This is an online exclusive story from ESPN The Magazines Body Issue 2016. Alex Delvecchio Jersey . Subscribe today!?And for more from the 2016 Body Issue, check out espn.com/bodyissue,?and pick up a copy on newsstands starting July 8.Four-time U.S. national steeplechase champion Emma Coburn knows a thing or two about making big leaps, so perhaps its no surprise that she jumped at the chance to be in the 2016 Body Issue. During a short break in her Olympic training, Coburn spoke with ESPNs Morty Ain about climbing mountains, her Game of Thrones obsession and why you dont call them hurdles.So often we are celebrating statistics and medals and championships, but its the blood, sweat and tears that go into making those performances happen within these bodies.There was a physical and emotional benefit to growing up in a mountain town. Physically, growing up at 9,000 feet in Crested Butte, Colorado ... at a young age I had such a diverse set of sports that I was doing. When youre a kid, its not even considered sports -- our hobbies in the summer as a family were rafting and mountain biking and climbing. I grew up snowboarding and skiing. Physically, having a diverse athletic background has helped me become a stronger runner in terms of muscular development and coordination.Emotionally, growing up there was just about having fun. People write all the time about the benefits of not specializing in a sport too young so you dont burn out. I was happy to not really take running too seriously as my No. 1 sport until my junior year of high school.I climbed my first fourteener when I was 7 years old. A 14,000-foot mountain is called a fourteener in Colorado. There are 60ish fourteeners, and my dad has climbed them all twice, my mom has climbed them all once and my sister and her husband are trying to make their way through them as well. I only have climbed probably three of them; I retired from that sport probably when I was 12.We dont call them hurdles, we call them barriers, because they are 4-by-4 blocks of wood. Its not like a 100-meter hurdle where if you hit it, the hurdle falls. If you hit the barrier, you go down. It will leave you pretty scarred, so its a bit intimidating.Steeplechase is 3,000 meters of hurdling on a track. Its four barriers per lap that are 30 inches high for women, and then theres a water jump every lap. Its a 7.5-lap race, so you have seven water jumps. Its a 10-foot water pit and you jump up onto a 30-inch barrier and then step on the barrier and propel yourself over the 10-foot water pit. Its a fun event. Ive always loved it just because its a little bit more exciting than just the monotony of running around a track over and over and over again.Ive never had a big wipeout face-plant. Im 5-8 and the barriers are 30 inches high, which is about the height of my hip, so being a little bit taller makes clearing the barriers easier.How I ended up doing steeplechase was a happy accident. I was competing in a track meet out of state in Albuquerque, and I was signed up to run the 800 meters. To get to Albuquerque was about a seven- or eight-hour drive. My dad thought that was a very long way to drive to just watch two laps of running, so he looked at the schedule, and the only event that was on a different day that worked with our schedule was the steeplechase. I didnt really know anything about it, but I thought that it could be fun -- why not try it? I ended up winning my race and qualifying for the high school nationals meet. If that meet in Albuquerque had written a different schedule, I probably would have never been recruited to run in college.I think sometimes people lack some of the coordination needed for the blind hurdling required for the steeplechase. Often in a race, there are so many people around you that you dont even have eyes on the barrier, you have eyes on the people in front of you, and then you see their heads bump up: OK, its my time to go.I run 80 miles a week. It is intense, but Im not unique or special; I would say most female middle- to long-distance runners run 70 to 100 miles a week. Its just that the sport demands a pretty intense training load. We run seven days a week and sometimes two runs in a day, and the weight room, and 15-mile-long runs. But I have so many people around me who are doing it, it doesnt feel as taxing as it might seem.I dont take a day off; I probably run nine times a week. I find that the best way to connect with people is to run with them. I have someone that Im running with at least eight of those nine runs a week, if not nine of nine, so its a great time to catch up with friends. My training partners are my friends.Ive never been self-conscious about my body. I never really thought much about it. Its just kind of the vessel that lets me do the things I like to do. It never dawned on me to think about it beyond that.I grew up as the runt of our familys litter. I have an older brother and older sister, and I just wanted to tag along with them and kind of do everything that they were doing. My parents would bring me on these adventures just because my siblings were capable enough and old enough to do it, so my parents just said, All right, youre coming with. For the first 10 years of my life, I was just the little kid trying to keep up.I was kind of an ugly baby. I was sick-skinny and I had straight hair -- I was just not a cute, cuddly, chunky baby. It turned out OK, but I was definitely kind of gangly. Both my brother and sister had beautiful, blond, ringlet hair and were gorgeous little babies, and then I was kind of the ... less cute one.Im not naturally the most confident athlete. But if my coaches tell me that I can run a certain time, I believe it with no question. Then thats it, thats decided, thats what Im going to run. Any edge I have is because of the people around me.The steeplechase is a pretty taxing event. Watch a slo-mo water-jump video and youll see their ankles and lower legs compressing. Youll see how jarring it is on everyones body who lands. Its so much more than anything else in any distance event.In 2013, I had a sacral stress fracture. I was at the NCAA championships -- my last collegiate race ever. I chose to race the final anyway just because it was so important to me, and it broke during the race. So I ran the steeplechase in 2013 with a broken sacrum [lower back] which was really uncomfortable. I was on the verge of signing a contract with New Balance and trying to qualify for the world championship team two weeks later. So I had to just call New Balance and say, Im sorry, but Im too hurt to compete for the U.S. title. The timing was pretty tough.My feet are pretty gross. I have bone spurs on my heels, and bunions. Luckily, I never lose toenails, which is great. They are just not my best feature.The nice part about being a professional athlete is so much of my job is resting and recovery in between sessions. As part of my job, I have to sit on a couch and either nap or relax. Last April or May, I binge-watched the first five seasons of Game of Thrones in two weeks.Maybe Im too into Game of Thrones now because they are invading my dreams. Recently in one I was climbing Mount Everest with Brienne of Tarth, except Mount Everest was actually Mount Crested Butte. Brienne of Tarth was helping me and she was in her full set of armor, and then Jaime Lannister rode in on a horse when we were near the summit and tried to kill us. It was a cliffhanger, so I dont know yet if we made it off the mountain alive or not [laughs]. Gustav Nyquist Red Wings Jersey . Louis Cardinals. Victorino is batting sixth and playing right field after missing two games because of back tightness. Gordie Howe Red Wings Jersey .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. http://www.redwingshockeypro.com/authentic-curtis-joseph-red-wings-jersey/ . Kiriasis and brakeman Franziska Fritz finished two runs in one minute 55.41 seconds -- a mere 0.01 seconds ahead of Meyers and Lolo Jones, who likely bolstered her Olympic hopes by helping give USA-1 a huge push in the second heat. Its hard to believe that two teams from the same conference havent played in four years, but thats the reality these days with unbalanced schedules, expansion and realignment.For the No. 8 Michigan State Spartans and the No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers, this weekends meeting at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich., will be the first since 2012. There is hardly anyone around the Big Ten that will be complaining about the fact the once-budding rivalry gets a chance to be rekindled.Prior to the hiatus, the Badgers and Spartans were busy playing in some of the most exciting games with some fairly important consequences. In 2011 alone, the teams met twice with the Spartans winning the regular season on a 44-yard Hail Mary from Kirk Cousins to Keith Nichol on the final play of the game for a 37-31 victory.A few weeks later, the Badgers got the last laugh when they beat the Spartans in the inaugural Big Ten Championship game behind the play of quarterback Russell Wilson. It was a back-and-forth battle that wasnt decided until Michigan States punt return inside the Wisconsin five in the final two minutes was negated by a running into the kicker penalty.The year before, Michigan State beat Wisconsin, 34-24, with a late fourth-down touchdown pass from Cousins to B.J. Cunningham sealing the deal. There was controversy at the end of the season when the Badgers got the nod for the Rose Bowl over the Spartans despite identical records and MSU holding the head-to-head advantage.Back then, Paul Chryst was Wisconsins offensive coordinator. Now the Badgers head coach, Chryst remembers those matchups fondly.I always felt going into those game, Heres a really good football team with good players and well coached, Chryst said of Michigan State. It was a good football team and you knew it and the kids knew it. It was fun to play those games because you knew you had to be on and you knew youd be challenged. I think we knew each other well.I think what it was mostly, or as much was those games meant something.It will mean something again this time as Michigan State (2-0) and Wisconsin (3-0) are both ranked in the top 11.The Spartans (2-0) are riding high after last weeks win over Notre Dame and relish the chance to get off on the right foot in the conference against a highly ranked opponent.You should get excited for the opportunity, Michigaan State coach Mark Dantonio said. Joe Vitale Jersey. I think the storylines around it -- being the Big Ten opener, the history with Wisconsin, the fact that of where were at as a program right now, where theyre at -- it all points towards this being a very, very big game, probably bigger than last week. No doubt bigger than last week.Its bigger because a loss in the Big Ten can make it much tougher to get to the conference championship game. Thats especially true for Michigan State, which must get the best of Ohio State and Michigan in the East Division, though Wisconsin has no easy road, either. After taking on the Spartans, the Badgers get Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska in successive weeks.That means theres little margin for error beginning this week.I think the out-of-conference schedule is just what it is, Dantonio said. You can lose them, still recover and play and win a Big Ten championship. You start playing a little bit more for real I think in terms of understanding that these are the things that lead you to rings, big bowl games, playoffs, those type of things.When youre playing in-conference, you get into your division, the chips just get a little bit bigger. But thats the way its always been here. The more you win, the higher the chips get, the more its on every single game. Its just the nature of it.Michigan State will play for the bigger stakes with an offense that is riding high while Wisconsin (3-0) comes in with plenty of questions.The Badgers have had trouble scoring consistently and could be without senior running back Corey Clement (ankle) for a second straight game. And Chryst hasnt committed to a starting quarterback after replacing fifth-year senior Bart Houston in the second half against Georgia State with redshirt freshman Alex Hornibrook.Both have to be ready to play, to be sure, Chryst said. Im positive of that. Both have to go. I told them there are going to be games where theyre both going to play.We need both of them to keep growing and go for us. Ill let the week determine all this stuff, with whos going to play running back, whos going to play left guard, whos going to play quarterback, whos going to play receiver, whos going to be the nickel corner. 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