Sky Christopherson

Sky Christopherson (born January 19, 1976) is an American entrepreneur, Olympic cyclist, world record holder, and motivational speaker.

He has been covered by Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Outside magazine, the Financial Times, and other publications.

Sky Christopherson was born on January 19, 1976 to American parents, and raised by his parents in Tucson, Arizona in the United States.

He had an early interest in both sports, film, and technology, using a Sears video camera to create 3D playback when he was eight years old.

Christopherson won his first national title in bicycle racing at age 19, beating a six-time undefeated cyclist in a controversial event at the 1995 US National Championships.

His specialty was the 1,000-meter time trial, considered to be the most painful event in sprint cycling.

Christopherson is one of five Americans in history to ride a sub 1:03.0 in the 1000m ‘Kilometer’ event.

He was quoted "My blood was turned into battery acid...I would commonly ride that fine line of losing consciousness."

He was named to the U.S. National Cycling Team in 1995 following a win of two national titles at the U.S. National Track Cycling Championships.

An athlete on the U.S. Cycling Team and alternate for the 1996 Olympic Team and winner of the 2000 Olympic Trials, Christopherson is known for breaking a world record in 2011 in the velodrome sprint, notably using a ‘digital health’ model inspired by Dr. Eric Topol.

The previous holder of the record, Steven Alfred, subsequently received a lifetime ban for performance-enhancing drug use.

Accordingly, he was made part of ‘Project 96’ to prepare for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The program included experimental ‘Hyperoxic' training using enriched oxygen at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

Christopherson was named official alternate to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Cycling Team.

He made his international debut in the 1000m placing 6th at the 1996 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Cali, Colombia, and later 7th at the same event.

When racing at the international level, he never ranked lower than ninth in the world.

He placed 4th at the 1997 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Adelaide, Australia, and 9th at the 1997 UCI World Track Cycling Championships.

In 1998, he transitioned to the Team Sprint event with Marty Nothstein and Erin Hartwell, winning Silver at the 1998 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and 4th at the 1998 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Bordeaux, France.

He battled upper respiratory illnesses throughout the 1998 and 1999 seasons, developing walking pneumonia in 1999.

In 2000, Christopherson won the U.S. Olympic Trials in Frisco, TX in the 1000m and Team Sprint Events, and was named alternate to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Team allowed through new rules.

Following the Closing Ceremonies at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he proposed to his girlfriend Tamara Jenkins, an Olympian in flatwater kayaking.

He continued training for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but after breaking his femur in a bike crash, decided to retire from competitive racing.

In 2005, during his studies at UCSD, he founded Vicaso, a real estate photography service.

Headquartered in Seattle, UCSD has stated "the startup was wildly successful, turning over $1.2 million in its first year."

and over $6.5 million since.

The company works with brokerages such as Prudential, Redfin, and Coldwell Banker, among others.

It specializes in high dynamic range (HDR) photography.

He founded the real estate photography company Vicaso in 2006, and the biometrics and genomics health company Optimized Athlete in 2012.

Upon retirement, Christopherson began attending UC San Diego, where he studied film and graduated in 2006.

He joined the Washington Athletic Club in January 2007, where he helped to create "the program that will be giving sponsorship to athletes training for the Olympics."

The Greater Meaning of Water, his first feature documentary, was released in 2010, and was given the ‘Audience Choice’ and 'Best Cinematography' awards at the Los Angeles All Sports Film Festival, and 'Best Spiritual Film' at the 2010 Amsterdam International Film Festival.

He has a pending documentary, Personal Gold.

In 2010 he made a bid to return to the 2012 London Olympics, notable by his use of a ‘digital health’ model inspired by Dr. Eric Topol.

The project was a subject of a TEDx talk Christopherson gave in Del Mar, CA, and a Quantified Self talk at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The training led to a world record in the 35+ 200m velodrome sprint.

The previous record holder Steven Alfred received a lifetime ban for use of performance-enhancing drugs.

When asked how he trained, Christopherson stated, "In prior efforts we did not have the ability to formulate such a complete picture with data amassed continuously 24/7. This time around I benefited from genetic testing, sleep data, glucose tracking, etc."

Optimized Athlete consulted with the 2012 women's cycling team prior to the 2012 London Olympics.

In July 2012 The Financial Times revealed that several health technology companies have supplied Olympics athletes with devices intended to optimize their performance, in what CNN said some people were calling "the Twitter Olympics" and the "Data Olympics."

In 2015 he was voted 5th nationwide in "Top 40 under 40 in Healthcare Innovation"