecuador). Taking the term “multi-sport athlete” quite literally, Benincasa also won the 1998 National Judo Championship (under 78 kilo division) that year, for which she had been “cross purpose” training since 1995. Benincasa has since continued her winning ways with podium finishes at four World Championship races (Eco-Challenge 1999/2000/2001 and the Discovery Channel Race 2001) – the highlight of which was realizing a career-long goal by winning the 2000 Eco-Challenge in Borneo.

Today, Benincasa is recognized as one of the most consistent and most decorated adventure racers in the world, and her positive personality and obvious love for the sport has made her a natural favorite in the media. In the past two years, she has appeared on the pages of Sports Illustrated, Vogue, Outside, Harper’s Bazaar, Muscle and Fitness, US News and World Report, Fast Company, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, just to name a few. She has also been featured on mainstream television programs such as Regis Live, NBC’s To Tell the Truth, CBS 48 Hours, Fox After Breakfast, and Dateline NBC.

When Benincasa is not “out playing”, she is holding down her full-time job as a firefighter for the City of San Diego, and is juggling yet another career as Director of Fun for her company, World Class Teams, through which she imparts “The 8 Essential Elements of Human Synergy” to corporations via speaking engagements and AdventureTeambuilding events. She also spends several weeks a year sharing her hard won adventure racing wisdom with aspiring adventure athletes in camps and clinics across the U.S.

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Robyn Benincasa

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