This 29-year-old Swede qualified for the Europe Regional in 2012, and now, living in Kuwait, is going to the Asia Regional.
Photos by: Savannah Wishart
You cannot write Marlene Chi Andersson off.
The 29-year-old Swede qualified for the Europe Regional in 2012 and now, for the Asia Regional, placing second in the Open.
Prior to her recent move to Kuwait, Andersson had never stepped foot in Asia. However, she was given an opportunity to move with a job offer at Inspire Pure Fitness, where she now works and trains as a personal trainer and CrossFit coach.
“It was quite hard in the beginning to adjust, training wise,” she says about the heat and change of climate. “I've been used to cold gyms in the UK, to training in temperatures of zero to 8 degrees, taking off layers as I warm up. So now in Kuwait, even 22 degrees (C) in an air-conditioned gym felt really warm.”
Andersson took a few weeks to acclimate and is now looking forward to Regionals. At the 2012 Europe Regional, she injured her left shoulder.
“I had struggled with bad shoulders for quite some time before,” she admits.
Although she still has shoulder issues from time to time, she now has a better understanding of how to prevent them.
Failure is tough, but it taught Andersson much about training, recovery, technique and mobility.
“I have terrible flexibility, which is one of the reasons I avoided it for so long,” she says. “Also, I don't like it since it's one of those things that take a long time for my brain to learn. Maybe it's the lack of sports from childhood, but it doesn’t help that I'm pretty impatient.”
Andersson credits her progress in Olympic lifting to her boyfriend, Eloy Rodriguez, a fellow athlete from her affiliate. In addition, Andersson has been following a more structured program by CrossFit coach and friend, Rob Silver.
“I sometimes change things around to focus more on my weaknesses and simply use it as inspiration, but that's been a great way to avoid cherry picking,” she says. “If I know someone who is great at something that I am not, I will always ask them for advice to improve my technique.”
Last year, Andersson had the opportunity to compete and train alongside 2013 Open winner Samantha Briggs when she attended a training camp where Briggs was featured.
“You will never reach your full potential without that sort of support. You will stop sooner than you need to and then you need someone there to shout at you to pick up that bar,” she says. “Sam (Briggs) is excellent at that.”
Going into this year’s Open, Andersson had a plan – do the workouts only once. She put up impressive performances throughout the Open, placing among the top five in all workouts, except 13.4
She was particularly impressive in 13.5, as she was the only woman in Asia to make it into the eight-minute round in what she called a “nerve wrecker.”
“Finding out later that I was the only woman in Asia that got past the first four minutes was really unexpected, and made the soreness post-13.5 even more worth it. I wanted to get past the first four minutes so badly, but since I hadn't done Fran in over a year, I had no idea how able I was to get there. It took a lot of energy getting there and I thought, ‘Damn … I need to continue now.' But I'd rather suffer through another four minutes rather than not making the cut any day.”
Now, the Regional is only a month away, and Andersson knows the road to the Games won’t be easy.
“I have no doubt this Regional will give me even more lessons to bring back for later,” she says. “It's always humbling and amazing to be around so many great athletes. Coming in second in the region makes me think I could have a good chance, but you never know until the fat lady sings and the last workout is done. I'm feeling better than last year, but still I know I have lots to learn and improve. No matter what, I'll do my best and see how far it takes me.”
