Ani Wieselmann: The Tough Decision to Compete

April 6, 2012

Thomas Patton

Ani Wieselmann is the 15th place female in the Region heading into the Latin America Regional. She was not really planning on signing up for the Open to begin with. “I was reluctant at first,” she says. “I had to be honest with myself and come to terms with the fact that competition scares the hell out of me”.

Wieselmann is a 29-year-old physical therapist, deeply in love with CrossFit since her first workout almost three years ago. She says she could never identify herself as a person with a competitive drive that many other athletes have. Against her calm, friends, co-workers and training pals to sign up, constantly encouraged her. She is a co-owner and coach at CrossFit Reebok PTY and soon started feeling it was also important to set an example for the clients who were being encouraged to register. Now, a totally unexpected path has now developed for her.

“I want to be a part of all CrossFit entails, especially if it means being uncomfortable,” she says.

When she finally registered, it was under one condition. She was only going team. Throughout the competition, she learned much about herself. “My least favorite WOD was 12.1,” she says. “Seven minutes of burpee hell.”

She was battling with the flu that week and felt terrible in every single rep of up and down, but managed 100 reps and started the Open in 30th place. For Workout 12.2, she completed 60 reps for a 21st place finish – this moved her up to 20th place. For 12.3, she came back with 227 reps. At 7th place finish on 12.4 and 19th place finish on 12.5 had her sitting pretty in the top 15 in Latin America.

Wieselmann’s favorite workout was 12.3, but she takes away her best lessons from Workouts 12.2 and 12.4. “There were two distinct moments that taught me the most so far. I knew prior to the WODs that I could snatch 100 pounds and that I could do muscle-ups. But that doesn’t mean a thing when you lack focus to regroup and get your technique together,” she says.

She suffered for three minutes trying to snatch that 100 pounds. “I wasn’t really tired from the previous 60 reps, but I just didn’t get it together properly and became frustrated with the first failed rep,” she says.

Something similar occurred with the muscle-ups in 12.4. “What I learned is that, for me, it is not a question of skill or capacity, but rather of focus and drive,” she explains. “So I discovered a great flaw and luckily I am now working on it.

Now, Wieselmann is in a bind. Many of the candidates in her CrossFit Reebok PTY team are most likely going individual, which means there won’t be a team for her compete with. She has to make a decision that five weeks ago, she never thought she’d have to make. “I was clueless of where I would end up in the Open. I didn’t expect anything.”

Many things have changed in very little time for Wieselmann, but now she says she’s ready and working hard to prepare herself for the Latin America Regional. “I am looking at it as a great learning experience coming my way, no expectations,” she says. “Certainly it will be a hell of a weekend with kick ass WODs and inspirational people. So I´m going to go hard, learn from the experience, hang out with awesome CrossFitters and that is that.”