Get an insider’s glimpse into the first day of competition at the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games. The surprise swim-bike-run event at Camp Pendleton shocked competitors on Monday of Games week when they learned the competition would start on Wednesday instead of Friday.
In this behind-the-scenes look at the first events of the sixth edition of the Games, CrossFit filmographer Sevan Matossian interviews athletes and CrossFit staff. Learn more about how Games director Dave Castro wouldn’t let Deborah Cordner Carson back out of the swim because of her fear of open water—which eliminated her on the first day of last year’s Games.
“Give it a chance. Try it. Give it a shot,” Castro says to Cordner Carson as she fights back tears. “It’ll be fine. Just get through it. It’s not a big race. Just chill. You have the capacity to do the swim, no problem.”
Competitors also share their thoughts as they finish the event that included an ocean swim, a single-speed bike ride and a grueling hike through the wilds of Camp Pendleton.
“That sucked,” Rich Froning Jr. says as he walks into the food tent.
He adds: “It was kinda fun, though.”
After the obstacle-course event that concluded the trials at Pendleton, 2010 CrossFit Games winner Kristan Clever says the first day already is more intense than any previous iterations of the Games.
“This could be the Games—this first day. There was a lot of stuff, there was a lot of moving,” she says. “This is way more, way more than we’ve ever been asked to do.”
Click here to watch the video in the CrossFit Journal.