Team Onyx Accepts a Challenge Meet TV's first all-Black adventure-racing crew

摘要

ADVENTURE RACER CLIFTON LYLES assembled his most recent team of action-sport athletes to make history. Given a chance to try out for a spot on World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji-Amazon Prime's 2020 revival of a reality series that broadcast from 1995 to 2002, hosted by Bear Grylls-the former US marine put together Team Onyx, the first all-Black American adventure-racing team. Lyles is one of a growing number of Black men and women making a name for themselves in adventure racing, an adrenaline-fueled sport that pits competitors against one another and the elements in the form of a nonmotorized race across many miles of terrain via foot, mountain bike, watercraft, and sometimes horseback. When Lyles first got into racing 21 years ago, he was almost always the only person of color at the starting line and got more than a few side-eyes. "I'm just too stubborn to quit," he told Sierra. "It was one of those things where they saw me at this race, then the next race. I got better-I went from not finishing to winning."