Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, Cricket—anything with a round ball, I was useless. ”he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind on building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water achievements. Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.
Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. “John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ‘You are completely crazy, ’” Saunders says.
In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer experience with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1, 800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
1. The turning point in Saunders’s life came when______.
A. he started to play ball games
B. he started to receive Ridgway’s training
C. he ran his first marathon at age 18
D. he got a mountain bike at age 15
2. What do we know about Saunders?
A. He once worked at a school in Scotland.
B. He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole.
C. He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.
D. He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid.
3. It can be inferred that Saunders’ journey to the North Pole ______.
A. was accompanied by his old playmates
B. was supported by other Arctic explorers
C. set a record in the North Pole expedition
D. made him well-known in the 1960s
