Confessions of a Naval Pentathlete

Kasper Hansen, a member of the Danish armed forces, rekindles his love of training and sport through CrossFit.

I stumbled upon CrossFit in fall 2009. Two of my friends started working out in one of Denmark’s first CrossFit gyms, Butcher’s Lab in Copenhagen, and they took me there a couple of times when I was in town. I had long been in search of new inspiration for my training to keep me motivated. CrossFit proved to be that inspiration.

I had been training and competing in Denmark’s Naval Pentathlon since 2005 with good results. I was a two-time national champion and finished second in the Nordic championships in 2007 but still felt as if I had yet to fully realize my potential.

After taking a a CrossFit seminar and meeting Blair Morrison in early 2010, I finally found joy in training again. For the first time in a very long time I began really looking forward to the next workout.

I had a limited amount of time to travel and train in Copenhagen on the weekends, and when the first competition of the season arrived, I had barely been on the tracks at all. The obstacle-course race was my first since the summer of 2009, but I was only one second off of my personal best. I won the championship. And although I didn’t set any personal records, the results were so close to my previous bests that I was sure my CrossFit training had positively affected my performance.