Paul Thompson, 34 - Marion, N.C.

When Paul Thompson was little, he didn’t have dreams of becoming a three-time champion of the Total Outdoorsman Challenge. He loved the outdoors like any other kid, but he really wanted to be a Major League Baseball player. Once he got to high school, however, he realized he might not be that great of a baseball player to make it too far, so he decided to get involved in wildlife.

“Your options start narrowing as time goes on,” Thompson says. “I’ve always enjoyed being outdoors. The curiosity of wildlife just took over.”

Flash forward to today. Thompson, now a wildlife technician, is a celebrity in the outdoors world, aiming for his fourth straight TOC title. He’s a May 2008 Field & Stream cover boy, but he’s as humble as ever. Thompson knows what to expect from this competition, but he also feels pressure to do well in all events. “You’re under a microscope and people are waiting to pounce on you,” he says.

An injured back—bulging disks from lifting—that put him out of work for three weeks doesn’t help. “But I’ll be there crawling if I have to,” Thompson says.

In his spare time, Thompson enjoys creating scrapboard artwork and acrylic paintings of wildlife portraits, such as a turkey strutting. “The whole family has been artistic,” Thompson says. “I kind of sketched and doodled through high school. I just recently decided to do some stuff seriously.”

Thompson sees archery and fly fishing as his strong points in the competition, and he’s also excelled at the ATV event in the past. But the thought of 11 competitors who didn’t participate in last year’s finals has him alert. “There are a lot of new guys,” Thompson says. “That could be good or that could be bad.”

— Lance Madden