As a CrossFit athlete, I used to think we were butchering Olympic sports—one at a time. I often ran into athletes from other sports, like weightlifters and rowers, who would point to sights they saw during throwdowns and CrossFit competitions to prove their point. Sights like a gnarly-looking clean during a max clean event, where the athlete somehow finds a way to stand up despite the bar being down at his nipples, his back being rounded, and his heels lifted off the ground—the kind of laboured, ugly lift that would only ever get applauded by CrossFit athletes. Meanwhile, rowers I knew would point to CrossFit athletes’ short, choppy, rushed rowing strokes—generally accompanied by flailing heads and curved spines—giving them a license...

After Rachel Siemens helped Team Taranis to a bronze medal at the 2011 CrossFit Games, she abandoned the sport. 

Not because she didn’t love CrossFit. But because there was one part of CrossFit she loved more than anything else: Weightlifting.

You learn a lot about the athletes you compete about when you team up with them for a competition, like I did with Brittany Brown at the CrossFit Fort Vancouver Invitational two weeks ago in Vancouver, Washington. 

In short, what I learned about Brittany is that she has mastered the art of maintaining a cool, casual, calm demeanour while she competes fiercely.