Around the World

August 4, 2017

Brittney Saline

The Teenage Division boasts heavy international representation. 

Reece Mitchell looked straight ahead as he awaited the horn signaling the start of Sprint O-Course this afternoon. The sun had finally broken through the cloud cover, warming the sand after a chilly morning rain.

The horn sounded and he hurried to scale the 15-foot cargo net before leaping to a rope, swinging from one steeply angled log to another, four feet away. Next came the monkey bars—a set of 11—before he would climb a 12-foot wall to get to a series of hurdles beyond.

As he leaped over the hurdles—set at 28 and 50 inches—he looked to his right, where a 4-by-2-ft. Union Jack flag was draped over a rail in the stands. “REECE MITCHELL” was printed in bold white letters straight across.

Reece Mitchell

“My mum, dad, little brother, two girls from the gym, two coaches and my best friend,” the 15-year-old said, listing all those who’d made the 12-hour flight across the pond from Liverpool in the United Kingdom to Madison, Wisconsin, to witness his CrossFit Games debut.                                        

His wasn’t the only flag flying in the stands; a few feet to the left hung New Zealand’s colors—and those are just two of the 14 countries outside the United States represented by the 79 teenagers competing in the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games.

“It’s an honor,” Mitchell—who sits in sixth after two days of competition—said of being one of the U.K.’s two teenage CrossFit Games athletes this year (Murtaza Nadeem is the other).

For the teenage divisions’ first two years, international representation held fast at just seven countries each year. In 2017, the map doubled, with teenage athletes representing Australia, Canada, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Cyprus, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K.

Filippa Ferm

“It’s growing all the time, but it’s not as big as in the U.S.,” Filippa Ferm, 17, of CrossFit Malmö, in her hometown, Åkarp, Sweden.

The only teen competitor at her gym, Ferm, who finished Friday’s events in sixth place, said she appreciates the opportunity to meet other teenage athletes at the CrossFit Games.

“It’s so much fun,” she said. “It’s so cool to have friends from other countries.”

Her fellow competitors agreed.

Madison, Wisconsin, might look different from many of the teenagers’ home nations—“It’s much colder,” said Luiza Marques, a 15-year-old from Brazil—but CrossFit culture transcends geography.

“These girls are so kind and friendly,” said Nina Ladvenicova, a 14-year-old athlete from Trnava, Slovakia, said after finishing Assault Lunge Friday morning. “We're all friends, and this community is amazing.”

Nina Ladvenicova

Yogev Meller, currently in 10th, is one of four teenagers from CrossFit Hazeevim Telmond in Telmond, Israel (Ron Zur, Nadav Peled and Gaya Tzur are the others).

Meller said the four athletes’ goal is to show fellow CrossFit athletes in Israel that they too are capable of elite fitness.

“People think they can’t come compete in the CrossFit Games because we don’t have an individual competing,” he said.

Ladvenicova’s goal completes the equation: She hopes other girls her age in Slovakia will try CrossFit after watching her compete.

“Because it’s for everybody, not just for professional athletes,” she said.

Still, make no mistake—the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games international teenagers are striving for gold.

“Watch out for the Europeans,” Ferm said laughing. “Because they’re comin’ for you.”