CrossFit Central Downtown Black's team members have a motto: "Believe."
Team CrossFit Central Downtown Black knows what disappointment looks like.
In 2013, its sister affiliate, CrossFit Central, missed a podium spot and trip to the CrossFit Games due to a bad performance in a single event.
Its 16th-place finish on Event 6 on the final day was something that fueled the CrossFit Central family’s drive for redemption in 2014.
This year, an entirely new group of athletes represented CrossFit Central’s downtown Austin affiliate team—CrossFit Central Downtown Black—including three women who competed as individuals at the 2013 South Central Regional. The team members of CrossFit Central Downtown Black were determined not to let a similar thing happen again.
Their motto?
“Believe,” Lisa Thiel said.
Standing in first place at the end of the 2014 regional, Team CrossFit Central Downtown Black could take comfort in its performance: it finished the weekend 15 points ahead of its closest competition.
“I feel we really saw how well we could do at regionals,” team member Chelsea McKinney said. “I had high hopes that we would do well, but I had no idea we would win by that much.”
The crew has been in training since a few days after the 2013 regional, under the guidance of coach Michael Winchester, a former athlete from the 2012 Games and 2013 regional CrossFit Central team, with one goal in mind: podium.
Winchester said he decided to take a step back this year to pursue his passion for coaching and to help grow GGRX (Garage Gym RX), CrossFit Central’s competition program.
“(My role as the team coach) really started with the failure of last year and the realization that something needed to change in terms of how we at Central develop athletes and how we prepare for the CrossFit Open, regionals and the Games,” Winchester explained.
He added: “We know here at Central, we have a large pool of athletes—both coaches and non-coaches—to draw from who are developing into competitive athletes. The improvement of all our athletes, and my desire to do so is what led up to this year.”
Winchester developed programming specific for the team’s competitors. Five days per week, the team members would meet up to complete one to two hours of whatever workout was written on the whiteboard—all three men typically around 5:30 a.m. before work, and the women at 1 p.m., with the other coaches at CrossFit Central.
Winchester’s focus was three-fold: strength and skill building in the offseason, followed by heavier engine and conditioning work leading into the preseason, and increased volume, strength and conditioning work for regionals.
Built into the program were strategically planned rest and recovery.
“Strength, mobility and stability are universal across the boards, and the core of my program no matter what,” he said. “And of course, if you are going to be good at CrossFit, you have to … do CrossFit, so I make sure to keep that in there.”
By the time the Open arrived, the coaches had a good idea of which individuals would be on the team. For the men: Jeff Vanlandingham, Brandon Mayernick and Jeremy Kampen. For the women: Lisa Thiel, Ingrid Kantola and Chelsea McKinney.
In fact, all three women are former individual competitors who committed to going team. This year, by far, has been one of the most fun years for the team.
As the most experienced athlete, Thiel—the team’s captain—has enjoyed a career that dates back to the Ranch days. She finished last year’s individual competition at regionals in 12th place, just months after having her first baby, and this will be her fourth trip to the Games and second time as part of a team.
“Team is fun,” she said. “I am less hard on myself, and anytime you do something with community it’s just a different spirit. I am not sure if I’ll be competing any more after this, so I wanted to go out on a high note.”
Thiel helps keep the team members grounded and said half the battle to accomplishing whatever they set out to do is in the mind.
“I am always really focused, and know we are on a mission,” Thiel explained. “I stay really positive. I believe in body posturing and the things you say to yourself on the court can make a big difference. Positivity and belief in both yourself and your teammates.”
Kantola also may look familiar to those in the South Central. In 2013, she finished fifth overall at regionals as an individual. In fact, Kantola has been competing as an individual in both the Southern California and South Central Regions for the past five years, but this will be her first year going to the Games. Known for her unrelenting engine, gymnastics skills and solid strength for her 5-foot-7, 137-lb. frame—she clean and jerks 203 lb., snatches 160 lb., and deadlifts 303 lb.—Kantola became the team’s “secret weapon” throughout the regional weekend in San Antonio, Texas. She strategically went last on the strict handstand push-up event and the pull-up/overhead squat event.
“Knowing how much I gave to going individual last year kind of made me stressed out about it again this year, thinking, ‘Do I want to go through this again?’” Kantola said. “Then I thought about going team, and once I committed I was all in, and it’s been a great experience so far, a little less stressful.”
“I’ve been less hard on myself,” she added. “I really have no idea what to expect now since I’ve really only known individual competition, so this will be all new to me, but I am excited.”
The third woman on the team, McKinney, competed at regionals in 2012 on Team CrossFit Central Red Black, and in 2013 finishing in 17th place as an individual. The 26-year-old has a background in gymnastics and cheerleading, and the team always looks to her for her gymnastics skills.
“I knew going team would be a real chance at going to the Games this year and I feel like it’s a privilege to be on this team,” McKinney said. “They make me want to give everything I have, and now I really think we have more potential as a team than we even knew (prior to regionals).”
The men may be rookies, but they are no strangers to competition. Before the thought of competing on the team even entered their minds, the men had a friendly competition all their own for the past year-and-a-half every day at 5:30 a.m.
“The group I coach up in the mornings has been a consistent group and been training together for so long that they show up every day to work hard and push each other,” Winchester said. “Their classmates push them just as much as they push one another, and I really don’t think that they would be here today without their classmates’ help in doing that, as well.”
The 6-foot-2, 215-lb. Mayernick, 24, is the “beast,” according to Winchester.
“Put the big guy in and let him swing. He has a 300-lb. snatch, and he’s like the juggernaut. You tell him what to do and he’s like ‘OK coach, put me in’ and he goes and does it.”
Jeremy Kampen is known as the motivator.
“He rallies the troops and talks them up,” Winchester said of Kampen. “He brings the team motivation.”
And lastly, Jeff Valandinghim is the strong but silent type who rarely—if ever—messes something up. Valandinghim is a teammate whom the others know they can count on to pull through no matter what.
With the big show a few weeks away, the team still has the same goal it did at regionals: podium.
Thiel summed it up: “Let’s go.”
