REGAN KENNEDY ISN'T A PHENOM. She didn't start climbing at an early age, and hasn't been an athlete since high school. She isn't the strongest climber in the world, or in the country, or maybe even in the room. She isn't low maintenance. An hour and a half in the bathroom to straighten her already straight four-inch pixie cut - and the ubiquitous scent of flowers - attest to that. She isn't demure, being known to declare that she has the physique of a twelve-year-old boy. A hot one. But that's just it. Gunner, as her friends call her, has never really been defined by what she isn't. Instead, she sits atop a long list of is...

YEARS AGO, A VERY YOUNG SAM WEINSTOCK auditioned for a spot in the tap dance company of his hero, Savion Glover. Though he’d spent weeks preparing and polishing his performance, he arrived with one glaring error: Two left shoes. “It was a nightmare.” Sam recalls. We’re talking over breakfast at his parents’ house, a beautiful homestead of rustic comfort located in Indianola, WA. “Tap shoes can be pretty uncomfortable anyways, and with my nerves, I got the shoes all the way on before I was like, ‘Wait a minute…’” Frantic, he and his parents rushed around, trying to borrow a pair of shoes from one of the other auditioning dancers. “We even had the judges make an announcement over the loudspeaker, but no luck...

THE FIRST TIME JOHN SAMPLE AND I MEET is roughly 6 seconds after I knock upon the front door of his lakeside home. The wiry owner of Chocolate #9 answers, bristling with energy, “Hey! Chad, right? Where’s your car parked? Oh, there. C’mon, let’s move it.” He rushes past, and by the time I turn around, he’s already ten steps up the same pathway I just walked down. My initial thought is, “Man, whatever this guy’s on, I want some.” Turns out he’s just ‘on’ the oldest performance-enhancer in the world: A really healthy diet, coupled with proper exercise...