Athletes

Muscle-ups knocked Annie Mist Thorisdottir out of the 2009 CrossFit Games. Mike Warkentin reports that Thorisdottir is confident the movement won’t be a problem again.

“DNF—first muscle-up!”

That was what appeared on Annie Mist Thorisdottir’s scorecard when judge Chuck Carswell brought it to the scorer’s table after the final women’s WOD at the 2009 CrossFit Games.

Moments earlier, the 19-year-old from Iceland had failed to finish the gruelling chipper but… Continue Reading

The CrossFit world is full of amazing stories—here are some of the very best, as written by Daniel Andrews and Mike Warkentin.

CrossFit changes lives—we all know it.

In this regular feature, the CrossFit Journal compiles the most extraordinary stories from a community of extraordinary people.

In this edition, we feature Daniel Andrews, a Denver police officer with a four-hour marathon time and an 892-lb. CrossFit Total. In August… Continue Reading

Keith Zeier fought for a year to learn how to walk. Learning the push jerk at a Level 1 Cert is going to be easy.

Zeier discovered CrossFit in 2006, when he was a recon Marine stationed in Iraq. Only months later, an improvised explosive device (IED) left him unable to walk, let alone do Fran. During a year of surgeries and rehab, Zeier got back into CrossFit and used it to prove the doctors wrong.

… Continue Reading

Greg Amundson learns a tough lesson when his poor command of double-unders costs him a trip to the 2009 CrossFit Games. What happened after that is the real story.

At 7 a.m. on the day of the Last Chance Qualifier, my wife Mallee woke me up and said, “Honey, do you know how to double-under?” At that moment, I couldn’t think of the last time I had even held a jump rope in my hands, but I was… Continue Reading

“The way I feel now, I can’t freakin’ believe I’m 70 years old,” says Jacinto Bonilla, the much-beloved Level 2 trainer at CrossFit New York in the second part of our profile from Again Faster.

Jacinto is a retired radiographer who saw many X-rays of older patients with hip problems. He’s always been active and decided to keep up his fitness level to avoid ending up in a nursing home himself. Jacinto began by training friends… Continue Reading

Chris Spealler got 100 consecutive pull-ups on his first attempt on video with Sevan Matossian and Carey Peterson. Or so he thought.

No one counted for Chris, and when they reviewed the tape, he had only done 99.

Ten days later, at the CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Summit, Chris tried again. His hands ripped so bad, the dripping blood became too slippery and he fell off the bar at 97 reps.

He tried… Continue Reading

This video from Again Faster is the first part of a profile Jacinto Bonilla, a 69-year old Level 2 CrossFit trainer who competed in last year’s CrossFit Games.

“He’s obviously not from this planet. But he keeps up a good façade and everyone thinks he’s from this planet,” says Hari Singh, co-owner of CrossFit NYC. Few suspect Jacinto’s age when they first meet him.

A much-beloved figure at the The Black Box in New York… Continue Reading

Travis Bagent is one of the greatest armwrestlers in the world. He and John Brzenk will be at the CrossFit Games armwrestling any and all takers. These four videos document Travis’s first attempt at a CrossFit workout.

Sevan Matossian wrote this about these videos:
A series of videos that shows a 6' foot 3", 275lb man (pro athlete) try a simple workout and struggle on all fronts. He wants to… Continue Reading