Stone Cold Stoneberg

June 16, 2014

Tim McIntosh

“The Games and its events are unknown so it’s easy to get worked up. Since I've been to the Games the last few years, I've learned to relax and stay calm.”


Photos courtesy of Stevi Sayler

Ben Stoneberg is not one to lose his cool.

The soon-to-be three-time Games competitor was dubbed “Stone Cold Stoneberg” by announcers at the 2014 North West Regional. His face never wrenches in pain, his demeanor a reflection of calm. And get this, he sometimes works out without music.

But this year’s regional put Stoneberg’s mental fortitude to the test. While at home in Eugene, Oregon, his preparation for Event 6—the 50s chipper—did not go well. He failed his first attempt at completing the event within the 21-minute time cap.

“I just wasn’t feeling it,” he said. “My legs were so dead walking off the rower.”

He suffered the same shot legs during his second attempt. Stoneberg was worried about how he would compete against the top competitors in the North West. Something needed to change.

Stoneberg recently read “Relentless” by Tim S. Grover. The book claims the difference between most top athletes isn’t physical; it’s mental.

“Physical dominance can make you great,” Grover wrote. “Mental dominance is what ultimately makes you unstoppable.”

This impressed Stoneberg.

“(Grover) wrote about showing how strong you were, how mentally tough,” Stoneberg said.

Keeping this in mind, Stoneberg developed a strategy for Event 6.

“I thought, ‘There’s nothing I’m using my back for in this workout,’” Stoneberg recalled. “‘Sure, the deadlifts a little bit, but maybe …’”

During Event 6 at the regional, placed between frontrunner Cole Sager and newcomer Cody Anderson, Stoneberg used his strategy. He rowed with straight legs and generated all power from his back and arms.

This slowed Stoneberg down significantly, and all other competitors moved to the box jump overs, leaving Stoneberg to be last off the rower. But he’s confident the extra time on the rower didn’t matter.

“I could have sat on the rower for another minute,” Stoneberg said. “I still would have caught up. My strategy was, ‘Calm down, don’t worry about what everybody else was doing.’”

Having saved his thighs during the row, Stoneberg felt fresh for the box jump overs. On every jump, he bent his knees at a 45-degree angle and frog-legged all 50 reps. Eventually he caught up to the frontrunners.

But Stoneberg wavered. Instead of going at his own pace, he tried to race past Sager.

“I told myself, ‘Relax. Take another breath. Don’t try to match what Cole is doing. You just gotta go your speed,’” Stoneberg recalled.

Despite the glitch, Stoneberg nearly caught Sager on the backstretch. The final battle on the rower was a highlight of the North West Regional.

“I don’t like to think about ‘what ifs,’ but if I did not try to catch (Sager) on the first box jumps, I might have caught him by the end,” Stoneberg said.

Stoneberg finished third at the regional and is preparing for his third Games appearance. He will try to maintain the same relaxed attitude in Carson, California, as he did in Kent, Washington.

“The Games and its events are unknown so it’s easy to get worked up,” Stoneberg said. “Since I've been to the Games the last few years, I've learned to relax and stay calm.”