Cultural Shift

June 2, 2017

Andréa Maria Cecil

Most of the Meridian Regional athletes representing the Africa Region are ex-pats.

In 2015, Phil Hesketh became the first man to represent the United Arab Emirates at the CrossFit Games.

Today, the Middle Eastern country is home to three other athletes who also have competed at the Games as individuals: Rasmus Wisbech Andersen, Jonne Koski and Adrian Mundwiler. The four men are among 16 individual athletes at the Meridian Regional who are representing the Africa Region but are not natives of the area.

“The whole African Leaderboard is all Europeans aside from Jason Smith,” Alex Younger, another Meridian Regional athlete who relocated from Europe to the Middle East, said minutes after finishing Event 1 on Friday.

Alex Younger during Event 1

Hesketh moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in early 2014 without knowing much of anything about the country.

“I really had no idea where the UAE even was,” he said, grinning.

As a member of CrossFit Inc.’s Strongman Specialty Course seminar staff, Hesketh had visited the country earlier. There, he met an affiliate owner who offered him a job at InnerFight CrossFit DXB in Dubai.

“It’s a really good place to be,” he said.

Although housing costs are high in the country—particularly in Abu Dhabi and Dubai—CrossFit coaches can make a good living in a region of the world where the training methodology is growing fast. There are nearly 30 CrossFit affiliates in the UAE today.

“It’s getting huge,” Hesketh said. “Gyms are opening up all the time.”

Phil Hesketh during Event 1

Jamie Greene also moved to the UAE in 2014. Her motivation was different than Hesketh’s.

“To get out of New Zealand,” she said with a laugh.

First, she began working as a personal trainer, then she found CrossFit. Now she is a coach at CrossFit Yas in Abu Dhabi.

“It’s better pay. More people want (a trainer),” Greene explained.

Younger, meanwhile, moved to Kuwait more than two years ago after the manager of a local affiliate messaged him on Instagram about becoming a full-time coach in the tiny country north of the UAE.

At that time, the then-20-year-old was considering two career choices: join the U.K. Corps of Royal Marines or become a coach and professional athlete.

“I absolutely love it,” Younger said of coaching.

Like Hesketh and Greene, he, too, said he can make a better living in the Middle East than he could in his native England.

“In Europe, it’s a struggle to find a full-time coaching role and save money,” Younger said.

Despite their sustainable lifestyles, all three athletes said getting accustomed to living in the Middle East took time.

Living in countries that observe Ramadan, for example, was new to them, the athletes said. The month of fasting from dawn until sunset has Muslims avoiding not only food but also beverages, smoking and sexual relations. But, like most things, it became normal to them.

“At the start, it was a bit of a shock,” Greene said of moving to the UAE. “Now it’s second nature.”

Hesketh made similar observations.

“It’s not anywhere as different as anyone would have you believe,” he said.

Still, InnerFight CrossFit, CrossFit Yas and Circuit Plus CrossFit Shuwaikh all offer either women-only classes or have owners who have opened a separate women-only gym for local women whose religion requires they only be surrounded by other females when working out.

Many Muslim women wear an abaya and a sheela—the former a long-sleeved, floor-length robe and the latter a headscarf that also covers the neck. If they are working out only with women and are trained by them, they might remove both abaya and sheela. Others stay covered in some fashion and work out in mixed-sex classes, and there are some who dress typically Western.

“There’s a bunch of women who train with the guys,” Hesketh said of InnerFight CrossFit classes.

Not the same can be said for Circuit Plus CrossFit Shuwaikh.

Younger said with a laugh: “You can go two weeks without seeing a female.”

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Men

1. Elliot Simmonds (180)
2. Björgvin Karl Gudmundsson (175)
3. Jason Smith (170)
4. Lukas Högberg (165)
5. Stefano Migliorini (164)

Women

1. Kristin Holte (190)
2. Anna Fragkou (185)
3. Samantha Briggs (180)
4. Jamie Greene (175)
5. Emma McQuaid (155)

Teams

1. CrossFit JST (175)
2. Maxpuls Spartans (175)
3. CrossFit Fabriken (173)
4. CrossFit Reykjavik (170)
5. The Unit ACF (164)

For complete details, visit the Leaderboard.