When Paige Semenza was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” she would have answered, “A teacher.” She didn’t realize that one day she would be fulfilling that dream, not in the classroom, but inside a CrossFit gym.
Semenza attended the Ohio State University, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in education and human ecology. Alongside playing collegiate ice hockey, she was burnt out upon graduation in 2013.
“I decided to just kind of take time away from (school), and then I slowly got introduced to CrossFit a couple (of) years later,” Semenza said.
Photo courtesy of CrossFit Vertex on Instagram
But her love for teaching never faded.
Semenza soon realized she could combine teaching with her passion for health and fitness through CrossFit. She said it was rewarding to watch people inside the four walls of a CrossFit affiliate improve their daily lives and know she was a part of their journey.
“You can be teaching kids, and you can be changing their lives in school ... but I just kind of relate it to that on a much deeper level being inside the gym,” Semenza said.
In January 2016, Semenza received her Level 1 Certificate and became a coach at CrossFit Vertex in Olyphant, Pennsylvania. She now holds the Level 2 Certificate.
Semenza took a liking to coaching teenagers. Her teen group consists of athletes who use CrossFit to train for their high school sports and teens who just want to stay fit.
“I try to make it as fun as possible for them … we play games,” she said. “That’s where their real competitiveness comes out.”
To grab their attention, she will play a PVC pipe game or “rowling on the rower” during warm-up so they are dialed in and ready to listen when she starts to teach CrossFit movements.
“They’re at the age of what I was planning to teach in school. Now I just get to do it in a place that I love just as much, which is the gym,” Semenza said. “I’m not sitting at a desk all the time, and I’m on my feet.”
Alongside coaching, Semenza has been an inspiration to her teens on the competition floor, making waves in the Sport of Fitness outside of work.
Games No. 5
Ice hockey led Semenza to her first CrossFit Games.
Former Ohio State hockey teammate Kelly Wild had already been to the CrossFit Games twice before when she extended an invitation to Semenza to join team Timberwolf CrossFit for the 2017 season. Semenza moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, for eight months and trained alongside some of the fittest in the world, including future Mayhem Freedom and now East Nashville PRVN team member Andrea Nisler.
“It’s cool to see people who I was with excel themselves in the sport as well,” Semenza said.
Team Timberwolf CrossFit made it to the 2017 CrossFit Games and completed its season as the eighth-fittest team in the world.
Upon returning to CrossFit Vertex, Semenza was determined to get back to the Games — this time as an individual. That desire secured her a fifth-place finish at the 2018 Atlantic Regional and a ticket to her first CrossFit Games as an individual.
“The Games was very humbling that year being a rookie,” Semenza said. That is because she was one of the unfortunate 80 to experience the marathon row event at the 2018 Games. “That was a brutal way to be introduced to being at the Games and getting a taste of it.”
When the five-day competition was complete, Semenza took home 32nd place and went right to sleep.
“My roommate at the time, Jemma, she was like, ‘I had to check on you a couple of times just to make sure you were still breathing,’” she said.
Since 2017, the 31-year-old has attended four CrossFit Games, three as an individual and one on a team.
On Sunday, May 21, it was the final day of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games North America East Semifinal, and Semenza was sitting right on the cutline for a spot at the CrossFit Games. As the top 20 women were lined up next to their name cards and the Games-qualifying athletes were being called, the anticipation grew for every spot that was taken. When only one name remained, Semenza was broadcast on the big screen alongside Anikha Greer.
One of them would be going to the Games.
Seconds later, Semenza’s name boomed across the stadium, awarding her the final Games-qualifying spot by just 3 points.
Paige Semenza after receiving the final Games-qualifying spot | Photo by Ginnie Coleman
With five tickets to the CrossFit Games to her name, Semenza will be headed to the ultimate proving grounds for the Fittest on Earth once again.
Photo by Ginnie Coleman