“I don’t want to be known as the guy who does CrossFit with one leg. My leg doesn’t define me. It’s a bad day at work.”
While on patrol in the Afghan desert, Army Cpt. Derick Carver hit an IED. The blast destroyed his left leg, and much of his right thigh. Today, three years later, he’s competing in the Open and recently put up 79 reps on 13.2.
He’s aware his story is inspiring, but doesn’t want to be defined by his missing leg.
“I don’t want to be known as the guy who does CrossFit with one leg,” he says. “My leg doesn’t define me. It’s a bad day at work.”
Now accustomed to the prosthetic that he takes on and off depending on the workout, he puts in the same work as everyone else each day at the box. To get it done, he has to be more strategic.
“When I lost my leg, I had to adapt,” the 29-year-old says. “Now, it’s more strategy than just muscling and powering through it.”
Since there’s no altering the Open workouts, each poses its own challenge.
Take, for instance, the burpee.
“The calf muscles, the ankle, the knee … it’s taxing,” he says. “The right side is compensating to the left. When I do a burpee and drop down, the left arm is compensating for the weight distribution on the left side, but when I jump up, that’s all the right leg.”
A lot of his energy goes towards limiting the wobbles by focusing on rhythm and balance. Sometimes, he takes a seat mid-workout in order to reset.
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” he says.
He’s a tough athlete. Whenever squats come up, he loads the barbell and takes on the equivalent of a weighted pistol. While he admits that heavy squats, particularly overhead squats, can set him back, he has no problem with thrusters. Like few people on Earth, he favors Fran and hopes it comes up sometime over the next three weeks.
“Fran,” he says. “Personally, it’s my favorite.”
Once the Open finishes, he’ll turn his attention fully to the process of opening his own box. He wants to take a military-style approach to CrossFit, he says. By that, he means inventing the training as he goes, and including body armor, sandbags and a lot of rope climbs.
