The 8th March, as we all know, is Women’s Day, and what better opportunity than a day like this to pay tribute to those women who will go down in history in the world of adventure sports for their achievements.
Strong women who have fought against stereotypes and difficulties in order to achieve their goals, and to prove, not only to themselves, but to the rest of the world, what they are capable of. A true example of what it means to be a sportsperson and outdoor enthusiast.
Núria Picas, mountain runner and trail runner
Núria Picas is a mountain runner and trail runner from Catalonia. During the first years of the decade of 2010 she won dozens of mountain races of the most important ones. Her love for this sport goes back a long way, since she was a child, Picas has practised climbing in the mountains of Montserrat Natural Park.
Due to her achievements, she aroused the interest of the Catalan national mountain running team, where she emerged as a runner of international level and ultra-distance races. She has also been a member of the Buff Pro Team for mountain races since 2012. But all this was cut short for a while due to an injury Núria suffered while climbing. However, this has not stopped her at any time.
In September 2022, she announced her return to competitions, taking part in the Ultra Pyrenees wind horse race. On this occasion, she reached the finish line as champion, even beating her previous record. A true example of self-improvement.
Dorothy Hoffner
Dorothy Hoffner, born in 1918, was originally from Chicago (USA). She is known in the world of outdoor sports for being the longest woman in the world to have skydived, doing this feat at the age of 104.
She became a true skydiving enthusiast when she decided to go skydiving for the first time at the age of 100. The jump that earned her the Guinness World Record was a tandem jump. She did it southwest of Chicago, in the state of Illinois, accompanied by a certified flight instructor. She launched herself into the void at a height of 4,100 metres and the jump lasted about 7 minutes. As an anecdote, Dorothy arrived at the airfield on a walker, but that didn’t stop her from being the one who finally led the jump.
He also said he had other dreams to fulfil that also involved risk, such as flying in a hot air balloon before his 105th birthday.
Nouria Newman, kayakista
Nouria Newman is a French athlete who competes in canoeing in the slalom.
With only 32 years old, she has come to break all the gender stereotypes in this sport, and she has won everything aboard a kayak. She has won three extreme kayaking championships and is a double world champion in the slalom. When she is on the river she becomes a soloist, and her effort and tenacity are reflected in everything she achieves.
However, her greatest success was becoming the first woman to successfully jump off a waterfall over 30 metres high. It took her up to four years to find the perfect destination for this feat. Some of these falls are virtually inaccessible, but her eagerness to challenge the wildest whitewater paid off. At the Pucuno River Falls in Ecuador, he jumped from a height of 31 metres and 7 centimetres. This jump has become a female record in the history of this sport.
Lynn Hill, climber
Lynn Hill is an American climber known for being one of the top sport climbers during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It marked a before and after in the climbing world.
She was a sport enthusiast from a young age, and at just 18, she was already the first woman to chain an eighth-grade Ophir Broke in Colorado.
From 1986 to 1992 she positioned herself as one of the best climbers of the time with more than 30 international titles, including 5 victories in the Arco Rock Master.
In 1991 she achieved a new record, being the first woman to chain an 8B+ route with Masse Critique in Cimai, France.
But just when it seemed he had it all, he came back to surprise. In 1993, he achieved what was considered a world climbing milestone and changed the history of the sport. No one had ever free climbed The Nose, the most demanding ascent of El Capitan, Yosemite. A climb of more than 900 metres of rock that she managed to conquer in less than 23 hours. An unprecedented achievement that culminated her 18-year climbing career as the first person to do such a feat.
Libby Riddles, musher
Libby Riddles is an American dog musher. A mushing enthusiast since the age of 17, in 1978 he won first place in the Clines Mini Mart Sprint, his first race. However, in 1980 and 1981 he did not do so well in sporting terms, finishing 18th and 20th respectively in the Iditarod races. Because of this, he decided to devote himself body and soul to breeding his own sled dogs with the aim of making further progress.
On 20 March 1985, Riddles won the Iditarod Trail Sleg Dog Race (the world’s most prestigious dog mushing competition), becoming the first woman to do so.
It was a clear goal she had since she was young, and one for which she fought tirelessly. After her great feat, other women have come to conquer this prize, proving once again that women are just as capable in extreme sports as their male counterparts.
