Jesper Olsen, or Jesper Kenn Olsen, is an multiple national record holder ultra distance runner from Denmark, and was the second person verified to have run around the world (16,000 miles: 2004-2005), as well as the first verified to have run around the world in a north-south rather than east-west direction (25,000 miles: 2008-2010, 2011-2012, due to 6-month illness and injury). Background Olsen has a master's degree in political science from Copenhagen University, Denmark. He also has a law degree. Running Olsen has been a marathon runner since the age of 15. He has achieved various milestones, including the European elite on 100 km and 24-hours; the national recordholder on 100 km, 24-hours and 6-days (6:58, 224 km, 549 km), the national elite on marathon (2:27), as well as the Cliff Young Australian 6-day race in November 2004, running 756 kilometres, and the South African 6-day race in April 2008 with a total of 685 kilometres. Following positive reception of his proposal of a world run in 2001, Olsen also founded the World Run project as the organization to undertake the attempt and its support. World runs World Run I The concept of Olsen's world run originated as a suggestion made in 2001 by Olsen to David Blaikie, who published it with an invitation for comments on his website ultramarathonworld.com. Olsen suggested that, without taking sides in then-current controversies in the ultra-running world, a professionally organized world run would be a "constructive" and "truly sportsman[like]" response to widespread ultrarunner community skepticism and discussion concerning Robert Garside's world run, which had been in progress since 1997 but was viewed with great skepticism by Blaikie and many ultra-runners and had not yet been authenticated by Guinness at the time. In his letter, Olsen stated that while he was "fairly new to the 'real' ultra-running" world, he did hold the Danish national record for the 100 km run (6:58:31) and for the 24-hour run (223 km), had been running marathons since around 1986 (15 years), and having finished a degree, was able to commit the time required if the proposal gained the necessary support from others. Olsen's run around the world took 22 months. It started on 1 January 2004 and finished on 23 October 2005. His route consisted of: London-Copenhagen-Moscow-Vladivostok-(air)-Niigata-Tokyo-(air)-Sydney-Perth-(air)-Los Angeles-Vancouver-New York-(air)-Shannon-Dublin-(air)-Liverpool-London. Olsen averaged a day, slightly more than a marathon. It totalled just over 16,000 miles (26,000 km), exceeding the distance