The Wellington School: Building a CrossFit Program

The Wellington School, located in Columbus, Ohio, is an independent private school for students in preschool through Grade 12. Four-time CrossFit Games athlete Lindsey Smith is its athletic director.

The school is also home to TWS CrossFit. When Smith accepted the job at the prep school, a Wellington parent who does CrossFit reached out to ask how CrossFit would be implemented into the athletics program.

“(The parent) gave us some restricted funds, and with that we were able to purchase some equipment, really get the ball rolling with the affiliation process and background checks and everything that CrossFit Kids requires to get a program started,” Smith says.

Smith recruited Kyri-Ann Gold to help run the kids program, and it soon took off. Registration was full within 30 minutes of opening.

The middle-school basketball players, who had a 13-1 record last season under Smith, consider her a role model.

“She’s really fun and always motivating us to try harder and do our best even if it’s one day 50 percent of what it was another day,” says Wellington student Christin. “As long as we’re always trying our best, then she’s always supportive.”

Video by Mike Koslap.

5min 41sec

Additional reading: “Charting a New Course in the Classroom” by Chris Cooper, published Nov. 30, 2013.