Long Time Coming

August 5, 2017

Andréa Maria Cecil

Two athletes’ years-long battles for Games qualification.

Kirsten Pedri has been sleeping great.

“Well, you can’t plan anything,” she said lightheartedly. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

And when she walks off the competition floor, she feels more bewilderment than anything else. She’s left with two predominant thoughts: “What happened out there?” And, “Oh my gosh, here I am.”

The experience has been unreal, Pedri said.

“It’s so unbelievable. It’s so much to take in,” she said shortly after the Muscle-Up Clean Ladder event on Saturday afternoon inside the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

The sheer magnitude of the event was difficult for Jason Smith to describe.

“Regionals seem small now compared to the Games,” he said with a smile.

Kirsten Pedri during Muscle-up Clean Ladder

Both athletes are rookies this year and their experiences are made sweeter by the fact that both have spent years trying to qualify to be among the Fittest on Earth.

Pedri, who is from Northern California, competed in four Regionals before making it to the Games. Smith, from South Africa, has competed in eight.

Pedri is taking the opportunity to learn how she needs to improve as an athlete.

“That’s where my head is right now,” she explained. “I’m learning a lot about myself.”

The anticipation and the actual tests themselves make the Games more physically taxing, Smith noted.

“At least with Regional workouts, you can plan. We just got told 15 minutes ago we have to do thrusters and double-unders,” he said moments after CrossFit Games Director Dave Castro announced that Saturday’s final event would be a heavier version of Open Workout 17.5.

Unlike Regional events, Castro does not completely reveal Games events sometimes until minutes before athletes must perform them. And what he does unveil is often piecemeal and nearly always in cryptic fashion. Athletes can practice Regional events dozens of times before the three-day weekend that this year included six events. At the Games, however, they are likely to face elements, movements and challenges they never have before.

The Games have been four days of competition with at least three events each day. Most of them are unknown to competitors before they arrive.

The structure makes competing at the Games even more amazing, Smith said.

“To finally make it and go through the experience is unbelievable.”

Pedri said being at the Games motivates her to qualify again next year.

“It’s really fun. There’s just nothing like it. I just always wanted to be out there with those girls.”