Mario Rigby

Mario Rigby is a Canadian-Turks and Caicos Islander adventure explorer, author, speaker, and former professional track and field athlete currently based in Toronto, ON. From 2015 to 2017, he completed an epic two year long walk across Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo entitled Crossing Africa. Mario is an advocate for the inclusion of diversity in the outdoors and encourages POC (people of colour) to explore the outdoors more often. Rigby leads hikes, small expeditions and speaking engagements between major projects.

Rigby was born on 24 November 1985 in Grand Turk Island, Turks and Caicos Islands to Zemar Stingl. He is the oldest of two sons born to Stingl, and he is of Jamaican and Bahamian descent. Shortly after his brother was born, the family relocated to Stuttgart, Germany where they resided for several years before returning to the Caribbean. The family's first move to Canada was to Hamilton, Ontario. Rigby ran competitive track and field for Turks and Caicos from age 14-26 and competed in multiple world championships and IAAF tournaments.

After completing high school in Hamilton, he moved to London, ON when he was 18, and attended Western University. He later moved to Toronto where he became a fitness trainer and ran his own gym in downtown Toronto.