18-year-old Charlottetown CrossFitter dazzles crowd with world event win in Miami
CBC
18-year-old CrossFitter from Charlottetown Anikha Greer took her talents to one of CrossFit's largest international festivals last week, and is returning home with new found fame.
Greer won the Celebrate 10 event at CrossFit's Wodapalooza festival in Miami, Florida, beating other competitors by 30 seconds.
That win got her some spotlight in the CrossFit community, as she's gained over 8000 followers on her Instagram account since last Saturday's win.
"My agent, when I saw him after [the event], he was like 'That is the start of your career'," Greer said.
"Coming from P.E.I. it's really hard to build a name for yourself, especially when I've been [competing] online for the past four years."
CrossFit's Wodapalooza festival began on Jan. 13 and ended on the 16th. It featured a series of workout events on each day, with male and female divisions. Division winners take home a cash prize.
The festival was a preseason event for CrossFit's international series of games. Those games eventually lead to finals declaring the "fittest on Earth" and cash prizes.
Unlike most sports which feature a sole focus, CrossFit is combination of several high-intensity exercises which include calisthenics (body weight strength exercises), weightlifting and weight training exercises.
As a competitive sport, pro CrossFitters like Greer compete to complete several exercises within a time limit. The fastest is declared winner.
Here are the workouts which Greer completed in less than 11 minutes to win the Celebrate 10 event:
Although Greer looked gleeful and confident as she finished her last set of overhead squats during the event, she said she felt "out of place" for most of the festival — competing among some of CrossFit's top global athletes.
"That event for me was like the turning point between feeling like having impostor syndrome," she said. "This being my very first in-person elite individual competition, I was feeling a bit out of place."
Prior to Wodapalooza, Greer competed virtually in a series of CrossFit games last year — including two semifinals where she placed 6th and 22nd among women.
"They took [top] 5, so just a couple of seconds faster I would have been one of the youngest to go to the CrossFit games [final]. I was super close last year," Greer said.
