Six years ago, Paula McGuire’s social anxiety was so severe she was almost housebound. With no option but hospitalisation left, she dreamt up an extraordinary sporting challenge in the hope it might save her life. It did. Six years on, Paula recalls how sport and adventure changed her life immeasurably, and chats to me about her latest challenge to become the first person to swim 1800 miles around the coastline of Great Britain.

Professional boxer Chantelle Cameron grew up loving martial arts and held several world titles in full contact kickboxing before switching to amateur boxing at the age of 18. On track for the Olympics with numerous wins under her belt, she narrowly missed out on selection and switched her focus to going pro. Since her professional boxing debut in May, Chantelle has won all 5 of her fights and now holds the crown of IMO World Lightweight Champion.

Here, the 26-year-old British fighter reveals what a typical day in her life looks like.

To say that adventurer Katie-Jane L’Herpiniere has been close to death during adventures and expeditions is no exaggeration. Her collection of near-death experiences include being critically ill with dehydration during her world-first walk of the Great Wall of China (all 4500km), having to be resuscitated following C02 poisoning in Patagonia, and almost being buried alive by snow during a record breaking Patagonia Ice Cap expedition. She’s also eaten larvae, suffered foot rot and lost all the skin on her nether regions, but we’ll get on to that later.

Reading about Katie’s incredible adventures I knew I had to get her on the blog. Here, the 38-year-old adventure athlete talks us through her most challenging moments, and reveals where her passion for extreme adventures began.

What does it take to build a movie badass? I chatted with super-cool Wonder Woman cast member, Hari James, about the training it took to build a squad of strong, kickass ‘Amazons’, and how she has CrossFit to thank for her incredible Wonder Woman experience.

Photo Credit: @Dutchie

Hailing from a ski-mad family, British ski cross athlete Pam Thorburn has been throwing herself down snowy mountains since the age of three. A former Team GB alpine skier and British Alpine Champion, she switched to ski cross in 2010, adding British Ski Cross champion to her CV. After several bumps in the road – including breaking her neck, both hips and dislocating her shoulder more than 20 times! – Pam now has February’s 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang in her sights.

Here, the 31-year-old Ellis Brigham ambassador talks about the thrills and spills involved in the high speed world of ski cross, her typical training diary and how she’s feeling as PyeongChang approaches.

Image courtesy of Zwift

More than 2100 women signed up to this year’s Zwift Academy, an online programme of virtual social rides, races and structured cycling workouts designed to source new talent for the professional peloton. On offer: the dream prize of a professional cycling contract with pro women’s team CANYON//SRAM. 2100 women soon became three as the global cycling talent was whittled down via performance data, races and testing. And today, 28-year-old Medicine graduate and former triathlete Tanja Erath was awarded the coveted crown of Zwift Academy Winner 2017.

I caught up with Tanja over a call from her home in Dortmund, Germany to talk about her Zwift Academy win, her triathlon background, and what the future holds for her as a professional cyclist riding for CANYON//SRAM.

Photo Credit: The Great Swim

For Olympian and two-time open water swimming world champion, Keri-anne Payne, years of 5am starts were all part and parcel of her medal-winning mission to inspire more people to take up open water swimming. After hanging up her professional swim cap earlier this year, the 30-year-old Olympic silver medallist explains how she’s achieving her goal in retirement through Triscape, the coaching business she’s launched with her husband and fellow Olympic swimmer, David Carry.

Juggling a full-time job with training and racing, squishing into a hired minibus to travel 30 hours to European races, burying yourself during a hard stage race to then cook your own meals and wash your bike/kit. It’s all par for the course for small cycling teams on limited budgets. Here, rider Alice Sharpe of sponsor-seeking elite team NCC Group-Kuota-Torelli, reveals the highs and lows of Tour life on a small budget – and how it didn’t stop her kicking ass on the Tour Ta Malta podium.

When it comes to multisport events, Helen Russell has been there, done that and scooped a podium in the process. Currently the British Quadrathlon Champion (swim, kayak, bike, run), Helen also has World and European age group titles in aquathlon, triathlon and duathlon under her belt. On top of that, she’s a fervent fundraiser who has cycled the entire Tour de France route one day ahead of the pros for Cure Leukaemia, and last year cycled up Mt. Ventoux via all three routes in one day for Air Ambulance. All in all, she’s pretty epic!

Here, Helen chats capsizing kayaks, surreal moments cycling with Lance Armstrong and how failing her driving test kick-started her journey as an age group multisport athlete.

Journalist, news anchor and sports correspondent, Samantha Johnson works on the English-speaking sports show Beyond the Game at TRT World in Istanbul.  A passionate campaigner for equality and positive change, she was named on last year’s highly regarded 2016 Football Black List of influential figures in football. Here, she gives us an insight into her working day at the Beyond the Game studio.