This is The Guardian.

The Guardian Archive Long Read.

Hi, my name is Zan Rice.

I'm the author of No Coach, No Agent, No Ego,

The Incredible Story of the Lionel Messi of Cliff Diving, published in 2023.

I first heard about Gary Hunt while reading the Le Kipp newspaper in France.

They had an article about

him in the weekend magazine describing him as the greatest cliff dive of all time, which immediately

piqued my interest. He was British, but he was changing his nationality to France, which again

was another interesting facet of the story.

The more I read about Gary in the story, but also in doing research on the internet about him,

I just became more and more intrigued because, you know, when you think of extreme sports,

you might think of people chasing fame, chasing fortune, you know, pretty you think of extreme sports, you might think of people chasing fame, chasing

fortune, you know, pretty egotistical, all the, all the sort of cliches. And from what I read,

Gary was exactly the opposite of all of those things. He was, he was quite a quiet guy. He was

quite modest living.

He seemed to be loved by everyone despite beating everyone all the time.

He'd won nine world titles, which was in any sport, would be an incredible accomplishment.

So this story is about how somebody, a man, Gary Hunt, became one of the greatest athletes, greatest extreme athletes of all time in any sport while showing little appetite

for the fame or fortune that goes with such a status.

And Gary is a cliff diver.

There's a world cliff diving series run by Red Bull,

...