Marion Ingrassia: Fired Up

March 24, 2013

Jaime Freire

"I'd love to represent my country and my box, CrossFit Machete."

Last year, Marion Ingrassia — a French-born, Ecuadorian-adopted CrossFitter — discovered every once in a while you have to sacrifice some things to achieve other dreams.

Ingrassia, better known to her friends as Ratito, aspired to have her own affiliate since she started training in 2010; she even had the name in her mind: CrossFit Machete.

Ingrassia qualified for the 2011 Latin America Regional, but couldn't go.

“My boyfriend, Pepo Ochoa, and I spent a lot of time, money and many work hours before the opening of Machete,” Ingrassia explains. “In fact, I had barely trained since the Open, so I didn't feel prepared for competition. That's why I had to quit.”

This year has been equally hard for her. She still has a lot of work at the box and at the university where she teaches French. On a good day, she gets four or five hours of sleep. Nonetheless, she loves CrossFit and feels the need to compete.

“The truth is, I entered the Open to measure myself and because I like doing every (workout),” she says. “Also, I love the surprise factor that we get with friends, all gathered in the box for five Wednesdays at the same hour, to discover the official (workout). We are like children on Christmas morning.”

Ingrassia says she didn’t have many expectations for this year’s Open because she didn’t feel completely prepared. But seeing her results after the first two workouts, she is now more hopeful.

“13.1 was a big surprise for me. I love burpees — last year I did great in that (workout), too — but I have a lot of respect for the snatches,” she says. “So, my plan was to do it as fast as I could to get to the 100-lb. snatch and have enough time to get at least one rep. I had never done a WOD with 100-lb. snatches.”

At first she got one — she got fired up — then six more, power snatching all of them. She couldn’t believe it.

Workout 13.2 was a matter of rhythm.

“Keep it running and try not to die after the 10 minutes,” she laughs.

After week two, Ingrassia was tied for eighth place in Latin America. She scored 244 reps on 13.3, which she hopes is good enough to stay in a top position and qualify for Regionals.

“Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses,” she says. “I see there are now younger and very eager athletes this year, so the competition gets harder. I’ll just keep doing the (workouts) with the same energy as the first two.”

With one dream accomplished, Ingrassia now has a new one. She wants to qualify for the Latin America Regional, especially since it will be on her home turf.

“I’d love to represent my country and my box, CrossFit Machete.”