"He promised to do better ... in 2013."
Photos by: Jorge Huerta
For the second year, Orlando Trejo finished the Open in first place in Latin America.
In 2012, Trejo was first in Latin America and fifth worldwide after the Open. This year, his worldwide rank was 47th.
But now that the Open is over, he’s focused on the Latin America Regional in June.
When Trejo started Olympic lifting as a teenager, he would travel two hours to the gym to train. Despite the journey, he never complained. He had a goal and wanted to achieve it.
“I had good conditions for the sport, but I began practicing the sport a bit too late, so my coach became very demanding with me,” Trejo recalls. “I used to train everyday without rest days. That’s when doing sports became part of my life.”
After many years Olympic lifting, he discovered CrossFit. His friend, Dante Alegria, says he never had a doubt that Trejo would excel in the sport.
“When I first saw him, I knew that he had extraordinary conditions for CrossFit,” Alegria says. “Once, he saw us doing double-unders and he was able to do them within a few minutes. The same happened with kipping pull-ups. That’s because he never stops training and looking for ways to improve his movements.”
Alegria adds: “I knew he would be one of the best in the sport.”
This year, Trejo scored 191 reps in 13.1, 320 in 13.2, 295 in 13.3, 111 in 13.4 and 175 in 13.5. He finished in first place for every single workout in the region. And just like any athlete would say, he thinks he still has room to improve.
Another friend of Trejo’s, Ismael Lopez, says he becomes a different person when he’s working out.
“His character changes when he faces a workout,” Lopez explains. “When he trains, his face gets different. He gets really concentrated at what he is doing. I just couldn’t follow his rhythm. I think that I’ve met two sides of him. One is calm, patient, humble and low profile. The other has character, attitude and strength to carry on. Maybe that’s why he’s so good at what he does.”
His sister, Jessica, agrees.
“He has never given up against a challenge. He likes to give the best he can in everything he does,” she says.
She says she’s overhead him saying, “I must think in what I can do to improve instead of wasting my time thinking on what I can’t do.”
However, like many other athletes, he has had difficult times in his sports career. In 2012, he reached the CrossFit Games in Carson, Calif., but the first workout included a triathlon in which he suffered an injury while swimming and he got a DNF for the rest of the week.
“He was pissed off and sad, but the next day he woke up with the objective of obtaining his revenge,” Alegria says. “He promised to do better ... this 2013.”
Since, he has dramatically evolved.
“Every time I remember my first workout, I laugh,” Trejo says. “I had to do cleans with 88 lb. and push-ups. I thought it was going to be easy for me because I was trained to lift more weight, but I ended on the floor, really tired. That’s when I realized that CrossFit had something different.”
Trejo continues to train harder every day. His goal is to be among the top five at the 2013 CrossFit Games. Nonetheless, he is more excited to see the region’s community gather at the Regional.
“CrossFit is different. Everyone in the community welcomes you with a hug and praising words. It gives me energy to fulfill my dream and stand out with the bests in the sport,” he adds. “I think that without the community, I would still be practicing Olympic weightlifting, alone. Now, my plan and goal is to keep practicing and improving, to be among the bests.”
