This year’s CrossFit Games Open has just ended after five gruelling weeks of soaring highs and crushing lows. Workouts that seemed so easy on paper yet cut the legs out from under you in minutes; or workouts that left you staring at the bar at the end of your physical capacity with no hope of further progression. But what about the single rep that you got into the next round? What about the tactics that you weren’t too sure about that got you further than all of your friends? The morning that you woke up and said “Finally. Deadlift and box jumps! It’s my time.”
The Open had a little something for everyone; no matter how experienced. Every year we have done it, it has inspired us to greater things than we felt capable of. It brought some new people to the gym and brought back some long overdue old faces. In particular, Sundays were an outstanding display of camaraderie and cakes with the recent formation of the Fat Lad’s Rhabdo Club.
We have collectively and individually accomplished some amazing things this year:
With 192 athletes registered we were once again the largest team in Europe (13th Largest Worldwide) and it is testament to the community and to the commitment of the athletes to the gym and one another that we continue to dominate on our capacity to get behind one another. We are expecting something to recognise this achievement from the powers that be.
40% of Scotland’s top 10 athletes currently train at CFG and a further 20% have either been former members or have their spiritual home here. With the competition stream looming closer we hope to build on this success and start to progress a competent team up the European rankings.
This post could literally compliment every athlete from CFG who took part in the Open. Everybody had a shining moment and a good number of those who signed up had something positive said about them either in the run up to the Open or during it but we’d like to honour someone who has carried the weight of the world these past 5 weeks.
Steph Dekker went under the radar in the run up to the Open – it was a decision that we made early on to ensure that there was no added pressure – for a girl with so much talent and a generally confident demeanour she puts huge amounts of pressure on herself to perform. She had some significant demons to face with range of motion issues highlighted by the Regionals judges last year and in what seemed to be an endless stream of niggles and injuries.
As a team and as a community, lets take a moment to consider exactly what she has done: Steph has qualified for Regionals once again (30th overall); she finished above every athlete, male and female, in Scotland; she won every WOD in the gym as a female athlete and generally completed every WOD twice. Steph has recently qualified for the National Pro Fitness League Combine in Boston and we are confident that if she pushes herself there the way she always has at CFG, then she will walk into any of the teams out there. If you see her in the gym this week let her know that you are proud of her.
