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
Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, Mogul Skiing, moguls, Ski Cross, cross, Half-pipe skiing, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics. It can consist of a ...
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
Riley grew up in
Colorado, graduating in 1997 from the
Lowell Whiteman School
Steamboat Mountain School, formerly The Lowell Whiteman School, is a small, college preparatory school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, focused on experiential education, for students in grades K–12.
The school is a coeducational boarding and ...
in
Steamboat Springs and training on the freestyle teams at
Winter Park Resort and the
Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC) is located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. SSWSC has produced 88 Winter Olympians, including 14 sent to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Some of the more well-known Olympians including 6-time Olympi ...
, both of which have produced many U.S. Ski Team athletes and winter Olympians.
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''. After finishing his A.B. with high honors in Literature at Harvard University in 2007, he earned an M.St. with distinction and won the Gerard Davis Prize for the best dissertation on a topic in French literary studies submitted for the M.St. in Medieval and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford in 2011 (he was in the
Queen's College). He then completed his M.A. in French Literature at Yale University.
According to his Yale biography, Riley has a pet polish
dwarf rabbit
Dwarf rabbit refers either (formally) to a rabbit with the dwarfing Cuniculture#Genetics, gene, or (informally) to any small breed of domestic rabbit or specimen thereof, or (colloquially) to any small rabbit. Dwarfism is a genetic condition that ...
named Thibault after a character (
Tybalt) in
William Shakespeare's play ''
Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
'' and the pet
lobster
Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...
of the French
poet Gérard de Nerval, a pet lobster that Nerval used to walk around
Paris with a blue ribbon.
Writing
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, Splitsider (the humor website of
The Awl), The Higgs Weldon, The Big Jewel, and FunnyTweets. His first novel is forthcoming.
United States Ski Team
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
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, 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.
Riley placed second in a World Cup in 2001 and won silver and bronze medals at the
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...
in 2000.
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
Waterville Valley is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 508 at the 2020 census, up from 247 at the 2010 census.
Waterville Valley attracts many visitors in the winter months with alpine skiing at Watervil ...
,
New Hampshire.
In 2000, he was featured in the
Warren Miller film ''Ride''.
Warren Miller
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References
External links
*
Riley's humor writing on CollegeHumor
Riley's humor writing on The Higgs Weldon
Riley's jokes on FunnyTweets
U.S. Championships 2001 (Moguls)
U.S. Championships 1999 (Dual Moguls)
*
Yale University student biography
Yale University Trumbull College graduate affiliate biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Ryan Max
The Harvard Lampoon alumni
American male freestyle skiers
Place of birth missing (living people)
American freeskiers
1979 births
Living people
Yale University alumni
Harvard College alumni
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford