Who Is T.J. Lavin From The Challenge?

Like his "Survivor" counterpart Jeff Probst, T.J. Lavin's job is to explain the rules of each increasingly dangerous and adrenaline-filled challenge to the series' contestants. It's the sort of task that can go from intense to unintentionally comedic fairly easily, but Lavin's extensive experience in the demanding world of professional BMX riding lends more than a little credibility to his non-performative performance. 

Over the course of his extreme sports career, Lavin was a mainstay and favorite of world-renowned competitions like the Dew Tour and the X Games, where he took home not one, but two gold medals, in '97 and '99. In the former's 2010 competition, on the eve of the athlete's retirement from the sport, he suffered a near-fatal injury that required him to be put in a medically-induced coma (via Bleacher Report). 

During and following his road to recovery, Lavin began working as a dirt course designer for the Dew Tour, tried his hand at entrepreneurship with the alcohol metabolizer Forgiven (via XGames), and, of course, continued to host "The Challenge." In addition to BMX bikes and the business of booze processing, Lavin has also dipped his toe in the music industry.