April’s Extraordinary Athlete is Jenny Abbott, wife to Todd Abbott, mother to her three little cuties, Audrey, Jack and Kate. Jenny is very involved taking care of her family,  a ambassador tor Noonday Collection, a socially responsible business that uses fashion (selling jewelry and accessories) to create meaningful opportunities around the world, and she spends a lot of time riding horses with her two girls, which is actually one

of the main reasons she started CrossFit. What she discovered is that not only is she pretty good at all of this CrossFit stuff, but it’s really pretty darn fun, too! And as a result, I heard that her husband recently told her that she now has the legs and booty she had when they first got married – and that’s something to enjoy!

Since Jenny has begun CrossFit her squats and her core strength have improved dramatically, which have in turn improved her horseback riding – in order to ride for long periods of time you have to be able to sit up straight and squeeze the horse with your inner thighs to maintain your seat – and to not hurt yourself and your back. She has also lost weight and inches since starting.

What has been most impressive about Jenny is her attitude about all of this. She is always looking to conquer a new obstacle, she loves being strong and capable, she was even brave enough to enter the CrossFit Open 2017 and do all of the workouts and see how she ranked among 16,000 of her peers in the world and 1300 in the South Central Region after only doing CrossFit for not quite a year. She did’t come out on top of that list -it’s an incredible feat to do so – but she took the hardest step, which is entering in the first place, she gave it her all and she set a goal for herself to beat that score next year.

A lot of times in life we let things get in our way because they look scary. People tell me all the time that CrossFit looks too scary and hard. However, once people begin they fall in love. A lot of people are scared to enter the CrossFit Open. They are afraid to find out that they aren’t in very good shape – or maybe not as good as some others. But you will never know unless you try… and the point is not about winning – only 1 guy and 1 girl actually win and there are over 400,000 athletes participating. The point is to test what you have learned, set a marker, and then test it again next year and see if you have improved. And, of course, the point is to have fun!!!

Jenny didn’t let the unknown of CrossFit scare her away and she didn’t let the fact that she wasn’t going to be the Fittest on Earth scare her away from competing in the CrossFit Games. She took those challenges by the reins and made them work for her, and that is what has made her April’s Extraordinary Athlete. Good luck on your Journey to Extraordinary, Jenny! We are expecting to see amazing things this year!