I don’t have the words to properly explain the amazing experience my first ever in person and
international competition was! My CrossFit journey started during COVID so that along with the fact that there aren’t many in person adaptive competitions in South Africa, meant I had never
participated in a competition that wasn’t online. I was scrolling through my Instagram one evening
and saw some of my CrossFit favourites posting about WZA – this of course sparked my interest right away and after doing some research I discovered that there was an adaptive division! I did a bit of research and decided to just enter. Recovering from a shoulder injury and only having 3 days to complete all qualifying workouts was the last thing on my mind – I was just so excited to be able to gauge my abilities against other adaptive athletes. Luckily for me I have the best coach (Leanne) and most supportive box who were behind me all the way. We spent the next 3 days at the box preparing and getting the WOD’s done one at a time. This wasn’t all smooth sailing – we had to redo one work out twice because of a camera malfunction and another for missing a few specifications. None of this mattered though because I had done it! I had officially qualified! The next few months were filled with training, eating and a lot of recovery. I worked on the skills I lacked and tried to better my strength as much as possible.
Finally it was time – off to Miami I went! I spent about a week with family before my box owner and friend Luke arrived to join in on the experience and be my wheelman!
Day 1:
Thursday was officially the first day of competition. The elite and teams events would kick off the start of WZA 2022. To finally get to see and meet some of the amazing athlete I have followed for so long was amazing! These athletes were just as friendly and chatty as their social media profiles led on and I was sure to take advantage of this and get all the selfies possible. We spent the day watching some events, registering and getting our bearings on the event layout. We got cool name tags, a WZA shirt and some other small goodies at registration. At registration I also got to finally meet so many of the adaptive athletes I had only ever met and competed against online. Being surrounded by people just like me and seeing so many similarities was a really cool feeling. At my local box I am the only adaptive athlete so it was great to see so many of us all together. There was a lot done to ensure wheelchair access but there is definitely some room for improvement next year! My biggest frustration was that not all of the stages were accessible meaning a few events I would have loved to attend were inaccessible.
Day 2:
Friday means adaptive competition day 1! The moment I had been waiting for! My first in person competition with other adaptive athletes! I was so excited but nervous at the same time. I had seen the first workout and already knew it would be a major struggle because the kettlebell weight was way more than I had ever used and it was a new movement for me, event 1 was pretty daunting. My goal was to just chip away at as many reps as I could for the 10 minutes and hope it was enough to place high up . After 10 minutes I managed to finish my u-turns and 19 reps of the kettlebell presses I only had one left to go before I could move onto another movement but I was happy with how far I got. A score I wish I had done better on but still proud nonetheless. In this event I placed 4th. This workout was a hard one to start with as it left me feeling disappointed that I had battled so much. In hind sight this was probably a good thing because after about ten minutes of feeling sorry for myself I realised that it only made me want it more. Onto event two for the day, one I had been looking forward to! Some cleans and shoulder to overhead sprint. While during this event I definitely discovered I needed to work on my strength this workout still seemed like one l’d enjoy. I finished in 1:32 again resulting in a 4th place finish, which I was not thrilled nor upset about. I was trying to be less critical of my performances and focus on really enjoying the competition while still trying my best. We spend about another 30 minutes watching some other events before we heading back to the apartment for some dinner and much needed rest!
Day 3:
My Saturday didn’t start off the best as I woke up with a massive migraine, luckily I had packed
about half a pharmacy in my bag and had all the right medication lol, I took what I needed and had a much needed nap. Thank goodness our first workout was only scheduled for the late afternoon so I had time to relax and eat before getting ready! This workout was one I felt excited yet intimidated about. It had pull ups and RMU’s in it, some of my favourite movements but again had a barbell with a heavier weight than I’m used to – that’s CrossFit for you always the unexpected. Day three came with some major excitement though. It started with athlete briefing, on my way to the ampithere I was stopped by one of my absolute favourites – Bethany Shadburn, she spotted me wearing one of her shirts from her Born Primitive x Bethany Shadburn collection. She came running up to me with such excitement and wished me luck with my event – I could have just about exploded I was so happy. She had even been saving one of her signed games shirts for someone and just happened to want to give it to me! Chatting to her put my mind at such ease and I was feeling calm and ready. But this is when an already great afternoon got even better. The Buttery Bro’s and Justin Mederois had volunteered to be ‘wheelmen’ for the seated division and of course I jumped at this opportunity! I don’t train at home with a ‘wheelman’ so I couldn’t see many ways it could really go wrong. They have a ton of CrossFit experience and were more than willing to listen and learn. Again these were some of the coolest CrossFit people I follow on social media and they proved to be just as cool in person! I couldn’t think of anything better than having Heber there making sure I didn’t fall on my face while Justin Mederios (aka the fittest man on earth 2021) was yelling at me to keep going. Even though I only managed to place fourth again I couldn’t have asked for a better day.
Day 4:
The final day of competition. Sitting fourth on the leader board I really wanted to move up and get
to third – a podium finish was something I had really hoped for. With two events for the day I was still hopeful I could achieve that goal. We kicked off the morning with a delicious breakfast and headed to athlete briefing. This is where all the adaptive athletes got a pair of the epic Dottier audio earphones – a really cool gesture from them for the adaptive athletes. With the day already off to a great start we headed to our first event – I was skeptical about this one but still went in with a positive mind and yep, you guessed it – I placed fourth AGAIN. While I’m all about consistency this whole fourth place thing was killing me a bit. Luckily for me the other girls were slightly less consistent and this moved me up to a tied third place overall. Finally I felt like I was getting somewhere. Now it meant a big push to see who would hold onto third place. I felt like I was so close! Then we got news of a weather warning and a potential early end to WZA 2022. Everyone had to pack up and head somewhere safe to wait out the storm. As we anxiously waited at the apartment I was really hoping the weather would clear to just get that last event in! I was excited for this event as it was more cardio and less heavy weights. We had to wheelie (a very new skill to me) which I was worried about, with some slit ropes and a heavy sand bag ‘clean’ and push. We finally got an announcement saying we were able to continue! I was ecstatic the last and most important event of the weekend! We headed back down to the event and got warmed up and
ready. The first movement was some wheelies, I never really understood why people would want to wheelie? Why would you want to put yourself in a position to fall over? Haha so this was a newly learnt skill and I started off with a very slow wheelie up and down leaving me at the back of the pack, this didn’t last two long though I managed to make up some time with my split ropes and didn’t stop there. I was so close to that podium finish I knew I had to just GO! I put my heart and soul into this workout and with only about 30 seconds left on the clock I was about two seconds behind the front runner, I just remember telling myself that this was what I had trained for and wanted more than anything else. She is much stronger than me and we both finished our split ropes at the same time and next up was that horrible and heavy sand bag clean and push. I used every last bit I had in me and I managed to get that sandbag off the ground and onto my lap quicker that I had done before and got onto the carry before she did. That means I had done it! I had finally moved passed fourth place and I had come first! My first ever event win and my first ever competition. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end of the weekend! This first place came with my securing third place and managing to podium. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to experience WZA.
While there were so many new movements for me they all came with a lesson. You should always
expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything. Coming home from WA I had a lot to work on and that made me excited. Excited to do better and excited work on weaknesses. I can’t wait to go back next year, this time more prepared and with even more fire.
