In 2012, Paul Tremblay vowed he'd go to the CrossFit Games as an individual. In 2014, he qualified.
In July of 2012, Paul Tremblay stood in the StubHub Center (then the Home Depot Center) in Carson, California, after competing with his team, L’Usine CrossFit Ottawa.
After watching the individual heats, he walked over to his sister in the stands and made a vow: “I’m coming back.”
This year, his pledge has come to fruition. After one of the most exciting finishes at the Canada East Regional, Tremblay is going back to the Games—this time as an individual.
Seeded 18th coming into the competition, 27-year-old Tremblay, who owns CrossFit NCR in Ottawa, Canada, worked his way up to the top heat and into fourth place heading into Event 7.
“There were too many good guys, too many absolutely fierce competitors, to take anything for granted all weekend,” Tremblay said. “I knew it was going to come down to the last (event).”
It did.
With Albert-Dominic Larouche sitting safely in first with 33 points, the second Games-qualifying position was up for grabs heading into the pull-up and overhead squat sprint. Alex Vigneault sat in second place with 52 points, followed by Pascal Baillargeon with 53 and Tremblay with 55.
“Going into the last WOD, all I was thinking was, ‘Go win the WOD. If you win the WOD, that’s pretty much all you can do. There’s nothing you can control behind you,’” he recounted.
He stuck to that plan and won Event 7. But behind him, Baillargeon and Vigneault took third and fourth, respectively, putting the athletes in a precarious three-way tie at 56 points. After a nail-biting 10 minutes of number crunching, the results showed up on the Leaderboard.
Tremblay was going to the Games.
“I had a bunch of friends and family all dressed in NCR colors in the stands, and my whole corner was … kinda goin’ nuts,” he said. “I got interviewed and in the interview I didn’t know I had come in second, so I wasn’t really excited yet, and I just looked up and saw my brother point at his phone and yell at me, so I sort of knew right there that I was going.”
“Then I completely lost my mind and jumped onto the stands and celebrated with my family,” he added. “It was complete mayhem of happiness.”
Tremblay, who is Larouche’s training partner and good friend, makes a two-hour drive to train with him. On those drives, he often thinks about his goal of going to the Games. But since the regional, the realization that he is heading there to compete in July is just setting in.
“It’s a two-hour drive by myself, and all I think about is, ‘I want to go to the Games, and this is why I’m doing this. I’m going to train, I’m going to get better and hopefully make it,’” he said. “Now it’s sort of sinking in that I’m going.”
“To be going with Albert is just a cherry on top,” Tremblay added. “The guy has quickly become one of my best friends, and he’s taught me a lot in the sport. I push him in more strength stuff, he pushes me in endurance stuff, and we just get along.”
Writing most of his own programming, Tremblay has had a renewed focus on training smart and fine-tuning technique thanks to two surgeries to clean up the meniscus in his knee last year and a minor back injury in January.
Staying healthy is his top priority as he prepares for the Games.
“What I’m concentrating on is being able to work for four days at a very, very high intensity,” he said. “Just getting my body used to the volume, recovering well, and staying healthy because that’s always No. 1.”
“I’m doing a little bit of weird stuff, playing with objects,” he said of his training strategy in the lead-up to the Games. “Carrying stuff for long periods of time, getting to the pool, running, etc. Running is a weakness of mine so I have to dial that in.”
He also has to make a conscious shift in his mentality.
“Watching the other regions … watching Dan Bailey and Josh Bridges go at it, in my head, I’m still looking at them like a fan,” he admitted. “Then I pinch myself and I’m like, ‘No, I’m going to be competing against those guys—I’m a competitor.’”
His main motivation in CrossFit is to win.
“If you go into a competition not thinking you can win, then what’s the point of competing? So I want to win,” he said. “But I’m also a realistic guy. The guys out there that are on top of the CrossFit world, they are pretty impressive. They are strong dudes and they are good at what they do. So, for me, I think if I could come back (from the Games) with a top-20 finish, I think that would be a realistic, achievable, yet pretty challenging goal.”
While he still has time before packing for Carson, California, Tremblay said there is one thing he knows for sure he will be bringing: his “Proven” T-Shirt from the 2012 Regional.
“I put it up over my bed at regionals this year just so I looked at it every night and told myself, ‘I’ve proven myself before, and it’s time to prove myself again,’” he said. “I’ll be putting it in my hotel room in California just to remind myself that I’m supposed to be there. But it’s not just getting there that’s important, it’s proving myself when I’m there, as well.”
“I’ll have it to remind me to make some noise when I’m at the Games,” he added. “A top 20 I’d be happy with. But I’m gonna fucking give it my all in every (event).”
