Elena Hight, 19, is an Olympic snowboarder.

I didn’t know what a “backside 900” was before I started reading about how Elena Hight became the first female to land one in the 2007 Winter X-Games. Apparently, it’s trick where a snowboarder rotates 2½ times in the air with their back facing down the mountain. It’s probably one of the most difficult things in the sport, but when I saw Elena do it, it looked easy, like she was dancing or something.

Elena grew up in Hawaii, far away from any semblance of snow, much less a snowboard. When her family moved to Idaho, her dad got her one of the first snowboards for kids when she was 6 years old. She was one of the only girls doing it, but she was hooked.

“Making a career out of it is fairly recent thing,” Elena says of a sport that’s been around since the ’70s. Elena has done it though, with big-name sponsors and competing as the youngest member in her event in the 2006 Winter Olympics. As she looks to new, well, heights, she knows more people are watching the sport. “It’s a much bigger deal. A lot more pressure. But, I’ll be ready.”

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NBA star Dwyane Wade is the national spokesman for National Recess Week.

You already know him as an NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist. You already know that Dwyane Wade still gets up after falling down seven times. But, the 27-year-old’s acts of kindness often go unnoticed.

Last Christmas, he made headlines when he bought a home for a Florida woman whose nephew accidentally burned her house down. But, the kindness isn’t random for the Miami Heat star who founded Wade’s World, an organization that helps underprivileged kids. Once again, he has teamed up with National Recess Week as the national spokesperson to encourage young people to foster a sense of community and sportsmanship.

Dwyane’s NBA bio says he wants to leave the world a better place. When I met him, he told me he told me that things he wants the world to know him for haven’t been accomplished yet. “But, they will happen,” Dwyane assures me.

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Jessica Cox, 25, born without arms, is training to become a sport pilot instructor.

Whether it’s swimming, gymnastics or tap dancing as a kid or driving and flying as a young adult, this girl does it all, with her feet!

Doctors still don’t know why Jessica Cox, 25, was born without arms. Sonograms and other prenatal tests didn’t reveal her rare congenital condition. Jessica sees that condition, though, as an exercise in imagination. To put clothes on, she uses a dressing hook. To type her college papers, she used her toes.

“For the most part I don’t think about the restrictions or how I can’t do something. I think about how I can make it happen,” Jessica says. For some years growing up, she wore prosthetic arms, but hated them. She felt it was more important to be true to herself and be proud of her accomplishments, some that most people with all four limbs can’t even tackle!

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Michael Evans, 25, started Full Court Peace in Northern Ireland.

I report almost every day on long-standing conflicts around the world. Sometimes the world’s best treaty negotiators or international players can’t rectify these deep-rooted battles. Michael Evans made it clear he held none of those positions when I met him a few weeks ago, but he said he had a similar goal.

Michael started playing professional basketball in Belfast after being a star player in college. “I took the offer without even thinking about the situation there. I assumed everything was over,” the 25-year-old says of his move to Northern Ireland. Of course, the cultural and religious divide between the Protestants and Catholics was far from over. Most sports were highly segregated, but not basketball because it wasn’t as popular.

Michael started Full Court Peace after coaching kids from both sides of the conflict and surreptitiously bringing them together. “I knew basketball was a neutral sport. I knew if I walked in with a cricket bat, or a football my plan wouldn’t work,” Michael says. Indeed it worked, bringing kids together on the court whose families hated each other everywhere else. The group’s mission is now to use team basketball to cultivate and inspire enduring friendships between teenagers from rivaling communities in war-torn regions of the world.

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Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel, 26, became the world's first full-time professional gamer.

I mean, really, which young boy doesn’t want to get paid to play video games all day?! Sure, there are the gamers-turned-developers who can make money. But, Johnathan Wendel, who goes by “Fatal1ty,” makes money, a lot of it, playing games.

Johnathan became the world’s first full-time professional video gamer nearly 10 years ago. He has won competitions around the globe, with earnings estimated at $500,000. Further capitalizing on his brand, he started the gaming gear company, Fatal1ty, Inc.

This 26-year-old considers himself a professional athlete, or “E-Sportsman.” If you think Johnathan has hit the jackpot with no hard work, think again. He trains for hours a day and reviews tapes of himself in action, like any other athlete.

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Carlos Leon, 24, is a member of the U.S. Paralympics Track and Field team.

I thought it would be all business when Carlos Leon was training for the Beijing Olympics at the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama. No talking. No laughing. I was wrong. At first I gave Carlos his space when he was lifting and doing cardio. But, Carlos is full of soul and spunk even while he’s doing his serious training. He even invited me to join in (although my weights were much lighter than his).

From a headshot or the right camera angle, you’d think Carlos is competing in discus at the Olympics. But, he’s the first to emphasize that he will be in the Paralympics. The 24-year-old Iraq veteran became a quadriplegic while he was diving in Hawaii, celebrating being back in the states.

His physical setback has not squandered his dreams. He’s focused enough to ban his parents from visiting him at the training facility where he now lives. But, he’s humble and fun enough to let a camera crew in to hang out with him days before he’s set to compete.

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Mike Day, 23, is a member of the U.S. BMX Olympic team.

BMX stands for Bicycle Motocross. This summer BMX is adorned with the Olympic rings. It’s the first time BMX has been included as an Olympic sport. Mike Day couldn’t wait for the day that was the case.

Mike, now 23, won his first race on his ninth birthday. He turned professional in 2002. His goal wasn’t to go to the Olympics though, since they only recently announced Olympic BMX trials. Initially, all he wanted was to gain the respect of his friends’ families. Mike remembers one friend’s dad saying, “Watching you guys back in the day, I never would’ve dreamed BMX would have taken you this far.”

Now that it has, Mike is ready for the gold. He looks at every day, and all the training that comes with it, not as a burden but as fun. Mike simply says, “I have the best life ever.”

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Taraje Williams-Murray, 23, is a four-time national judo champion.

Taraje Williams-Murray knows exactly where he’s going to eat when the Olympics are over. He knows the cooking he’s going to do to gain back 25 pounds. He knows all about the lazy Sundays he will have with his girlfriend and family just vegging out.

But he’s putting that all aside for now in the name of sacrifice, which is basically the first word out of 23-year-old Taraje’s mouth these days as he prepares for the Beijing Olympics. He’s a four-time national judo champion and was on the U.S. judo team in Athens four years ago. He knows exactly what kind of sacrifices he’s making with 16-hour training days with strict workouts and a strict diet. It was all the subject of his documentary, “Beyond the Rings”.

Taraje has been competing in judo since he was eight years old. “The pinnacle of any judoka is the Olympics,” he says. He knows all the fun he could be having if he wasn’t training, he can wait for that but he can’t wait to compete.

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Sada Jacobson, 25, is currently ranked the #1 Women's Sabre Fencer in the world.

When Sada Jacobson tells people she’s a fencer, without a flinch most of them will “air poke” her with their finger. She laughs, “It’s not like I can fight them with my finger!” She takes their misconceptions of cartoonish medievalism with levity.

But there isn’t much humor when she’s training in the gym for the Beijing Olympics. It’s a daily regimen: cross-training, cardio, conditioning, lifting, icing, lunch, footwork, strategy, and of course, hours of fencing. Sada, 25, is currently ranked #1 in the world for women’s sabre, but there’s no time for that to go to her head.

Make no mistake, Sada wants the gold. She took the bronze at the 2004 games. She doesn’t fight off the mat, but this time she’s focused on a tough fight for what she left behind last time.

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Stephanie Mockler, 20, got the racing bug when she was 6 and went on to become a record-setting driver.

In real life, her first car was a Volkswagen bug when she was 16. In her racing life, Stephanie Mockler was driving quarter midget cars, tiny racecars that children can drive, at the age of 6. Now at 20, she is a record-setting driver.

Mockler became the first female to win a USAC Ford Focus Midget Series when she finished at the Indianapolis Speedrome. She is also the eighth woman in the United States Auto Club’s history to win a feature race. And she is the youngest female to ever win a USAC main event.

She gets the whole “Danica Patrick” thing a lot. Patrick is a 25-year-old Indy Racing League driver. Mockler is quick to point out that not all racing is the same and that she hopes to take the NASCAR track. But one thing between them is the same, “When you put on the helmet, you’re just another racer.”

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