Adam Craig

Date of Birth	August 15, 1981
Hometown	Bangor, Maine
Residence	Bend, Oregon
Height	180 centimeters
Weight	77 kilograms
Pro Since	2000
With Team Giant Since	2003
Web site	AdamCraig.net

Adam Craig had a busy month leading up to the Beijing Olympics. Craig, who turns 27 a week before he races in China on August 23, returned to his home in Bend, Oregon, in early July after spending more than two months in Europe competing at World Cup events in Belgium, Germany, Spain and Scotland, followed by the World Championships in Italy.

Craig wasn’t officially notified of his selection to the U.S. Olympic team until shortly after his return to U.S. soil. As the current U.S. champion in both cross-country and Super D, Craig was considered a favorite to make the Olympic team before the 2008 season began. Once the season started, he racked up consistent international results, including an eighth place finish at round two of the World Cup in Germany and three other top-20 World Cup finishes.

Anyone who reads Craig’s diary on the Giant web site knows he’s a fairly laid-back kind of guy. He takes most things—like competition—in stride, with a pragmatic approach. Still, this is Craig’s first shot at Olympic competition on the world’s biggest stage. Will that change his mindset? “I’m trying to just keep my ‘even-keel-ness’ going with this honor as well,” Adam said in a recent interview. “It’s going to be pretty awesome to go over there though, being the biggest sporting event in the universe and all. To that end, so I don’t freak out, I’m just treating it as another bike race.”

Craig has been racing on the Giant mountain bike team since 2003, and he’s been instrumental in the design of several Giant bicycles that he races—namely, the Anthem Advanced composite full-suspension mountain bike (on which he won the U.S. cross-country title) and the brand new XTC Advanced SL full-composite hardtail. Two members of the Giant MTB support staff will accompany Craig to Asia to help him and all the members of the U.S. Olympic mountain bike team in the first leg of their journey to Beijing. “The U.S. team will leave on August 11 and fly to the island of Jeju off the southern coast of South Korea,” reports Craig. “We’ll stay there and train in the correct time zone and climate for a week, then head over to Beijing a few days before the race.”

In the weeks leading up to his departure for South Korea, Craig was competing in U.S. races in New York and the U.S. National Championships in Vermont. He’ll also race a World Cup in Quebec on August 4. Facing more competition, defending his U.S. title, and collecting air miles faster than many flight attendants might stress many pro athletes. But Craig remains typically nonplussed by his schedule. “Other than that,” he says, “pretty chill.”