Four local CrossFit athletes competed in the Legends Championship in San Diego this past weekend, with some of the best CrossFit talents from all over the world.
Janine Shillington, Dave Rempel, Ernie Stewart, and Barry Plant of Grande Prairie displayed their CrossFit skills and athleticism south of the border. Shillington, 39, placed 10th in her group, while Rempel, 51, finished 3rd among his competitors, Stewart, 36, finished 25th, and Plant, 56, finished 15th in his group.
Chelsea Adamson, a Spin Instructor at V02 Health and Performance, says that these are some amazing people she and many others look up to.
“These are some incredible members of the community. Not only do they represent themselves well, but they’re also always involved in fundraisers for the community on a regular basis, and care so much about everyone’s health and wellbeing,” she says.
Ernie Stewart, who competed, coaches both Janine and Dave. “He’s incredibly proud of those two. Janine coaches Barry as well. It’s great to know that they were all there to compete, but also support each other,” Adamson says.
For those that don’t know what a CrossFit competition entails, it includes a large amount of olympic lifting, with extreme cardiovascular activities in between. You have to be fit in all forms, strong, you need to have a lot of endurance, and be able to fight through a lot of discomfort to keep competing.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all qualifiers for the Legends Championship were held online. Cross Fit athletes had to record several workouts in a very specific way. As a result of the online qualifier, the competition saw people from all over in 2021, including some from Ireland.
The next step is preparing for Wodapalooza, which is an annual Cross Fit competition held in January in Miami. Following that, the local athletes will try to qualify for the equivalent of the olympics of Cross Fit in February, called the Cross Fit Games.
“I don’t think they realize how amazing they are, but I want to recognize them for all their efforts,” Adamson says.