Outdoor Quote: Richard Branson

Filed in archive Outdoor Quotes on October 16, 2007

I first met Steve Fossett on a freezing January evening at the Busch stadium in St. Louis, Mo., in 1997. He was about to attempt a solo circumnavigation of the world by balloon, and although we were rivals, I decided to see him off the spirit of sportsmanship that still inhabits the world of record-breaking. As I neared his balloon, a TV crew approached, and I found myself being filmed chatting with a man I thought was on his team. I said one had to be a bit mad to test oneself in this way. The quiet American in front of me looked at me sympathetically and said, "I am Steve Fossett."

That was the beginning of a long and close friendship with one of the most generous, good-natured and kind people I have ever met but alos one of the bravest and most determined adventurers and explorers of all time. Steve held more recrods than any other human being. He began adventuring in a modest way, swimming the english channel in 1985. Over the next 22 years, he amassed 115 records in aviation, gliding, ballooning, sailing, boating, mountaineering, skiing, traiathlon, even dogsledding. He truly was the adventurer's adventure.

- Richard Branson, about close friend Steve Fossett, Time Magazine.