Brooke McLaughlin: One Leg at a Time

March 19, 2012

Lee Nessel

“I love soccer, but I got way too many red cards for being too aggressive … accidentally of course...” 

 

Those perusing the Leaderboard after the first two CrossFit Games Open workouts likely scanned right over Brooke McLaughlin’s scores of 38 burpees and 39 snatches. And her 118 reps in 12.3 likely went equally unnoticed.

But there’s no asterisk to indicate that she’s only 15 or that she is doing the Open workouts with the use of only one leg.

Most people would accept being sidelined with a severely sprained ankle. But not this teenager. Already in her second year doing the Open, McLaughlin, of CrossFit BGI-West Palm Beach, doesn’t seem to understand an existence without athletics. More than half her life has been filled with travel soccer, cross country and track. She’s now in her second year of rugby and two and a half years into CrossFit.

“She wanted more contact, I guess,” her father, John McLaughlin, says of the transition from eight years of travel soccer to her new favorite, rugby.

“I love soccer, but I got way too many red cards for being too aggressive … accidentally of course,” Brooke McLaughlin says.

But it wasn’t contact that caused her first serious injury, she was alone on the field doing a trick when she rolled her ankle. The prescription was to wear an air boot for four weeks. And probably not do CrossFit.

“At first I was disappointed because I knew I wouldn't be able to do my best, but wanted to try anyway,” she says.

The McLaughlins have a three-pronged relationship. Aside from the obvious father-daughter dynamic, they also are competitors when it comes to training, and coach-athlete.

The two discussed that although she had to stay off her right foot, she could proceed through the Open if she really wanted to. They made a deal that she would try at least one rep for each Open workout so that she could score, and only continue if she was pain free.

“My dad and I looked at each workout as they came up,” McLaughlin says. “For 12.1, one rep scores. We used a gymnastic mat to soften the burpee and practiced the balance to do the movement and jump on one leg.”

But people like McLaughlin don’t do just one burpee, not even with only one functioning leg. She hopped out 38 reps.

One rep would have been enough to score in 12.2, as well, but McLaughlin says knowing the first two weights (45 and 75 pounds) were “easy” for her, she wanted to do more. “I convinced my dad I could, but he kept talking some during the workout while the clock was running,” she says to explain why she didn’t get more than 39 snatches -- again, on one leg. “I know I could have gotten the 100-pound bar.”    

And then came 12.3 with box jumps – something most of us could not imagine doing without both legs functioning. “The one-legged box jump wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” McLaughlin says. “I got in the groove and was able to do it pretty easily. The push press was totally different. I couldn’t really push press it, it was kind of a push shoulder press.”

But she still ended up with 118 reps.

Given her experience with CrossFit, it’s no wonder she has her sites set on the Games. She completed all workouts as prescribed in the 2011 Open at age 14, and helped as a volunteer at the 2011 CrossFit Games.

She’s earned her Level 1 Certificate, and has completed CrossFit Nutrition and CrossFit Endurance courses. Her dad says she is going to be a “CrossFit beast” given her 95-pound snatch, 145-pound clean and 215-pound deadlift already at age 15. 

McLaughlin says she hopes to compete at the Games someday, but in the mean time, she’s sticking with rugby with CrossFit on the side.

“CrossFit has improved my athletics for other sports and changing my ideas on true fitness,” she says. “It’s definitely made me one of the fittest people on all my teams.”