“It was really just trying to stay in control, very focused and believing in my ability.”
Photo by Dave Lipson
If the Canada East Regional was any indication, this could be the best Camille Leblanc-Bazinet we’ve ever seen.
Despite a deep field of athletes, Leblanc-Bazinet won six of seven events at the 2014 regional and collected just 8 points for an overall win. It was the lowest points total of any athlete—male or female—in the world.
The performance on an international level is impressive. She finished among the top three performers in four of seven regional events.
“Going into those workouts, I think my mentality was mainly like, ‘I know what I can do, and now it’s time to do it,’” Leblanc-Bazinet said. “It was really just trying to stay in control, very focused and believing in my ability.”
For the four-time Games veteran, one of the main highlights of the competition was squat snatching 190 lb. on Day 1. Though her PR is 5 lb. heavier, a string of recent misses in training made her apprehensive going into the event.
“I kept missing my last weight. I always got 170 lb., 180 lb., and then no matter what I would put on the bar for that third lift I would always miss it,” she said. “At regionals when I saw that Michele (Letendre) had 185 lb. and (Abigail Guerrero) did 190 lb., I kind of went, ‘F-it, I’m gonna do it!’ and so when I got it, I was really excited.”
Two days and six events later, Leblanc-Bazinet touched down on the finish mat and was finally able to both reflect on the weekend and think ahead to making her fifth appearance at the Games.
“I was so freakin’ stoked!” she said. “But I put so much pressure on myself for every single event that when it was over, I couldn’t realize it was over. I was tired.”
“It took me a good week after to be like, ‘Damn, I’m going back!’” she added with a laugh.
Since then, Leblanc-Bazinet had a schedule that would make heads spin. While balancing a full summer semester course load—chemical engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke—she spent the first four weekends after regionals traveling with the Level 1 Seminar Staff.
“Sometimes I get out of the gym at 10 or 11 at night so I can get my workout in, but on those days obviously my volume is gonna be a bit lower,” she explained. “On the weekend I really try to do two or three sessions. If I feel good, I’ll do a little bit more. If I feel really tired that day, I’ll just do a little bit less, so I really listen to my body, too.”
A recent comment from one of her classmates put things in perspective. Coming to class after a session at the gym, Leblanc-Bazinet was still covered in chalk.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Wow, you really don’t have any life,’” she recounted. “That’s my life right now. It’s really what I do. It’s wake up, train, go to school, train, study, train, sleep. It’s kind of like that all day long.”
“The prettiest I’ve been at school right now is having a dirty pony tail with chalk, still wearing my clothes that are all sweaty from my workout,” she laughed. “That’s where I save time.”
Though admittedly overwhelmed sometimes, her husband Dave Lipson helps keep things in check.
“He knows how much pressure I put on myself,” she said. “We talk about my priorities, what makes me happy, why I do what I do. It’s always very helpful to kind of look at where you’re going and not look at everything that’s happening.”
In addition to Lipson, Leblanc-Bazinet has a strong support system behind her. This year, she reached out for help to a number of experts. CrossFit Invictus coach CJ Martin wrote most of her programming; gymnastics coach Sean Lind and endurance coach Chris Hinshaw assist with specialty work.
Logistically, Martin serves as Leblanc-Bazinet’s master control, organizing her training with Lind and Hinshaw’s input.
“It’s really hard sometimes to coordinate,” Leblanc-Bazinet said. “CJ puts all of it together and that’s good for me so I just have to show up at the gym and do my work.”
While posting glimpses of her training on Facebook and Instagram, Leblanc-Bazinet said her main focus is making sure she has the broadest athletic base she can have heading into the Games.
“(I’m) always working on my weaknesses and making sure that those little gaps in my fitness are getting smaller and smaller until I’m really as fit as I can be,” she said.
The former gymnast said some of those weak links include longer duration events and unusual movements.
“I think spending all those years doing things that (were) pretty short and intense, I think any longer event always kind of comes harder for me,” Leblanc-Bazinet said.
She added that she’s been running with odd objects and swimming “way too far without touching any walls or putting my feet on the ground.”
With the hours of preparation has come an increased confidence—something Leblanc-Bazinet believes she can use to approach the Games differently this year.
“I think in 2010 I was … this crazy girl that didn’t really know what she was doing, and you would say, ‘GO!’ and I would just run into a wall and keep going, even if I couldn’t do it,” she said. “I didn’t know what pacing was. I was really good at gymnastics but really weak.”
“I’m a lot more controlled and more mature in the way I attack my workouts (now),” she continued. “I really listen to my body, and I’m just able to feel more in control.”
Leblanc-Bazinet took her biggest weakness from 2010—weightlifting—and made it one of her biggest strengths over the past four years. She has improved so much she has her sights set on the 2016 Olympics with a qualification for the world championships just two weeks after the Games.
Once she reaches her destination, she’ll be putting her fitness to the ultimate test.
“It’s so funny because the Games are so much fun and we love them so much, but it’s by far the most painful thing ever. It’s like they give you a gift but they slap you at the same time,” she said jokingly.
“No, I’m really excited to go out there and just show my fitness. I’m excited to go there to show what I’m made of and what I’ve been working on all year long.”
In the past four years, she’s finished ninth (2010), eighth (2011), sixth (2012) and 16th (2013). Leblanc-Bazinet said she wants to complete her fifth CrossFit Games with no regrets.
“There’s only one way that you can go to the Games, and it’s thinking you can win it,” she said. “Mainly for me, I want to finish every workout thinking that I gave everything and I couldn’t give anything more.”
In addition to her husband, parents and sister, Leblanc-Bazinet will have another special guest in tow: a stuffed animal named Penguin.
“(Penguin) has blue fur and blue, sparkled eyes, and he stays with us the whole time I compete,” she said. “When I’m resting in between (events), Penguin comes with me, and when I compete, Dave puts Penguin in his pocket. Dave is very superstitious; so you better not lose Penguin because he’s gonna flip out. He almost missed one of my regional workouts because he lost Penguin and he had to find him.”
In a few short weeks, Leblanc-Bazinet 5.0 will be headed to the Games to prove her fitness on the world’s biggest stage.
