Ryan Max Riley (born May 15, 1979) is a humorist and athlete who was a humor writer for ''

The Harvard Lampoon ''The Harvard Lampoon'' is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Overview The ''Harvard Lampoon'' publication was founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates ...

''. 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 The U.S. Ski Team, operating under the auspices of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Since 1974 the team and ...

in the freestyle skiing events of moguls and dual moguls. He graduated with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

and earned

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Biography

Riley grew up in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, graduating in 1997 from the Lowell Whiteman School in Steamboat Springs and training on the freestyle teams at

Winter Park Resort Winter Park Resort is an alpine ski resort in the western United States, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at Winter Park. Located in Grand County just off U.S. Highway 40, the resort is about a ninety-minute drive from Denver. History The mo ...

and the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, 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 named Thibault after a character (

Tybalt Tybalt () is a character in William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet''. He is the son of Lady Capulet's brother, Juliet's short-tempered first cousin, and Romeo's rival. Tybalt shares the same name as the character Tibert / Tybalt ''"th ...

) in

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's play '' Romeo and Juliet'' and the pet lobster of the French

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

Gérard de Nerval Gérard de Nerval (; 22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855) was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection '' Les ...

, a pet lobster that Nerval used to walk around

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

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 CollegeHumor is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles. Aside from producing content for release on YouTube, it was also a former humor website owned by InterActiveCorp ( IAC) until January 2020, when IAC withdrew funding and the websi ...

, Splitsider (the humor website of

The Awl ''The Awl'' was a website about "news, ideas and obscure Internet minutiae of the day" based in New York City. Its motto was "Be Less Stupid." History Founded in April 2009 by David Cho and former ''Gawker'' editors Choire Sicha and Alex Balk ...

), 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 The Nor-Am Cup (North American Cup) is one of the tours of competitions organized by the International Ski Federation, and it takes place in North America. The Nor-Am Cup gives athletes who have qualified for these races the opportunity to comp ...

in Moguls. On March 14, 1998, he competed in his first World Cup, in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, 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 Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Riley placed second in a World Cup in 2001 and won silver and bronze medals at the Goodwill Games 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,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

. 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