Back for the Podium

May 20, 2016

Andréa Maria Cecil

Adkins, Fortunato look to make it back to Carson.

After missing last year’s CrossFit Games, both Christy Adkins and Talayna Fortunato have returned and are focused on top spots.

Adkins missed qualifying for the 2015 Games by 70 points, finishing just one spot out in sixth place. Fortunato took off the past two years with several injuries, including ankle surgery one year ago. She finished third at the 2012 Games.

Fortunato appeared calm and collected during the day’s first event: the snatch ladder. She made all 10 reps at 135 lb., opting for singles. She did the same at 145, and it was evident she had improved her overhead squat since 2013. Once at 155, she made the first two reps, took three deep breaths and missed the third.

“Talayna, finish the pull,” yelled her coach, Rudy Nielsen, from behind a crowd three people deep.

She made three more reps, the last of which she struggled to stand up, and then missed her final rep and the time cap for that portion of the event. She finished the event in eighth place overall.

The outcome was expected, Nielsen said.

“She’ll do very well,” he said of the weekend’s remaining events.

Nielsen added: “We can’t make any mistakes.”

Asked if she could make the podium, Nielsen smiled.

“Uh, that would be the goal. If all goes to plan, I think so.”

After tying for fourth in Regional Nate, Fortunato joked that her injuries were catching up to her. The 35-year-old was a collegiate gymnast and heptathlete.

“I’m old,” she said, laughing.

Fortunato later added: “I’m banged up but I’m trying to enjoy being here.”

The physical therapist still works up to 30 hours per week and is pursuing her doctorate.

“It gets a little old trying to keep up with the girls in their 20s,” she said with a smile.

Going forward, Fortunato said, she intends to compete in the Games’ Masters division.

She ended Day 1 tied for third place overall with Alea Helmick.

Adkins, meanwhile, said she put too much emphasis last year on qualifying for her seventh consecutive Games. It became a distraction.

This year things are different.

“I’m not putting as much pressure on myself,” she said after a second-place finish on Regional Nate, the day’s second event.

Adkins’ muscle-ups looked smooth and effortless as she performed them in sets of 2 or 3 reps, and she had no issue with the handstand push-ups or one-armed kettlebell snatches.

When the buzzer signaled the event’s 20-minute time cap, she joyously smacked the acrylic glass against which she had done her push-ups and smiled back at her husband Tim who was standing directly behind her lane on the other side of the barricades.

“She was really looking forward to this workout,” he said.

Tim added: “Last year was tough competition and she barely, barely missed.”

The situation fueled her training for 2016, though Adkins tore her bicep tendon late last year.

Her coach, she said, is joking that they're "playing with house money.”

“I’ll do what I’m proud of and hopefully it’s good enough,” Adkins said while sitting on a rower in the athlete warm-up area after Regional Nate.

But don’t mistake that for complacency. Adkins said her goal is the podium. And she feels she has the experience and skill to make it happen.

“This weekend demands virtuosity. You can’t just snatch heavy. You have to do it over and over for 30 reps. You can’t just throw your hips up (and get on top of the rings),” she said. “People in CrossFit who saw these workouts didn’t think we could do it. And we did.”