Maybe it was Jason Lentz’s genetic destiny to become one of the world’s best lumberjacks. His father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather, who had worked the Great Depression-era logging camps in Oregon, were all elite lumberjacks. …Either way, his story can be said to begin in 1981, when his father, Melvin Lentz, showed up at the Webster County Woodchopping Festival in West Virginia. After a weekend of wielding his huge seven-pound ax… Mel won the contest. Being a lumberjack, in the woods as well as competitions, was all he had wanted for himself since he was a kid and saw his own father win trophies, and at 21, he was already on his way to becoming the most decorated American athlete in the history of his peculiar sport. [to access the full story a NY Times subscription is required]