Field hockey player Rachel Gassert will represent her country and her faith at the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel. To prepare, she's training at CrossFit Done Right.
Every four years since 1932, Israel has its own Olympic Games. The Maccabiah Games celebrates athletes of Jewish heritage from around the world, and includes almost every summer Olympic sport, as well as rugby and bridge.
Twenty-nine-year-old field hockey player, Rachel Gassert, was chosen to represent Team USA at the Maccabiah Games next July. To prepare, she’s training at CrossFit Done Right.
“I started doing CrossFit two years ago,” Gassert says. “I never liked going to the gym, but I had a friend who CrossFitted in North Carolina and loved it. When I got a Living Social deal to start for $40, I figured, ‘Why not?’ I have been at CrossFit Done Right ever since, and I love it.”
With her field hockey teammates spread across the United States, there’s a chance they won’t train together until they arrive in Israel next summer.
“It’s possible that all of my training will be without the team. I play in a co-ed league once a week outside of D.C., but that’s not enough,” she explains.
Without practice sessions to help her prepare, Gassert is developing her fitness and sharpening her competitive edge by trying to beat men in the workouts. “I am very competitive,” she says.
She doesn’t follow special programming. She does the workout and continues to train her weaknesses in CrossFit. Eventually, her coach, Justin Bacon, plans on adding some extra drills.
“We plan to stick to what works best — CrossFit,” Bacon says. “We will be adding in some speed and agility work, as well as intervals to simulate a game.”
To assure she can play next summer, she and her coach are extra wary of potential injury, and she makes sure to get adequate rest.
“I’m not good at resting or recovering, so we are paying a lot of attention to that,” Gassert says. “I try to CrossFit four times a week, run twice a week and play (field hockey) once a week.”
To get to Israel, she faced a financial obstacle. Each athlete must raise $5,000 before the start of 2013. Her friends at CrossFit Done Right came to her aid and organized a fundraiser. Gassert says the fundraiser made a dent in the goal. “It was unbelievable.”
After 16 years of field hockey and two years of CrossFit, Gassert says she is determined to make her country, team, friends and people of the Jewish faith proud.
