For Austin sports fans, Jen Ohlson is recognized as the only female sportscaster in the area. However, few know her many faces away from the camera.

Ohlson is a bonafide athlete who has devoted her entire life to a passion for sports. While she most recently participated as an Ironman athlete for the second time, earning the title of thefirst female from Texas to finish the 2001 Hawaii World Championship, she also has run in more than 20 marathons, with a career that began as the “Most Lettered Female High School Athlete” in Colorado history. After a full scholarship to George Mason University playing soccer and track, she was determined to do something sports-related.

Ohlson went on to work as an account executive for a cable station, but after realizing the lack of a sports programs that featured local high school talent, she decided to start one of her own. “Once I picked up a camera, it was my love,” she says.

Soon after, she was working 100-hour weeks and her sales job quickly took a backseat. At that point, her boss simply told her she needed to choose. She chose the show, and the rest is history. Ohlson went on to work in Sherman and Dallas as a sportsreporter, before coming to Austin.

Now Ohlson feels she could never leave the city and loves the diversity it offers. When Ohlson first came to Austin, one of her first loves was the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail, a place she continues to train even today. “It became my security blanket,” she says.

And because she admires the trail so much, she even decided to write a book paying homage to what she calls her inspiration. Compiling more than 30 interviews with the many personalities that hike, run and ride the trail, Ohlson says, “It’s woven like a river.”

As a passionate storyteller, she constantly tries to share different perspectives on the athletes she covers, searching for “around the water cooler” stories that people can talk about the next day. “Everyone can say, ‘Oh, T.J. Ford scored 20 points last night,” she says, “But what’s the story behind him doing it?”

And though Ohlson is the only female sportscaster in Austin, it’s not a major challenge from her viewpoint. “I’m more in the minority for being an athlete in this business,” she says.

At the end of the day, Ohlson is a lot more than a “talking-head” sportscaster. She’s a die-hard fan and hardcore athlete that is fortunate enough to report on what she loves for a living.