“From a competitive standpoint, I think (the 2014 Open) was the best so far. That was the most challenging out of all four years.”
Photo by Ali Adib
Almost a year after winning the Masters 40-44 Division at the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games, Michael Moseley is back with a whole new focus.
“I recognized that there was a huge potential with athletes at my gym to go to the Games with a team, and that is really where all my focus is right now,” Moseley said. “Luckily for me, I can go to regionals with my team and if that doesn’t work out, I can head to the Games to defend my title. But at this moment, my focus is on the team.”
After the shake out of the Leaderboard from individual athlete acceptance, Moseley’s team from CrossFit Now is in eighth place in the South West Region.
Moseley’s individual standing in his masters division is 42nd. With the addition of the new Masters Qualifier, he still has a chance to earn one of the top 20 spots for a return trip to the Games.
“I definitely didn’t perform as well I would have liked to this year,” Moseley admitted. “I’m definitely not where I want to be as far as the end of the Open, but we have these four masters workouts coming up and I’m in a much better position now (physically), so I’m excited about those. I anticipate returning, if not on the team, then as a master.”
“I think the new process of video submission is absolutely great,” he added. “Standards are hard to keep with over 200,000 people and affiliates judging them. Anyone who has to submit a video of themselves to later down the road be critiqued is absolutely going to perform differently than a person who is just being judged by someone at their own gym. I see that as a huge step forward for legitimizing the masters—sort of as a validation for going to the Games and ensuring the integrity of those top 20 guys.”
Moseley has been competing in the Open since 2011, and said this year’s Open was the best.
“From a competitive standpoint, I think that one was the best so far. That was the most challenging out of all four years,” he said.
Moseley suffered several severely herniated discs in his back and neck prior to the Open, resulting in a struggle with Open Workout 14.3, which had deadlifts and box jumps. He finished in 252nd place overall.
“Ironically, I suck at both thrusters and burpees, but did really well on 14.5,” he said of his 13th-place finish.
Moseley said he has had to make small sacrifices to keep a balance between work, family, training and running his affiliate. He recently made the switch from K-9 Swat to police patrol so he would be able to spend more time with his wife and kids, as well as train with his team.
This year’s Open was especially exciting for Moseley. His son, Gavin, turned 14 and was eligible to compete. He said his son is a natural athlete whose main focus is playing football for his school. When his dad asked him if he wanted to give the Open a try, he said yes.
“I couldn’t be prouder of him. He gave it his all,” Moseley said. “That last workout, when Castro said, ‘You will finish or you will quit,’ that kind of upset me and the wife because we weren’t sure our son could do a single 95-lb. thruster. Well he did all of them. It took him 53 minutes, but he did them all. It was just amazing. For me, that was the highlight of the Open.”
