Kilian Jornet Burgada

Kílian Jornet Burgada is a professional sky runner, trail runner, ski mountaineer and long-distance runner. He is a six-time champion of the long-distance running Skyrunner World Series and has won some of the most prestigious ultramarathons, including the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, Grand Raid, the Western States Endurance Run, and the Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run.

Jornet holds the fastest known time for the ascent and descent of Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Denali, and Everest. Born in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain near Barcelona, Jornet grew up in Refugi de Cap de Rec, a mountain hut at 2000 meters in the Pyrenees at the cross-country Lles ski resort in Lles de Cerdanya, where his father was a hut keeper and mountain guide. At the age of three, he climbed Tuc de Molières, a three-thousander in the Pyrenees. By the age of five, he climbed Aneto 3,404 m (11,168 ft), the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, and a year later he climbed his first four-thousander, the Breithorn (4,164 m (13,661 ft)) in Switzerland.

Jornet started ski mountaineering in 1999, and competed for the first time at the La Molina race of the Spanish Cup in 2000. In 2003, he became a junior member of the Spanish national ski mountaineering team, and has raced as a senior since 2007. Jornet has been recognised as an elite athlete since 2004 by the Catalan and Spanish sports councils. For his achievements in the "junior" class ski mountaineering team, he won the Catalan sports award (Premi d’honor d’esport català) in 2004, 2005 and 2006. He was World Champion in the Buff SkyRunner World Series in 2007, 2008 and 2009 becoming the youngest athlete to win this honour.