Cycling isn’t Kate Leeming’s first love. It’s tennis. Court tennis, that is. She’s an 11-time Australian Open champion (five times in singles, six in doubles) and is revered worldwide in the sport. But her athletic accomplishments don’t stop there—she's also an accomplished long-distance cyclist who aims to be the first person to bike across Antarctica.

Leeming, who currently lives in Melbourne, plans to ride across the continent via the South Pole next year, the latest high-risk stunt on her storied list of adventures by bike. She’s traversed Africa, Australia, and Siberia on a bicycle, and claims a total lifetime riding distance equaling two trips around the world at the Equator.

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This ride, though, will be a little different. Not because of the bitter temperatures (she’s ridden to Nordkapp, Norway, the northernmost point in Europe), but because this endeavor will be the most philanthropic of them all.

In 1993, Leeming's “Trans-Siberian Cycle Expedition,” as she calls it, aimed to help children harmed by the Chernobyl catastrophe. Her journey around Australia in 2004 was to advocate for education about sustainability development, and was promoted by the United Nations. And her 2010 “Breaking the Cycle in Africa” trip was created to raise awareness for the many living in poverty and illness on the continent, and to help Leeming figure out how she could help.

Leeming standing in the Tin Toumma Desert in Niger during her Breaking the Cycle in Africa journey Phil Coates

Five years later, Antarctica is the answer. Leeming has set out on a quest for funding for the trip, and is campaigning for the app Charity Miles, (RED), which allows people to raise money for HIV and AIDS victims in Africa by running, walking, or biking at no monetary cost to them (corporate sponsors pledge to donate per mile of each user). She’s also drawn up the plans for an online, globally reaching education program called “Education for Leadership,” which will be assisted by several education organizations once funding is taken care of, according to her website.

“There were times on my journey when I felt helpless and vowed to use my skills and experience to make more of a difference,” Leeming says of her Breaking the Cycle in Africa trip. “Right now the world is at a tipping point in the fight against the AIDS pandemic… Combating AIDS requires a global effort from governments, organizations and individuals—this is an opportunity to use my skills and abilities to do my part.”

Her trek through Antarctica is going to take a team effort as well. Leeming will be accompanied by highly experienced polar guide and fellow Australian Eric Phillips, award-winning documentary filmmaker Claudio von Planta, and photographer/videographer Phil Coates, who worked in the Arctic in 2011.

Leeming and her crew traveled to Spitsbergen, Norway in preparation for the Antarctic climate Phil Coates

And, of course, she needs a bike that’s suited to harsh, frozen riding. To find her ride, Leeming sought out a manufacturer willing to produce a custom machine for Antarctic terrain. She eventually crossed paths with Steve Christini, a motorbike producer in Philadephia.

Christini specializes in off-road bikes and professional-level dirtbikes, and is the inventor of the all-wheel drive mountain bike. Perhaps most convincing for Leeming, however, was the fact that one of Christini’s employees had used a company AWD mountain bike to ride alongside the ice- and snow-laden Alaskan Iditarod dog sled race in the early 2000s. Although he hadn't created a bicycle since 2005, Christini didn’t hesitate at the opportunity to help Leeming.

“It took a ton of engineering time, but I just felt like it was something I had to do,” Christini says. “Anybody who has that kind of determination deserves the help. She loved the thing.”

Leeming's custom bike was built by Steve Christini, the inventor of the All-Wheel Drive mountain bike Phil Coates

Christini came up with a heavy-duty AWD Fat Bike, equipped with 4-inch tires. An identical bike will be produced and auctioned off to the public to benefit Leeming’s cause, Christini says.

So far, Leeming has ridden the bike in -22 degree weather in Spitsbergen, Norway to prepare for Antarctica, and intends to ride across Greenland as a final training session. Based on the videos her team has produced so far, it looks like the bike will hold up just fine.

As for Leeming? We’re pretty confident she’ll be okay, too.

“By the time I disclose my plans to family, friends and then the public, I have already done masses of research, worked out what is possible, how I want to make a difference and defined my mission,” she says. “Those close to me are always supportive because they trust that I will be well-prepared and have the ability to honor what I propose.”

Watch footage from Leeming's practice rides:

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