British Olympic Association

210px British Olympic Association logo
National Olympic Committee
Country	United Kingdom
Code	GBR
Created	1905
Recognized	1905
Continental Association	EOC
Headquarters	London, England
President	HRH The Princess Royal
Website	TeamGB.com
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The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It represents the Olympic movement and organises the participation of athletes ("Team GB") at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games.

Scope[link]

The association works with athletes in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Crown Dependencies (the Isle of Man and the Channel Island Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey) and British Overseas Territories which do not have their own National Olympic Committees (Anguilla; the British Antarctic Territory; the British Indian Ocean Territory; the Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia; and the Turks and Caicos Islands).^[1]

Three British Overseas Territories have their own NOCs and are not connected to the BOA: Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.

Role[link]

The BOA is one of 204 National Committees (NOCs) currently recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC leads the promotion of Olympism in accordance with the Olympic Charter.

Working with the national governing bodies of each sport, the BOA selects Team GB's members to compete in all sports at the summer and winter Olympics. The BOA is independent and receives no funding from the government. Its income comes from fundraising and events.

Great Britain is one of only five countries (the others being Australia, France, Greece and Switzerland) which have never failed to be represented at the Summer Olympic Games since 1896. Great Britain, France and Switzerland are the only countries to have been present at all Olympic Winter Games. Great Britain has played host to two Olympic Games in London: in 1908 and 1948. In 2005, London was selected as the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Structure[link]

At its formation in 1905 the association consisted of seven national governing body members from the following sports: fencing, life-saving, cycling, skating, rowing, athletics, rugby, football and archery. It now includes as its members the thirty-three national governing bodies of each Olympic sport, both summer and winter.

A representative of each of the Olympic sports makes up the NOC, the BOA's decision and policy-making body. The NOC elects four officers: a President, Chairman and two Vice-Chairmen, each for a four-year term. Six members of the NOC are elected to the Board, which oversees the work of the BOA and puts forward proposals for decision by the NOC.

• President: HRH The Princess Royal
• Chairman: Lord Moynihan
• CEO: Andy Hunt
• Vice Chairmen: Albert Woods, David Hemery

Founding[link]

The BOA's origins pre-date the International Olympic movement and its governing body, the International Olympic Committee.

It traces its roots back to the National Olympian Association (NOA), which held its inaugural meeting at the Liverpool Gymnasium, Myrtle Street, Liverpool in November 1865. It promoted an annual series of sporting events across Britain, with the aim of encouraging participation in Physical Education through Olympian festivals. The NOA came about mainly through the efforts of John Hulley of Liverpool (Chairman), Dr. William Penny Brookes (of Much Wenlock) and E G Ravenstein (president of the German Gymnastic Society of London).^[2] It took the existing Olympian Games of Much Wenlock as its example, thus the NOA Games "were open to all comers" and not just the products of Britain's public schools.

After the NOA closed in 1883 its motto and ethos were inherited by the National Physical Recreation Society (NPRS) which was founded in 1885. From 1902 the President and Treasurer of the NPRS were members of the Olympic "Comite Brittanique" and the NPRS was a founding body of the British Olympic Association in 1905.^[3]

See also[link]

• British Paralympic Association

References[link]

External links[link]

• BOA Official Site
• British Olympic Association Archive Collection

v t e Sports governing bodies of the United Kingdom (GBR) Summer Olympic Sports Aquatics Diving Swimming GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Synchronized swimming Water polo Archery Athletics Badminton GBR ENG WAL SCO Basketball GBR England Boxing GBR ENG SCO WAL Canoeing Cycling Equestrian Fencing Football ENG WAL NI SCO Golf GBR ENG / Women ENG / Men WAL SCO / Women SCO / Men Gymnastics Handball GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Hockey GBR ENG SCO WAL Judo Modern Pentathlon Rugby 7's Rowing Sailing Shooting Table Tennis GBR ENG SCO WAL Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Beach volleyball GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Weightlifting Wrestling Winter Olympic Sports Biathlon Bobsleigh Curling Ice skating Ice Hockey GBR Scotland Northern Ireland Luge Skeleton Skiing Snowboarding Other IOC Recongised Sports Air sports Auto racing Bandy Baseball Billiard sports Boules Bowling Bridge Chess Cricket England and Wales Scotland Dance sport Floorball Karate Korfball Lifesaving Motorcycle racing Mountaineering and climbing Netball GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Orienteering GBR England Scotland Wales Pelota vasca Polo Powerboating Racquetball Roller sports Rugby Softball Sport climbing Squash GBR England Sumo Surfing Tug-of-war Underwater sports Water ski Wushu Paralympic sports Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair basketball Other sports American football Croquet Kiteboarding Volleyball Netball Rugby league Rugby Union England Wales Scotland British Olympic Association British Paralympic Association UK Sport Team GB Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Davina McCall
McCall at the BAFTA Awards, April 2009
Born	Davina Lucy Pascale McCall[1] 16 October 1967 (1967-10-16) (age 44)[2] Wimbledon, South West London, England[2]
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	Anglo-French
Occupation	Broadcaster, actress
Years active	1992–present
Television	God's Gift Don't Try This at Home Streetmate Big Brother Davina Got to Dance The Million Pound Drop Live The Biggest Loser Long Lost Family
Spouse	Andrew Leggett (1997–1999, divorced) Matthew Robertson (2000–present)
Children	2 daughters, 1 son
Parents	Andrew McCall Florence Koch (née Hennion, deceased)
Relatives	Célestin Hennion (great-grandfather)
Website
officialdavina.com

Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter, currently hosting Channel 4's game show Million Pound Drop Live and Sky1's reality talent show Got to Dance. She is best known as the presenter of reality series Big Brother during its run on Channel 4 between 1999 and 2010. Having fronted the shows weekly live eviction shows every summer since the beginning, she decided not to return as host after it was dropped by Channel 4 and relaunched by Channel 5 the following year.

After a difficult childhood, by her early twenties McCall had pursued various jobs including solo singer. Having recovered from a drug problem, she embarked on a career in television with a first job presenting for satellite music channel MTV in 1992. After further work on terrestrial channels she became a household name thanks to Big Brother, while also continuing to work with other hosting vehicles on various channels, from game shows to talent shows. From 2005 she has also been a regular co-presenter for the Comic Relief annual telethons.

Departures from presenting into other television roles, through a sitcom, a documentary series and fronting her own chat show, have all proven to be unsuccessful, and beyond Big Brother she has continued in the main as a presenter on Channel 4, ITV and Sky.

Early career[link]

McCall's first career was as a singer. McCall had been performing in a band while still at school. The band went under the name Foghorn. By age 19 she had decided to pursue a professional career as a solo artist, assisted by her then boyfriend Eric Clapton who produced her demo music disc.^[3][4]

Dissatisfied with near misses in the music industry, McCall gave up singing and took a job at Models 1 on the men's desk as a booker. Later she ran a restaurant for two years before a brief spell in Paris as a Moulin Rouge style cabaret performer. On her return to London she worked on the nightclub scene as a hostess.^[5] Work in this period also included an appearance as a dancer in the video for the 1991 Kylie Minogue single Word Is Out, wearing a striped sweater and beret in a nod to her French ancestry.

Presenting[link]

[edit] Before Big Brother

In 1992 McCall was hired as a presenter on Ray Cokes' Most Wanted on MTV Europe. In 1995 she went on to host the ITV late night game show God's Gift and in 1998 to present the cult Channel 4 dating show Streetmate. From 1998 she co-hosted the Sky TV show Prickly Heat with Julian Clary and presented the ITV game show Don't Try This at Home!.

[edit] The Big Brother years

McCall was chosen as the inaugural presenter of the first series of Channel 4's reality television show Big Brother, in which 15 housemates entered a sealed house for up to 9 weeks, in which their every move would be filmed and then broadcast as a daily highlights show. McCall hosted the weekly live eviction show, where one contestant would be removed from the house, until the last housemate became the winner. McCall also hosted the celebrity version Celebrity Big Brother, whose first series ran for 8 days in March 2001. Days before the celebrity series she also hosted the 2000 BRIT Awards.

McCall continued to present other shows in the Big Brother period. When ITV's game show Don't Try This at Home! ended in 2001, she continued with that channel presenting series such as the talent show Popstars: The Rivals and game show The Vault (1st series) in 2002, the talent/reality series Reborn in the USA in 2003 and the entertainment series Love on a Saturday Night in 2004. She also hosted the British Academy Television Awards 2004 for ITV, returning in in 2006.

McCall's performance on the sixth series final night of Big Brother in 2005 attracted press attention and some complaints for her treatment of housemate Makosi Musambasi.^[6][7] In December 2007, McCall presented a New Year's edition of Channel 4's The Friday Night Project, entitled "The Friday Night New Year Project 2007", alongside Alan Carr and Justin Lee-Collins.

By the 9th series of Big Brother in 2008, McCall was earning a reported £85,000 per episode.^[8] Responding to tabloid claims before the series that she was about to quit Big Brother she said, "I'm not leaving ... They would have to kill me before I'd stop doing it".^[9][10] The 9th series proved to be a low point however, becoming the least watched summer series in the show's history.

McCall became the regular presenter of the live Big Brother companion show Big Brother's Big Mouth for the tenth and eleventh series, after it was recast into an hour long show after the weekly live eviction show, having previously occupied the slot after each daily highlights show. In December 2009 McCall began hosting the Sky1 reality talent show Got To Dance.

[edit] Leaving Big Brother and beyond

With audience figures falling, Channel 4 decided that the eleventh series in Summer 2010 would be the last Big Brother broadcast on their channel, although the show's future was in the hands of the rights holder Endemol. After presenting her the seventh and last series of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2010, she fronted her eleventh and final regular edition over the Summer. As a finale to the series on Channel 4, McCall also presented the Ultimate Big Brother show, which started immediately after the regular series, and featured selected past regular and celebrity housemates.

Having made the decision to leave the show after the end of that series, when Channel 5 announced in April 2011 that they had secured the rights to relaunch Big Brother in Summer 2011, McCall confirmed she would not be returning as host. Stating she still believed the show had potential, she gave her backing to Emma Willis as her replacement.^[11] The winner of regular series 2 and Ultimate Big Brother Brian Dowling was ultimately chosen to take over Davina's role as presenter of the Channel 5 version.

In between the final celebrity and regular editions of Big Brother on Channel 4, McCall began presenting a new Channel 4 game show called The Million Pound Drop Live, and has continued to do so into 2012. Beyond the end of Big Brother on Channel 4 McCall also continued as host of Got To Dance on Sky1 into 2012. From January 2011 McCall has been co-host of the ITV reality weight loss game show The Biggest Loser from the start of the fourth series.^[12]

Other work[link]

Television[link]

In fictional television, in 2001 McCall appeared alongside Ed Byrne, Tristan Gemmill and Tameka Empson as the title character in Sam's Game, a Friends-style sitcom. Slammed by the critics, it aired in just one six-episode series. In self-portrayals, McCall has voiced the android Davina McCall in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf", and in 2008 she played herself as both a human and a zombie in Dead Set, a five-part horror parody of Big Brother set in the house.

From early 2006 McCall also fronted her own prime-time chat show on BBC One called Davina, featuring guests such as Pierce Brosnan, Gordon Ramsay, Dawn French and Piers Morgan. Receiving scathing reviews and with viewing figures falling to below half of the 6 million watching The Bill on ITV1 at the same time, the show was axed in the April for not reaching expectations.

In documentary television, McCall has fronted Let's Talk Sex about sex education and how it's taught in the United Kingdom (one of the countries of Europe with the highest teenage pregnancy levels). She also published a companion book to the series. McCall has also appeared in a video for schools called "Watch Over Me," talking about her drug addiction and peer pressure. During 2005 she presented the BBC documentary series He's Having a Baby, in which she was to follow and advise eight young men who were to become first time fathers at various stages during the shows 10 week run. It received poor ratings.

Telethons[link]

Since 2005 McCall has been one of the co-presenters of the annual British charity telethons are organised by Comic Relief. Organised on a alternating comedy/sport theme and televised live in March, McCall has co-hosted Red Nose Days in 2005, 2007, 2009 & 2011, and for Sport Relief in 2006, 2008, 2010 & 2012. She has also presented or appeared on various related Comic Relief shows, including: The Record Breaker (1999), Naked Red Nose Ground Force in Practice and Say Pants to Poverty (2001), The Big Hair Do (2003) and Comic Relief Does Fame Academy (2005).

Other appearances[link]

On 5 July 2007, McCall was a panellist on the school's edition of the BBC's Question Time political panel show.

In 2010 McCall was subjected to Channel 4's version of the popular American practice of a 'comedy roast', in which a famous personality has to endure mocking by a host of celebrity friends in silence, only being allowed to deliver a rebuttal at the end. Davina McCall: A Comedy Roast featured roasts from Rich Hall, Debra Stephenson, Patrick Kielty, Ed Byrne, Jack Whitehall, Chris Moyles, Dermot O'Leary, Julian Clary, Fearne Cotton, Brian Dowling, Nikki Grahame, Sophie Reade, Brian Belo and Sam Pepper.^[13]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

McCall was born on 16 October 1967 in Wimbledon, London^[1][14] to Florence (née Hennion) and Andrew McCall,^[15] and at the age of three went to live with her paternal grandparents in Surrey after the break-up of her parents' marriage.^[16] Her French mother Florence – whom McCall has described as something of a "wild child" and later, specifically as "an alcoholic" – returned to Paris, and McCall saw her only when on holidays. Her relationship with her mother was a difficult one and she has said that her mother "should never have had kids" describing how she once left her, at the age of 12, in a nightclub on her own. She continued to see her father Andrew, a graphic designer, at weekends before moving in with him and his new wife Gaby when she was 13 years old.^[17]

McCall attended the St Catherine's School, Bramley in Guildford, Surrey and Godolphin and Latymer Girls School,^[18] an independent school in Hammersmith, West London. At secondary level, McCall studied for nine O levels and two A levels.

During her teens McCall developed the eating disorder anorexia. In the words of Hello Magazine, McCall's sunny disposition, one of her greatest assets as a TV presenter, stems from overcoming her fractured childhood and this eating disorder.^[5]

Family[link]

McCall is married to Matthew Robertson, presenter of Pet Rescue, with whom she has three children – two daughters, Holly Willow (born 22 September 2001, Hounslow, London) and Tilly Pippy (born 23 September 2003, Surrey), and a son, Chester Micky (born 14 September 2006, Surrey).^[19][20] Robertson is McCall's second husband; they were married on 29 June 2000 at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. Her first marriage was to Andrew Leggett in 1997 in Westminster, London.^[19] McCall's pre-marital relationships included old family friend Eric Clapton.^[3][4] He also helped her when in early 20s she developed a drug problem; it was only after turning things around that she gained her own television show on MTV.^[5][15]

Ancestry[link]

McCall's ancestry was examined for a 2009 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?. With the help of historians Jean-Marc Berliere and Simon Kitson, McCall learned that she is the great-granddaughter of onetime Prefect of Police Célestin Hennion (1862–1915), and the great great great-granddaughter, on her father's side, of James Thomas Bedborough (1787–1860), a stonemason, councillor, Mayor, property developer, and entrepreneur, who worked on Windsor Castle and Upton Park in Slough. Participants in the show included Françoise Hennion (Hennion's granddaughter and McCall's mother's cousin) and Pierre, Hennion's son and McCall's grandfather. Pierre gave McCall his father's Royal Victorian Order medal. McCall met with Alfred Dreyfus's great-granddaughter, Yael Ruiz, after learning of the part her ancestor played in the Dreyfus affair.^[15][21]

Filmography[link]

• MTV Europe (1992)
• Eurotrash (1993) – Female Voice Dubber for the first series on Channel 4
• God's Gift (1995)
• Don't Try This at Home! (1998–2001)
• Streetmate (1998–2001)
• A Day in the life of the Shepherds (1999)
• BRIT Awards (2000), (2003),
• Big Brother (2000–10)
• Sam's Game (2001)
• Celebrity Big Brother (2001–2002, 2005–07, 2009–10)
• Comic Relief (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011)
• Oblivious (2001)
• The Vault (2002)
• Popstars: The Rivals (2002)
• Reborn in the USA (2003)
• Love on a Saturday Night (2004)
• BAFTA (2004)
• Doctor Who (2005) – Voice of Davinadroid in the episode Bad Wolf
• A Bear's Tail (2005) – Dave Ian McCall
• He's Having a Baby (2005)
• Davina (2006)
• BAFTA (2006)
• Sport Relief (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012)
• Let's Talk Sex (2007)
• Big Brother: On The Couch (2007)
• The Friday Night New Year Project (2007)
• Dead Set (2008) – A horror parody of Big Brother with McCall playing an undead version of herself.^[22]
• 4Music's Davina & Steve's 20 Big Ones (2008)
• Big Brother's Big Mouth (2008, 2009–10) – as a guest presenter for one week (2008) and then as main presenter during Big Brother 10, 11 and Ultimate Big Brother.
• Who Do You Think You Are? (2009) – as participant ^[15]
• Got to Dance (2010–present) ^[23]
• The Million Pound Drop (2010–present)
• Ultimate Big Brother (2010)
• The Biggest Loser (2011–present)
• Long Lost Family (2011–present)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Davina McCall at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Big Brother in the United Kingdom Big Brother Series Regular 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 Celebrity 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 Special Teen · Panto · Celebrity Hijack · Ultimate Winners Regular Craig Phillips · Brian Dowling · Kate Lawler · Cameron Stout · Nadia Almada · Anthony Hutton · Pete Bennett · Brian Belo · Rachel Rice · Sophie Reade · Josie Gibson · Aaron Allard-Morgan Celebrity Jack Dee · Mark Owen · Bez · Chantelle Houghton · Shilpa Shetty · Ulrika Jonsson · Alex Reid · Paddy Doherty · Denise Welch Special Paul Brennan · John Loughton · Brian Dowling Main presenters Current Marcus Bentley · Brian Dowling · Emma Willis · Alice Levine · Jamie East Former Davina McCall · George Lamb · Dermot O'Leary · Russell Brand · James Corden · Mathew Horne · Zezi Ifore · Jack Whitehall Related articles Endemol · John de Mol · Channel 4/E4 · Channel 5/5* · Controversy and criticism · Housemates · Celebrity housemates · Jade Goody · Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy · Dead Set · "Bad Wolf" (Doctor Who episode) Category ·  Commons

Bear Grylls
Born	Edward Michael Grylls (1974-06-07) 7 June 1974 (age 38) United Kingdom
Residence	A barge moored by Battersea Bridge on the River Thames, England[1] An island on Llŷn Peninsula, Abersoch, North Wales[2]
Occupation	Chief Scout Adventurer Explorer Author Motivational speaker[3] Television presenter
Spouse	Shara Cannings Knight[4]
Children	Jesse, Marmaduke,[5] and Huckleberry[6]
Parents	Sir Michael Grylls Lady Grylls (née Sarah Ford)
Website
BearGrylls.com

Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (born 7 June 1974) is an English adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series Man vs. Wild, known as Born Survivor^[7] in the United Kingdom. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest ever Chief Scout at the age of 35.

Personal life[link]

Grylls grew up in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland until the age of 4 when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.^[8][9] He is the son of the late Conservative party politician Sir Michael Grylls and Lady Sarah Grylls.^[10] Lady Grylls was the daughter of Patricia Ford,^[11] briefly an Ulster Unionist Party MP, and cricketer and businessman Neville Ford. Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, a cardio-tennis coach, who gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old.^[12]

Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School, Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club,^[13] and Birkbeck, University of London,^[14] where he graduated with a degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002. From an early age, he learned to climb and sail from his father, who was a member of the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate. He practices yoga and ninjutsu. At age eight he became a Cub Scout.^[15] He speaks English, Spanish, and French.^[16] Grylls is a Christian, describing his faith as the "backbone" in his life.^[17]

Although Grylls was christened 'Edward' he has legally changed his forename to 'Bear'.^[18] Grylls married Shara Grylls (née Cannings Knight) in 2000.^[4][11] They have three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke,^[19] and Huckleberry.^[6]

Military service[link]

After leaving school, Grylls considered joining the Indian Army and hiked in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim.^[20] Grylls joined the British Army and served in the part-time United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve, with 21 Regiment Special Air Service, 21 SAS(R) for 3 years until 1996.

In 1996, he suffered a freefall parachuting accident in Zambia. His canopy ripped at 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which partially crushed three vertebrae. Grylls later said: "I should have cut the main parachute and gone to the reserve but thought there was time to resolve the problem".^[21] According to his surgeon, Grylls came "within a whisker" of being paralysed for life and at first it was questionable whether he would ever walk again. Grylls spent the next 12 months in and out of military rehabilitation at Headley Court^[21] before being discharged and directing his efforts into trying to get well enough to fulfil his childhood dream of climbing Mount Everest.

In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve for services to charity and human endeavour.^[22]

Everest[link]

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream (an ambition since his father gave him a picture of Everest when he was eight) and entered the Guinness Book of Records, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest^[23], just eighteen months after injuring his back. (James Allen, an Australian-British climber who ascended Everest in 1995 with an Australian team, but who has dual citizenship, reached the summit at age 22.^[24][25] The feat has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and, at age 19, by Rob Gauntlett.)

Other expeditions[link]

Circumnavigation of the UK[link]

In 2000, Grylls, led the first team to circumnavigate the UK on a personal watercraft or jet ski, taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked for 22 miles in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident.^[26]

Crossing the North Atlantic[link]

Three years later, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on the first unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Arctic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat^[27]. Suffering weeks of frozen spray and icebergs, battling force 8 gale winds, hypothermia, and storms in an eleven-metre-long boat through some of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world including the Labrador Sea, the Denmark Strait, and the stretch made famous by The Perfect Storm, Grylls and his team were just barely able to finish the journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland.

Paramotoring over Angel Falls[link]

In 2005, Grylls led the first team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world's highest waterfall. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote tepuis.

Dinner party at altitude[link]

In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft), dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust.

Paramotoring over the Himalayas[link]

In 2007, Grylls claimed to have broken a new world record by flying a Parajet paramotor over the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest.^[28] Grylls took off from 4,400 metres (14,500 ft), 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of −60 °C (−76 °F). He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached 9,000 metres (29,500 ft), almost 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) higher than the previous record of 6,102 metres (20,019 ft). The feat was filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK.^[29]

While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.^[30]

Journey Antarctica 2008[link]

In 2008, Bear lead a team of four to climb one of the most remote unclimbed peaks in the world in Antarctica. This was raising funds for Global Angels kids charity and awareness for the potential of alternative energies. During this mission the team also aimed to explore the coast of Antarctica by inflatable boat and jetski, part powered by bioethanol, and then to travel across some of the vast ice desert by wind-powered kite-ski and electric powered paramotor. However, the expedition was cut short after Grylls suffered a broken shoulder while kite skiing across a stretch of ice. Travelling at speeds up to 50 km/h (30 mph), a ski caught on the ice, launching him in the air and breaking his shoulder when he came down. He had to be medically evacuated.^[31]

Longest indoor freefall[link]

Grylls, along with the double amputee Al Hodgson and the Scotsman Freddy MacDonald, set a Guinness world record in 2008 for the longest continuous indoor freefall.^[32] The previous record was 1 hr 36 mins by a US team. Grylls, Hodgson, and MacDonald, using a vertical wind tunnel in Milton Keynes, broke the record by a few seconds. The attempt was in support of the charity Global Angels.

Northwest Passage expedition[link]

In August 2010 Grylls lead a team of five to take an ice-breaking rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) through 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of the ice strewn Northwest Passage. The expedition intended to raise awareness of the effects of global warming and to raise money for children's charity Global Angels.^[33]

Media[link]

Grylls entered television work with an appearance in an advertisement for Sure deodorant, featuring his ascent of Mount Everest. Bear was also used by the UK Ministry of Defence to head the Army's anti-drugs TV campaign, and featured in the first ever major advertising campaign for the world-renowned department store Harrods. Grylls has been a guest on television programs, including Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Attack of the Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Harry Hill's TV Burp. Grylls recorded two advertisements for Post's Trail Mix Crunch Cereal, which aired in the US from January 2009. He also appeared as a distinguished instructor in Dos Equis' Most Interesting Academy in a webisode named "Survival in the Modern Era". He appeared in a five-part web series that demonstrates urban survival techniques and features Grylls going from bush to bash. He also has marketed the Alpha Course, a course on the basics of the Christian faith. Warner Bros. had asked Grylls to appear in its remake of the film Clash of the Titans^[34]

Grylls is a best-selling author. Grylls' first book, titled Facing Up, went into the UK top 10 best-seller list, and was launched in the USA entitled The Kid Who Climbed Everest. About his expedition and achievements climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. Grylls' second book Facing the Frozen Ocean was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2004. His third book was written to accompany the series Born Survivor: Bear Grylls. (Released in America in April 2008 to the Man vs. Wild Discovery television show) It features survival skills learned from some of the world's most hostile places. This book reached the Sunday Times Top 10 best-seller list. He also wrote an extreme guide to outdoor pursuits, titled Bear Grylls Outdoor Adventures. In 2011 Bear released his autobiography Mud, Sweat and Tears. and it is still currently the best-selling book in Australia and the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

He has a series of children's adventure survival books titled: Mission Survival: Gold of the Gods, Mission Survival: Way of the Wolf, Mission Survival: Sands of the Scorpion and Mission Survival: Tracks of the Tiger.

[edit] Escape to the Legion

Grylls filmed a four-part TV show in 2005, called Escape to the Legion, which followed Grylls and eleven other "recruits" as they took part in a shortened re-creation of the French Foreign Legion's basic desert training in the Sahara. The show was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4,^[35] and in the USA on the Military Channel.^[36] In 2008, it was repeated in the UK on the History Channel.^[37]

[edit] Born Survivor / Man vs. Wild

Grylls hosts a series titled Born Survivor: Bear Grylls for the British Channel 4 and broadcast as Man vs. Wild in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.A., and as Ultimate Survival on the Discovery Channel in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series features Grylls dropped into inhospitable places, showing viewers how to survive. Man vs. Wild debuted in 2006 and went on to become the number one cable show in all of America and now reaches a global audience of over 1.2 billion viewers.^[19] The second season premièred in the US on 15 June 2007, the third in November 2007, and the fourth in May 2008.

The show has featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wading rapids, eating snakes, wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, drinking fecal liquid from elephant dung, eating deer droppings, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcass and drinking water from it, eating various "creepy crawlies" [insects], utilising the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag and flotation device, free climbing waterfalls and using a bird guano/water enema for hydration.^[38][39] Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness.

In some early episodes, Man vs. Wild / Born Survivor was criticised by some sources for misleading viewers about some of the situations in which Grylls finds himself. Discovery and Channel 4 television subsequently pledged production and editing transparency and clarification related to the criticism.

In March 2012, Discovery Channel terminated its productions with Grylls due to contract disputes.^[40]

[edit] Worst Case Scenario

Grylls' latest project is titled Worst Case Scenario and airs on Discovery in the USA. It is based on the popular books of the same name.^[41]

Chief Scout[link]

On 17 May 2009, The Scout Association announced Grylls would be appointed Chief Scout following the end of Peter Duncan's five year term in July 2009.^[42] He was officially made Chief Scout at Gilwell 24 on 11 July 2009 in a handover event featuring Peter Duncan in front of a crowd of over 3,000 Explorer Scouts. He is the tenth person to hold the position and the youngest Chief Scout since the role was created for Robert Baden-Powell in 1920.^[43][44]

Charities[link]

Many of Grylls' expeditions and stunts have raised money for charitable organisations.^{[citation needed]} Grylls is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, an organisation which provides training, financial, and practical support to young people in the United Kingdom.^[19] He is also vice president for The JoLt Trust, a small charity that takes disabled, disadvantaged, abused or neglected young people on challenging month-long expeditions.

Global Angels, a UK charity which seeks to aid children around the world, were the beneficiaries of his 2007 accomplishment of taking a powered para-glider higher than Mount Everest. Grylls's held the highest ever dinner party at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft) in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and launched the 50th anniversary of the Awards. His successfully circumnavigating Britain on jet skis raised money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Grylls' Everest climb was in aid of SSAFA Forces Help, a British-based charitable organisation set up to help former, and serving members of the British Armed Forces, and their families and dependents. His 2003 Arctic expedition detailed in the book Facing the Frozen Ocean was in aid of The Prince's Trust. His 2005 attempt to para-motor over the Angel Falls was in aid of the charity Hope and Homes for Children.^[45] In August 2010, Grylls continued his fund-raising work for Global Angels by undertaking an expedition through the Northwest Passage in a rigid inflatable boat. Many of his expeditions also support environmental causes such as his Antarctica expedition and his circumnavigation of Britain which tested a pioneering new fuel made from rubbish.

In 2011, Grylls was in New Zealand during the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Following the incident, he appeared on New Zealand advertisements encouraging people to donate money to help rebuild the city.

Other work[link]

Outside of TV, Grylls works as a motivational speaker, giving speeches worldwide to corporations, churches, schools, and other organisations.^[46] He is also a spokesperson for and owner of a Juice Plus franchise. Grylls has his own outdoor survival clothing range produced by British manufacturer Craghoppers as well as a knife manufactured by Gerber.

See also[link]

• Ranulph Fiennes, British adventurer and a hero of Grylls' growing up^[47]
• Bruce Parry, British adventurer and TV presenter
• Les Hiddins, Australian survival expert and TV presenter
• Les Stroud, Canadian survival expert and TV presenter
• Ray Mears, English survival expert and TV presenter

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bear Grylls

• BearGrylls.com official website
• Bear Grylls on Twitter
• ScoutBase.org (UK) "Meet the Chiefs"

Zara Phillips MBE
Born	Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips (1981-05-15) 15 May 1981 (age 31) St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London
Alma mater	University of Exeter
Religion	Christian (Church of England)
Spouse	Michael Tindall (30 July 2011 - present)
Parents	Mark Phillips Anne, Princess Royal
Relatives	Peter Phillips (brother) Elizabeth II (grandmother) Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (grandfather)

Zara Anne Elizabeth Tindall MBE (née Phillips; born 15 May 1981), known commonly as Zara Phillips, is the second child and only daughter of Anne, Princess Royal and her first husband Captain Mark Phillips and is 14th in the line of succession to the throne. She is married to former England rugby union player Mike Tindall, but has kept her own name for professional purposes, referring to herself otherwise as "Mrs Tindall".^[1] She is listed as 14th in the line of succession to the 16 Commonwealth realms as Mrs Michael Tindall.^[2]

An equestrian, Phillips won the Eventing World Championship in Aachen in 2006. The same year she was voted 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year by the British viewing public (an award her mother won in 1971). She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 New Year's Honours List by her grandmother for her services to equestrianism.She has also carried an Olympic flame at Cheltenham Racecourse on her horse Toytown ^[3]

Early life[link]

She is the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. At the time of her birth she was sixth in line to succeed her grandmother, the Queen. As of the birth of her niece Isla Phillips in 2012, she is 14th in the line of succession to the thrones of 16 independent countries.

She has an older brother, Peter Phillips, born 15 November 1977, and two half-sisters, Felicity Tonkin, born in 1985 to her father by his brief affair with Heather Tonkin,^[4] and Stephanie Phillips, born 2 October 1997 from her father's second marriage to Sandy Pflueger.

At the request of their mother,^[5] the children of the Princess Royal do not hold any royal or noble title, nor are they automatically entitled to royal status by right of birth, as they are the grandchildren of a monarch in the female line.

During her schooldays, latterly at Gordonstoun, she excelled at many sporting activities. She represented her schools in hockey, athletics and gymnastics.^[6] She later qualified as a physiotherapist specialising in Equine Physiotherapy, from the University of Exeter.^[7]

Marriage[link]

On 21 December 2010, Buckingham Palace announced her engagement to rugby union player Mike Tindall, who plays for Premiership side Gloucester and the England national team. She received a diamond and platinum engagement ring from Tindall.^[8] She lives with Tindall at their home in Gloucestershire. The couple met during England's Rugby World Cup-winning campaign in Australia in 2003, being introduced by Zara's cousin, Prince Harry.^[9] The wedding was held on 30 July 2011 at the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland.^[10][11] The bride wore a Stewart Parvin dress and the Meander tiara.^[12] This tiara belonged to her great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who became Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark. It was a tiara that Anne, Princess Royal also wore.^[13]

Equestrian[link]

Zara Phillips riding Glenbuck at Badminton Horse Trials 2010

Following in both her parents' footsteps, Phillips is an accomplished equestrian.^[14] In June 2003, she announced that she had secured a sponsorship deal with Cantor Index, a leading company in spread betting, to help cover the costs of her equestrian career.

Riding her horse Toytown, she collected individual and team gold medals at the 2005 European Eventing Championship in Blenheim and individual gold and team silver medals at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, making her the reigning Eventing World Champion until 2010.

Despite winning team gold at the 2007 European Eventing Championships in Italy, she failed successfully to defend her own individual title after a problem in the show jumping phase of the competition.^[15]

It was announced by the British Olympic Association that Phillips would be riding Toytown for the British equestrian team at the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 in Hong Kong.^[16] However, an injury sustained by Toytown during training led to her being forced to withdraw from the team. Zara previously missed the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, when Toytown suffered a similar injury during training.^[17]

On 25 October 2008, she fell from her horse, Tsunami II, at the 15th fence of a cross-country event at Pau, France, and broke her right collarbone. The horse broke its neck after it had tipped over the hedge and was put down.^[18]

Royal engagements[link]

Phillips supports many charitable causes. In 2003, she and Princess Anne took part in the first UK double ship-naming ceremony in Southampton. Princess Anne named the P&O Cruises liner Oceana, and Phillips named its sister ship Adonia.

She frequently attends various events for charity and has taken to supporting certain causes herself, mainly for spinal injuries, equestrian charities and children's causes. In 2005, she auctioned one of her evening gowns (worn at the London premiere of the film Seabiscuit) to raise money for tsunami relief. She also undertook a visit to New Zealand in her role as patron of The Catwalk Trust. From 1998 to 2005 she served as the president of Club 16-24, a group which encourages young people to take an interest in racing. She is linked to INSPIRE, the Salisbury based medical research charity which helps to improve the quality of life of people with spinal cord injuries, and Sargent Cancer Care for Children, the UK's leading children's cancer charity.

She appears at events for The Caudwell Charitable Trust, which is targeted at children with special needs, disabilities and serious illnesses. She has continued her family's long patronage of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and has visited on many occasions. In 2006, she took part in a special charity day for Cantor Index, whose staff were killed in the 11 September 2001 attacks. In 2007, she became patron of the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund.^[19] To help with Sport Relief 2008, she posed for her first official royal portrait by artist Jack Vettriano.^[20] In 2009, she attended a celebrity poker tournament in Monaco in aid of Darfur, Sudan.^[21] In September 2010, she attended the 2012 London Olympic Ball alongside cousin Prince Harry of Wales. In October of the same year she attended another celebrity poker tournament, this time in London, in aid of Cancer Research UK, of which she is Royal Patron.

Clothing design[link]

In 2009 it was announced that Phillips would be designing her own range of equestrian clothing for Musto Outdoor Clothing.^[22][23] The range is named ZP176 after the team number Zara was given when she first represented her country. The range was officially launched in July 2010.^[24]

Titles, styles, honours and arms[link]

• 15 May 1981 - 1 January 2007: Miss Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips
• 1 January 2007 - 30 July 2011: Miss Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, MBE
• 30 July 2011 – present: Mrs. Michael James Tindall, MBE

Arms[link]

Arms of Zara Phillips Notes Zara bears her father's arms on a lozenge[25] Escutcheon Per chevron azure and Or, in chief a horse courant argent, and in base a sprig of forget-me-not flowers, slipped and leaved proper.

Ancestry[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Zara Phillips at the Internet Movie Database
• Zara follows mother's trail to the top