Aucklander Tamaryn Venter has qualified to compete in the CrossFit Games World's Fittest Man and Woman. Last weekend she competed at the Australasian Regional champs, coming away with first place and automatic entry into what has been called the ultimate test of fitness. Her team mate Darren Ellis also managed 4th in the men's division, narrowly missing out on a qualifying berth.
The CrossFit Games are a grueling two-day competition in which the world's fittest athletes compete in a variety of workouts. Each year the events change, and the details of them are not announced until a couple days beforehand. This means that all year long, the athletes are training for a competition whose format is almost completely a mystery. The three workouts in Australia contained elements such as Olympic Weightlifting, kettlebell swinging, burpees, pull-ups, rowing and sand dune running.
Claiming the title of World's Fittest is certain to be a contentious issue, but those who practice CrossFit believe that this competition comes closer than any other event. Most tests of this nature demand nothing but a high level of endurance, whereas CrossFit attempts to challenge all aspects of fitness, including strength, power, speed, agility, flexibility, balance and coordination. They admit that no single test can adequately assess these broad capacities. Even the rigorous two-day CrossFit Games can assess but a small portion of anyone's true capacity.
But, it is their considered opinion that the CrossFit Games are the best test on the planet for true, elite fitness, and that the winners of the CrossFit Games are the World's Fittest humans. Tamaryn now has 12 weeks of grueling training ahead of her, before she heads to Northern California to go up against 60 other women in the July World Champs.
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide. It is also infinitely scaleable to suit the recreational exerciser, and it is rapidly growing in popularity, with over 1000 CrossFit affiliates established worldwide in gyms, warehouses, garages and schools.
