Latin America Scouting Report: Women

February 14, 2012

Thomas Patton

 

 

 
Wanda “found CrossFit in 2009 and got hooked in about a month.”
 

Wanda Brenton

Wanda Brenton, 37, from the Cayman Islands, has an impressive beach and indoor volleyball background that includes a university scholarship, MVP, player of the game in national championships, and Cayman Islands Volleyball National Teams. She “found CrossFit in 2009 and got hooked in about a month.” She also competed in the 2010 Games in Carson, Calif., as a member of the CrossFit Cayman Team. She did not compete in the 2011 Open since she was pregnant when the first Open workout was announced – which she completed at nine months pregnant. She is currently doing “a lift or two, plus a met-con five days a week – taking two full rest days” to get back to her pre-pregnancy abilities. Brenton also holds a 3:43 “Fran”, a 2:16 “Grace,” an 8:52 “Helen,” and a 255 deadlift.

 

 

Andrea Martinez

Moving south towards Ecuador, we found Andrea Martinez, 22, who after a diverse background of volleyball, basketball, football, Arabic dance, ballet, yoga, “got addicted to CrossFit since the first WOD.” Soon after, she sorted out her university schedule and has been able to spend hours a day in the box ever since. She does six to seven workouts a week. Being a physical therapist student, she emphasizes her warm-ups and mobility, suggesting that she will be in our sport for many years to come. Martinez says she “feels a little nervous still, but I hope to keep getting better every day, and I’ll always give the best of me and even more.” She had a chance to compete in a local competition and says, “it was an unbelievable experience that I hope I can re-live. I more or less know how it feels to begin the competition, the pain, the support of your friends, and more.”

Anita Pravatti

The first female “new name” we had the good fortune to discover came about when her coach posted on January 22 her video doing a 2:37 “Grace” on the Latin America Facebook page. Anita Pravatti found CrossFit two years ago. She works out more than seven times per week. She also had the chance to participate in a local competition to get her ready for the 2012 Open. “I feel psychologically and physically prepared, and I think to win the Games, [what] is necessary [is] willpower and I have it” Pravatti says. So at 25-years-old, a 3:56 “Fran” and a 20:17 “Filthy 50” you won’t forget her name during this 2012 Open. “Latin America Regionals I’m coming!”

Nelly Fernanda Rodriguez

It is a great pleasure for our Latin America Region to once again see Nelly Fernanda Rodriguez compete, this time in the 2012 Open. She was the first Latin American woman, from Ecuador, to represent our region in front of the international CrossFit community in the 2010 CrossFit Games. She is a lawyer by day and CrossFit trainer by night. Her strategy “has been the same since I started CrossFit, every WOD is a competition against myself and, as a consequence, I give 100 percent in every one of them.” She has been training like this since she started CrossFit in 2009. She is coming into this season feeling “good about myself. I don’t think there is a recipe to guarantee any result, but whatever outcome, it will only be positive for me, since the excitement and the experience is something nobody will be able to take away from me.”