Martin was born in Slovenia. Slovenia is a small Central European country located south of Austria. He taught himself to swim when he was 6, in a nearby stream, and became a professional marathon swimmer in 1978.
Martin has been swimming ultra-marathons and raising an important awareness of clean waters for many years. He has dedicated several swims to the protection of environmental resources.
Check out his accomplishments HERE
One coach’s amazing story about his passion for the sport and the fight of his life.
http://sportsgrants.org/blog/2010/02/23/coach-dave-and-the-fight-of-his-life/
WOW! This is an amazing story of one athlete using his talent to unite the world…
Dexter Pittman was always the biggest kid in school and it wasn’t until he was in college that he was able to use his passion for basketball to change his physical appearance. This change not only altered the way he looked but the way he felt. He has now become an inspiration for young athletes looking for the same transformation and confidence.
Here is his story: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=4777616
Many of you had the pleasure of learning about Paul and his crew making a difference from AG’s recent post titled “Long Treks On Skate Decks”. I have had the pleasure of emailing with Paul and through that learned that AG wasn’t entirely accurate with all our information and wanted to include this update that he sent me:
“LongTreksOnSkateDecks covered a solo trip done by our team mate Laura Hatwell who raised money for Help for Hero’s based out of the UK where she lives.
I have strongly considered doing an event for a charity to help Soldiers with PTSD having been in the Army myself and having lots of friends serving in Afghanistan. But due to our heavy focus on documenting our trip through photographs, video, music, stories and poem, we’ve decided to partner up with a local charity this year named Art a la Carte. Art a la Carte is a small charity based out of Calgary Alberta Canada that focuses on patients recovering from cancer. They provide artwork of various media types which is loaned/presented to the patients at local cancer centers. We will be providing landscape photography as well as photographs of us on our journey’s to Art a la Cart to be used as images to help ease patients, or to help motivate them. On our next voyage to morocco, we are also trying to raise a Minimum of $1 per Kilometer for each rider (totaling $7500 minimum} for the charity. Our mission is to inspire people first and foremost so we felt this was an excellent charity to work with.”
I have to say, I really admire Paul for the thought he’s putting into his charity of choice. AG is always encouraging people to find a cause they REALLY connect with, not just the first one they see. It’s as important to connect with your cause as it is to connect with your challenge.
Keep following Paul and his crew at http://www.longtreksonskatedecks.com/
This is an incredible story of one athlete riding thousands of miles in an effort to raise money for a good cause. Please check out his page HERE
One of my favorite part about the Olympics is hearing all of the stories about athletes giving back. Here is one such story about Olympic snowboarder Hannah Teter
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/19/hannah-teter-olympic-snow_n_469244.html
These guys are taking it to the next level. The cool part is that they’re doing it in the name of fallen soldiers by raising money for “Help for Heroes”. Check out this video and definitely take a look at their website
It takes an amazing athlete to summit some of the highest peaks in the world. Imagine doing it blind. This is a documentary about a group of six blind Tibetan teenagers who set out to climb the 23,000-foot Lhakpa Ri on the north side of Mount Everest. Check out the trailer!
Often times athletes endure overwhelming mental challenges and the only thing to carry them through is a perspective on how much harder others have it. It’s a reminder that “if they can get through that, I can get through this.” This is one such story of perspective that will brighten your day. If Patrick’s attitude and his ability to overcome adversity doesn’t help you face your own challenges, you might need to watch it again.
