The Fight Requires Fighting

March 11, 2013

Jaime Freire

"I'll keep doing the (workouts), depending on the movements, but I'll do my best."

Sometimes, things are going really well, then something changes and plans get ruined. It happened to Carla Rodriguez, a 24-year-old CrossFit athlete from Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Just days before Open Workout 13.1 was announced, Rodriguez broke her finger as a result of a car accident.

“I was driving to my house when a bus missed a stop sign and crashed my car on the side,” she says. “My finger got somehow hit with the steering wheel and broke in several parts. I was devastated, not for the accident, but from realizing I would not be able to compete.”

She had been training for seven months, two times a day, with several PRs and training alongside her friend, Denisse Meza. Both athletes were likely going to the Latin America Regional to represent their box, Horda CrossFit.

“After I got out of the doctor’s office, the first thing I did was eat … and cry,” Rodriguez admits.

The doctor said she had to get surgery, put in some nails in her bones and it would take four weeks to recover. By that time, the Open would be over and so would her dreams of getting to Regionals, especially since this year they will be held in her hometown.

This past Friday, Rodriguez went to the box to cheer on her friends. She already accepted that she could not compete in the Open and would have to watch the Regionals from the stands.

Not even a half hour had passed when she realized that she only needed to do one burpee and still participate in the Open, so she called a judge and her brother to film it and started 13.1 with a fracture in her hand.

One burpee turned into 100 reps that included 70 burpees and 30 one hand snatches with 45 pounds. She battled as much as she could and says she doesn’t regret a single thing.

“I’ll keep doing the (workouts), depending on the movement, but I’ll do my best,” she says. “My brother, Carlos, who is also competing, has always taught me to never give up. It’s for the honor. I may not qualify individually, but maybe with Horda’s team.”

“La pelea es peleando” or “the fight requires fighting” is the motto in Horda CrossFit and Rodriguez personifies this principle beyond comparison. She will go into surgery this week, and will be waiting for 13.2 to be announced.