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Ryan Max Riley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ryan Max Riley
Personal information
Full nameRyan Max Riley
Born (1979-05-15) May 15, 1979 (age 45)
EducationBachelor of Arts, Masters of Arts
Alma materHarvard University, University of Oxford, Yale University
Occupation(s)Novelist, humorist, athlete
Writing career
GenreHumor, literary fiction
Notable worksThe Harvard Lampoon
Sport
CountryUnited States
SportFreestyle Skiing
Medal record
Men’s Freestyle Skiing
Representing the  United States
World Cup
Silver medal – second place 2002 Madarao Japan Dual Moguls
Goodwill Games
Silver medal – second place 2000 Lake Placid New York Dual Moguls
Bronze medal – third place 2000 Lake Placid New York Moguls
US Championships
Silver medal – second place 2004 Heavenly Mountain Resort California Moguls
Gold medal – first place 2001 Waterville Valley New Hampshire Moguls
Bronze medal – third place 2000 Sunday River Maine Moguls
Gold medal – first place 1999 Deer Valley Utah Dual Moguls
Junior World Championships
Silver medal – second place 1999 Jyvaskyla Finland Moguls

Ryan Max Riley (born May 15, 1979) is a humorist and athlete who was a humor writer for The Harvard Lampoon. He competed on the World Cup for seven years and was a two-time US National Champion as an athlete on the U.S. Ski Team in the freestyle skiing events of moguls and dual moguls. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and earned master's degrees from the University of Oxford and Yale University.

Biography

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Riley grew up in Colorado, graduating in 1997 from the Lowell Whiteman School in Steamboat Springs and training on the freestyle teams at Winter Park Resort and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, both of which have produced many U.S. Ski Team athletes and winter Olympians.[1]

External videos
video icon Ryan Max Riley's winning run at US Champs in freestyle skiing moguls in 2001

In his last three years on the U.S. Ski Team, Riley attended Harvard University, where he was a humor writer for The Harvard Lampoon and finished his A.B. with high honors in Literature in 2007. Following this, he attended The Queen's College, Oxford, where he earned an M.St. in Medieval and Modern Languages with distinction in 2011, winning the Gerard Davis Prize for the best dissertation on a topic in French literary studies. He then completed his M.A. in French Literature at Yale University.[2]

According to his Yale biography, Riley has a pet polish dwarf rabbit named Thibault after a character (Tybalt) in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet and the pet lobster of the French poet Gérard de Nerval, a pet lobster that Nerval used to walk around Paris with a blue ribbon.[3]

Writing

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While in college, Riley was a humor writer for The Harvard Lampoon, a humor magazine and humor society founded in 1876 at Harvard University. He now writes comedy for publications such as CollegeHumor,[4] Splitsider (the humor website of The Awl), The Higgs Weldon,[5] The Big Jewel, and FunnyTweets.[6] His first novel is forthcoming.

United States Ski Team

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External videos
video icon Ryan Max Riley winning bronze at Goodwill Games in freestyle skiing moguls in 2000

Riley earned a spot on the U.S. Ski Team in 1998, when he won the overall Nor-Am Cup in Moguls. On March 14, 1998, he competed in his first World Cup, in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, and placed 14th. He got his first top-5 result on the World Cup the next season, finishing fifth in Dual Moguls in Madarao, Japan, on February 21, 1999 (he placed sixth the day before in Moguls). A week later, he won the silver medal at the Junior World Championships in Jyvaskyla, Finland.[7]

Riley placed second in a World Cup in 2001 and won silver and bronze medals at the Goodwill Games in 2000.[8]

He won his second U.S. National Championship with one of the highest scores in the history of the sport (a 28.55) in Moguls in 2001 in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire.[9]

In 2000, he was featured in the Warren Miller film Ride.[10]

References

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  1. ^ Lowell Whiteman School
  2. ^ Yale biography
  3. ^ Yale biography
  4. ^ Riley, Ryan Max (10 October 2013). "Bios for New York's Most Popular Tutors". CollegeHumor. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  5. ^ Ryan Max Riley's humor writing on The Higgs Weldon
  6. ^ Ryan Max Riley's jokes on FunnyTweets
  7. ^ International Ski Federation
  8. ^ International Ski Federation
  9. ^ US Championships 2001
  10. ^ Warren Miller
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