Wooooo Hoooooo y’all, it’s almost time for the 2017 CrossFit Open!! The CrossFit Open is the first of a series of workouts designed to find the “Fittest People on Earth” – people who are good at everything – running, swimming, climbing, lifting heavy stuff, pulling, pushing and anything else you can think of – kind like what we do in class. Actually, it’s exactly like what we do in class! Anyone in the world can enter the contest, all you have to do is go to games.crosfit.com and register. The cost is only $20 and you get to see where you lie among the fittest people on Earth (and among your age group). The contest begins on Thursday, February 27th at 7pm central time when CrossFit will announce the first workout. You will then have until the following Monday at 6pm central time to turn in your scores. They will repeat this process 5 times – 5 workouts in 5 weeks.
From there, the top ranking athletes around the world will either go to Regionals or to Masters Qualifiers where they will perform several workouts in just a few days. These will be much higher level workouts and will weed out the best of the best. Our region is the South Central Region and from there the top 2-3 men and women age 18-34 will go to The CrossFit Games in late July where they will compete for the title of the Fittest  Man and Woman on Earth. After the Masters Qualifiers (which will be performed here at our little gym) the top 20 men and women in the world of each age category will go to the Games to vie for their respective titles. This is what our very own John Mariotti did in 2014 and came in 6th Fittest Man on Earth age 55-59!
For more information and to see some really incredible videos, go to games.crosfit.com and check it all out!
Not too difficult, right?
The truth is that it’s not difficult at all. In fact, we will perform every workout here at CrossFit Odyssey just like we would perform any workout. However, we have spiced it up a little bit for our own purposes! That is how it affects YOU! Everyone here at the gym will be divided up into 3 Teams:
The Athena-letes
Captained by Lisa Prather. Lisa is a lawyer and has been CrossFitting for about 6 years and is by far the strongest and most talented female athlete in the gym. She was a high level soccer player but now has knee injuries that keep her from competing in CrossFit. Who better to coach? Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom and war and has been a symbol of strong women for centuries.
Team Zeus
Captained by JJ Wynne. JJ has only been CrossFitting about 6 months, but she has made incredible gains and she is very eager to learn more and lead her team to victory! JJ is a food photographer and recently lost over 110lbs of body weight! She also coaches others to help them lose weight. Zeus was the head of all of the Greek gods and carried a lightening bolt to show he was in charge!
Team Pelops
Captained by Tim Higginbotham. You may recognize Tim by his 6’10” stature. He is one of our Christ the King dads and he is the Director of Procurement at Southcross Energy Partners and the proud father of 2 kiddos. His wife, Karen, has her own cookie company, Kimber’s Cookies (maybe he will tempt you with free cookies?) Pelops was the “inventor” of the first Olympic Games!
Some of our top athletes have been divided up to even out the playing field, but the rest of you are welcome to sign up with whomever wins your heart. We also HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you sign up for the Open online (click on the link above). It is a great way to test your own fitness and then next year you can see if you got any better. Everyone will perform the workouts at the gym and everyone will get a score. Scores will be added up by team and we will see which team will win the first ever CrossFit Odyssey Games trophy!
SURVEY:
We are considering having a Saturday afternoon competition and barbeque every Saturday afternoon to cheer on some of our competitors and to have a little bit of fun. Please let us know if this is something you would be interested in doing! The survey is on the Members only Facebook Page!