"I made my 2014 fitness goal to solidly prepare for the 2015 Open. How can I do that if I don’t know where I am now? I’m going to find out."
Photos courtesy of Jeff Rice
Fran Sniderhan signed up for the CrossFit Games Open for the first time. The 69-year-old said he’s excited to test his fitness against athletes from all over the world.
In his short six months with CrossFit, Sniderhan has made significant gains.
“I set personal records in three lifts: deadlift, bench and back squat,” he said. “I was shocked that in just a few months of joining CrossFit, I did what I hadn’t done in 15 years of gym lifting. Then in the beginning of December, we did the CrossFit Total. I looked it up, found a chart that said a 195-lb. novice should score about 600 lb. I made a plan and scored 625 lb.”
Like many new CrossFit athletes, he is nervous about what will come out of the hopper in this year’s Open.
“I’m excited about being a very small part of a very big thing,” he said. “I’m nervous about all the skills I think I don’t have, but I’m working on them. I still have a few weeks to get ready, and I’m going to do my best. I made my 2014 fitness goal to solidly prepare for the 2015 Open. How can I do that if I don’t know where I am now? I’m going to find out.”
Sniderhan has been active most his life. In his 40s, he started running. At one point, he was running 25 miles a week. When a bulging disk sidelined his running career, he turned to spinning and nautilus training, and in 2003, earned his personal training certification. Then a full-time money manager and broker, Sniderhan took a part-time job as a personal trainer at a local gym.
“I enjoyed the experience but it bothered me that clients were unwilling to put in the work they needed to reach their stated goals,” Sniderhan said. “I stopped personal training and started lifting at the club.”
In 2008, his daughter asked if he would run with her as a way to help her dissipate the stress of preparing for a Ph.D. dissertation, and he found himself back on the road. He continued running until 2012, when a bout with asthma sidelined him from running once again.
“I gave up trying to improve my times and quit,” he said. “I was, after all, 67 years old. I knew I had to do something but I didn’t know what. I couldn’t run and couldn’t see any point in going to any of the three gyms I belonged to. I didn’t know what to do.”
Then in the spring of 2013, he saw the ESPN coverage of the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games and was intrigued.
“I was fascinated by the athletes and their abilities, and I guess I ranked them as I would any championship athletes—beyond mere mortal,” Sniderhan said.
Soon after, a friend shared an introductory deal at CrossFit Webster in Rochester, N.Y.
“After that first 18-minute workout, I was thinking I’d really found something,” he said.
Sniderhan was the oldest member at his gym.
“When you have a Masters athlete like Fran, who is coming to CrossFit for the first time, you have to really work with them in the beginning to understand their capabilities and limitations,” CrossFit Webster coach Adrian Lugo said. “We do this with all of our new athletes but took special note with Sniderhan since he started CrossFit at age 68. … Ultimately, CrossFit is about functional exercises that can be scaled to anyone’s abilities. There was no question that Fran could do this.”
Lugo isn’t the only one who believes in Sniderhan’s capabilities; the community at CrossFit Webster cheers him on, too.
“I was finishing up a 21-15-9 (rep workout) of burpees and kettlebell swings … A friend of mine, Marisa Wheeler, had just finished and I was on burpees,” he said. “She appeared next to me and hollered ‘What’s left?’ I answered, ‘five,’ and she hit the deck and paced and encouraged me through my last five burpees. When I started my (kettlebell) swings, it seemed the whole gym counted down for me. … I can’t say enough good things about CrossFit athletes. They are just good people.”
Sniderhan has a challenge for others his age.
“If I could give one bit of advice to Masters-level prospects out there, it would be that if you are an athlete at heart, with any unfinished plays, games, rounds, innings or whatever, you are running out of time,” he said. “But it is never too late. Take the challenge. Give CrossFit a try. Sign up. Start to establish a new history of athletic accomplishments and we’ll compare our scores after we do the Open.”
