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

Peter Mosby, 42 - Aurora, CO

This fall will mark Mosby’s first academic year as the new principal of Montbello High School in Denver. He’s been spending 60 to 70 hours per week preparing for his new job, so he hasn’t been able to find much time to get outdoors and prepare for the TOC. He recently drew a big-horn sheep tag after 12 years, but he won’t be able to spend a whole week hunting like he’d like to.

But Mosby, last year’s third-place overall finisher, isn’t too worried. He was able to squeeze in a quick vacation to Florida and Costa Rica and get in some fly fishing practice. “But fly fishing is never a problem,” he says.

Costa Rica is where Mosby lived until he was 6 before moving to the Philippines for two years, and then to Colorado. Mosby can still remember he and his father, who was in the air force, going fishing for needlefish when he was about 5 years old.

Growing up with four younger brothers and sisters kept Mosby competitive. Their father would give each of them one .22 bullet to hunt with. “If we came back with a squirrel or a rabbit, we got two more bullets,” Mosby says. “If we came back with nothing, he’d give us one more bullet. And it had to be a head or shoulder shot. Talk about not wasting a single shot.”

Competitions are still common in the family. Brothers, sisters, husband, and wives all line up and play a skeet-shooting game similar to “Knockout,” a basketball game. It keeps his shooting skills sharp and his family bond tight. And though Mosby says the people he competes in the TOC with are like his extended family, he’s determined to do better than he has against them in the past two years.

“I’m going to win this year,” Mosby says. “I don’t care if I haven’t practiced.”

— Lance Madden