| Sky Christopherson | |
| Birth Place: | United States |
| Known For: | Olympic athlete, World Record Holder, entrepreneur, public speaker world record in sprint cycling |
| Employer: | GOLD AI, Biolinq |
Sky Christopherson (born January 19, 1976) is an American entrepreneur, Olympic cyclist, world record holder, and motivational speaker. He has been covered by Fortune[1] Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Outside magazine, the Financial Times, and other publications. In 2015 he was voted 5th nationwide in "Top 40 under 40 in Healthcare Innovation"
A member of the U.S. Cycling Team, an alternate for the 1996 Olympic Team and winner of the 2000 Olympic Trials, Christopherson is known for breaking a world record in 2011 in the velodrome sprint, notably using a ‘digital health’ model inspired by Dr. Eric Topol. The previous holder of the record, Steven Alfred, subsequently received a lifetime ban for performance-enhancing drug use.
Christopherson founded the $8million dollar software platform Vicaso in 2007, and the biometrics and big data health company Optimized Athlete in 2012, which helped the underdog 2012 women's cycling team win medals at the London Olympics when Lance Armstrong and the men’s team were banned for drugs. The story was featured in the feature documentary Personal Gold: An Underdog Story.
Sky Christopherson was born on January 19, 1976 to American parents, and raised by his parents in Tucson, Arizona in the United States. He had an early interest in both sports, film, and technology, using a Sears video camera to create 3D playback when he was eight years old.
| Cycling Stats | |
| Birth Place: | United States |
| Currentteam: | Retired |
| Role: | Rider |
| Ridertype: | Sprinter |
| Amateuryears1: | 1980s-1993 |
| Amateurteam1: | - |
| Proyears1: | 1995-2000 |
| Proteam1: | U.S. National Cycling Team |
| Majorwins: | World Record(s) 35+ 200m velodrome sprint 2000 Olympic Trials: Gold 1km, Gold Team Sprint. |
Christopherson won his first national title in bicycle racing at age 19, beating a six-time undefeated cyclist in a controversial event at the 1995 US National Championships. His specialty was the 1,000-meter time trial, considered to be the most painful event in sprint cycling. Christopherson is one of five Americans in history to ride a sub 1:03.0 in the 1000m ‘Kilometer’ event. He was quoted "My blood was turned into battery acid...I would commonly ride that fine line of losing consciousness."
In 2000, Christopherson won the U.S. Olympic Trials in Frisco, TX in the 1000m and Team Sprint Events, and was named alternate to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Team allowed through new rules.[2]
Following the Closing Ceremonies at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he proposed to his girlfriend Tamara Jenkins, an Olympian in flatwater kayaking.
He continued training for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but after breaking his femur in a bike crash, decided to retire from competitive racing. He joined the Washington Athletic Club in January 2007, where he helped to create "the program that will be giving sponsorship to athletes training for the Olympics."
In 2010 he made a bid to return to the 2012 London Olympics, notable by his use of a ‘digital health’ model inspired by Dr. Eric Topol. The project was a subject of a TEDx talk Christopherson gave in Del Mar, CA, and a Quantified Self talk at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
The training led to a world record in the 35+ 200m velodrome sprint. The previous record holder Steven Alfred received a lifetime ban for use of performance-enhancing drugs. When asked how he trained, Christopherson stated, "In prior efforts we did not have the ability to formulate such a complete picture with data amassed continuously 24/7. This time around I benefited from genetic testing, sleep data, glucose tracking, etc."
Upon retirement, Christopherson began attending UC San Diego, where he studied Intradiscpliary Computing and the Arts, and graduated in 2006. In 2007, upon graduating UCSD, he founded Vicaso, a software platform for mass production of HDR imagery with the market application of real estate marketing. Headquartered in Seattle, UCSD has stated "the startup was wildly successful, turning over $1.2 million in its first year." and over $8 million since. The company was exclusive national provider to Redfin, and now works with brokerages such as Prudential, Sotheby's, Coldwell Banker, among others. It specializes in software based automation of high dynamic range (HDR) photography.
In July 2012 The Financial Times revealed that several health technology companies have supplied Olympics athletes with devices intended to optimize their performance, in what CNN said some people were calling the "Data Olympics."
OAthlete, a company co-founded by Christopherson, and another athlete earlier that year, helped the US track cycling team (specifically the women's sprint cycling team) track their health with a software platform that he developed to collect athlete data including the first non-diabetic use of glucose monitors, sleep monitor, and genetic reports indicating nutritional needs and muscular capacity.
About using the method, Christopherson stated, "When we arrived in Spain [to consult for OAthlete] we met a [US track cycling team] that had become America’s medal hopes in cycling when Lance Armstrong and then men’s team were banned for performance enhancing drug use. What unfolded was amazing."[3] We began to assemble a big-data portrait of each athlete’s health and fitness through a partnership with San Francisco based Datameer and software developed by Christopherson and former Olympic teammate Adam Laurent.[4] The team won an ‘underdog’ Silver Medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games in the Women's Team Pursuit. It was the first US women's track cycling medal in over 20 years.[5]
The story was featured in the feature documentary Personal Gold: An Underdog Story, which was acquired by Netflix and received worldwide distribution. Optimized Athlete has since been rolled into the company GOLD AI.
On August 1st at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the company GOLD AI was launched as “the world’s first artificial intelligence platform bridging Olympic medal-winning advice for consumer health and fitness”[6]
GOLD AI also has plans to incorporate the revolutionary patch-based biosensor developed by Biolinq, a San Diego biotech company that has raised over $200m in funding, as a one of the first preferred partners. Christopherson held an official role at Biolinq as ‘Director of Connected Health and Fitness[7] ’ to help with the initial $100m B round fundraising, and to develop the new micro needle based sensor with multi analyte sensing capabiliies including Glucose, Lactate, Cortisol, and DNA apromere based sending in development.[8] Christopherson demoed the patch-based sensor for the first time in a live demonstration on-stage with CEO Rich Yang and Co-Founder Jared Tagney in Park City, UT at a Fortune new technology conference.[9]
Sky Christopherson's parents live in Tucson, Arizona.