Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Silent Sports - About Us

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Silent Sports magazine was founded in July 1984 to provide solid, reliable and timely regional information on bicycling, running, paddlesports, multisports (triathlons, duathlons, biathlons and adventure races), cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, inline skating and other nonmotorized aerobic activities. Started by Greg Marr, Silent Sports was born of the frustration of trying to find regional information on these "silent sports." National publications address regional needs sporadically at best and local sources - newspapers and city-specific magazines - virtually ignore these activities and their growing number of participants.


Silent Sports was also founded to report on the high level of participation of citizen and elite athletes in many Midwest events like the American Birkebeiner (North America's largest cross country ski race); the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival (the nation's largest off-road race/festival; the Grandview Firehouse 50 (one of the largest citizen bike races in the U.S.; the WORS Series, a mountain bike race series that draws well over 7,000 riders each year; prestigious marathons in Chicago, Twin Cities and Duluth; and the North Shore Inline Marathon, the largest of its kind in the country. Events like these, and the thousands of smaller events, were the catalyst for Silent Sports.


With all these events listed annually in the extensive Silent Sports Calendar of Events section, the magazine has filled a need for thousands of people who devote much of their free time to outdoor aerobic recreation and competition.


We follow the seasons, providing complete regional coverage. We tell you the best places to go to enjoy your activities, and whom to see when you get there. We feature the silent sports people and places in the upper Midwest.


We cover the news that affects the enjoyment of silent sports - from trail acquisition to regulations regarding mountain bike use. While we can be serious, Silent Sports will often take a light-hearted approach.

Editor Joel Patenaude is joined by a stable of contributing editors who write regular columns. These include long-time contributors Mitch Mode (cross-country skiing), Bill Hauda (health and fitness), Mark Parman (skiing and bicycling), Tom Kaufman (running), Darren Bush (paddling), Donna Marlor (nutrition) and Jim Joque (snowshoeing and backpacking). All our columnists are active in a variety of silent sports and experts in their fields. And each is a frequent contributor to other local, regional and national publications.

Our first issue hit the stands in 1984 with 48 pages. Recent issues have checked in at nearly double that size with as many as 30 pages of event listings alone. What hasn't changed is our focus: self-propelled recreation as enjoyed where we live, in the upper Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, northern Illinois, northeastern Iowa and Ontario, Canada).

It is the source for information on your favorite activities in your part of the country. We give you information you can use to help you get more out of the activities you participate in.


Silent Sports continues to grow in large part because it offers a sense of family and community to its readers; a feeling not often found in mass market publications. We have filled a niche by providing information on a local-regional basis through a magazine that has become a part of the lives of its readers.

Silent Sports is owned by Multi Media Channels LLC/Brown County Publishing

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