It started with the Crossfit Open and over 1500 teens girls aged 14 and 15 from around the world. From there, the top 10% moved on to the Age Group Online Qualifiers (AGOQs). If you were successful there, the top 30 in the world moved on to Age Group Semifinals. After that, the top 10 head to Crossfit Games in Madison, Wisconsin - CrossFit’s World Championships. Let me introduce you to 14 year old Trenna Gessell (she is actually not 14 until July; making her old enough to compete by only a few weeks!).
For most of us, the Open brings but a little more to the daily wod in that we partner up and have someone count our reps for us. That’s about where the differences end from any other day you are in the gym. At Trenna’s level however, things look completely different. Some of you may have been around the gym to watch one of her AGOQ workouts. Some of you came out to support her through semifinals. If you saw any of that, you saw what was involved for the workout. Let me fill you in on behind the scenes a little bit.
For Trenna, every detail matters. She is in the top one-tenth of a percentile in the world. The time of day matters. The width of a piece of tape matters. The simple difference between rounding a kilogram to just tenths instead of hundredths in pounds matters. The placement of a clock matters. Her feet in relation to a tape measure matter.
Crossfit released the age group semifinals on a Monday. On Tuesday, Jay and myself sat down individually for a couple hours and looked over each of the five tests. We thought and pondered and strategized on what would work best for Trenna’s success. We looked at every detail of the movement standards. We read every word of the video submission requirements. On Wednesday, we came together to compare notes. If I missed something, Jay found it. If Jay overlooked something, I caught it. We made one ultimate game plan. Then on Thursday, Jay and I met with Trenna to discuss the game plan. We got her input and feedback, talked her through what everything was going to look like, and laid out a plan of attack. The workouts hadn’t even started and we were deep into the thick of it.
Friday afternoon Trenna was allowed to start competing. Before each workout, every floor plan needs to be set up - to the inch. The distance between a barbell and a set of rings need to be set. A piece of tape needs to be perfectly centred under a box. A line needs to be clearly marked on floor. All of this needs to be clearly visible in the camera at all times. Once we hit “record”, the athlete may never leave the frame of the video. Each weight plate and every inch of the set up needs to be recorded before we go can say “Go!”. This is done on two cameras simultaneously in case one quits for whatever reason. Only then is Trenna able to put her hard work in the spotlight and do what she does best!
Once the tests are completed, each video needs to be uploaded to YouTube before a very tight timeline. If a video is one minute late, it does not count. No exceptions. No objections. The videos are then submitted with her score directly to Crossfit Headquarters (HQ). HQ has three levels of video review judges. A first, initial look to make sure everything checks out. If there is any reason for escalation, the video is sent to a panel review. From there a decision is made if the video needs to be sent to the third stage of review, be rejected all together or validated. Within a couple days, the videos are either validated, penalized, or rejected based on the review judgement. With only the top 10 in the world moving on the Games, even a minor penalty most likely results in your season being over.
As of 12:00pm today, May 10th, Trenna’s videos have all been validated. She sits comfortably in 9th place. Crossfit has until end of the day to email her. Hopefully that email contains an invitation to our world championships, the Crossfit Games! If this holds true Trenna will only be the 6th SK resident to qualify for the Games since the start of the Worldwide Open in 2011, and the first to come out of our program here in Saskatoon, SK.