foreign I was born with a condition called pffd which basically means that you have a shortened
limb in some instances people's limbs are short enough to where they can remedy it with a shoe
lift or something like that and mine was very much so on the severe side of things so I went
through about a dozen surgeries before I was in even the double-digit age range following that
is when I started wearing a prosthetic right away it just kind of learning how to do life
with my one leg and I moved to Colorado and I really wanted to take my fitness to the next
level and I wanted to see if there would be any opportunity for me as an Adaptive athlete to be
on the competition floor and so I started doing some of my research and Crossfit was something
that kind of came to the surface [Music] I'm going to start calling around and see if there's anyone
who would be willing to work with me and kind of teach me the ropes of CrossFit and so Carrie was
pretty much one of the first people I called and she just opened like these doors with open arms
to me and we've never looked back since I was actually at a master's Collective competition
with another athlete and she called and I said oh I'm just going to take this call and we
started talking she told me what she wanted that she was looking for a gym and that she
was looking to grow and Crossfit and what her abilities were and I was pretty transparent I
said I have no idea how to do this but let's go it's been it's been fun it's been a lot of fun
she picks things up so quick it's pretty cool someone who never had done a bar muscle up and
two days later she's linking them and like wow you know it's it's really cool it's cool
cool me and my friends like to watching my music and we like to go to music festivals
and some of these things require a lot of walking and just like your regular everyday movements and
in the past you know when we would go do these things I would be in a lot of pain hurting for
sure trying to push the physical limits for myself and or having to use some sort of a
Cane or something to get through these situations this past summer a couple of my friends are like
you seem just totally fine and like you're you're walking through like no
problem and like we can tell that this is actually helping you and I can feel it in
my day-to-day life too like God forbid even when I go to the grocery store and
I'm trying to carry in you know 10 grocery bags on each side and really credit CrossFit to that
um and I'm so thankful that I found the again helped me in my day-to-day life tasks like that
I love lifting heavy weights and I always will always have um but I just like testing my physical
limits with like walking on my hands and being upside down and doing a handstand push-up like
it's a party pleaser right I'm like hey tell my friends look what I can do look what I can
do they're like no way dude so I really like that component of CrossFit it's a happy marriage I try
and keep it at a healthy medium of yes staying competitive because there is that athlete side
to me where of course you know I want to show my ability and I want to do it well
but there's this other side of things where it's like I just want to have fun with this and also
be an advocate for our disabled Community our adaptive athlete community and do what I can
to just show people who might be following in my footsteps that these resources are available and
that this is something they absolutely positively can do and should do I see a lot I see her going I
see her in the games I really do and I'm really excited for her but I'm also excited for other
competitions and for her to throw her hat in with other adaptive programs and athletes and work side
by side with them because I don't think she's ever had that before so I'm really excited for
her to get into that community and grow there and for us to grow with Crossfit and how it develops
and where we go it's going to be cool we'll tell you if we went backward a year time today you
know I was still so uncomfortable taking off my prosthetic in the gym showing that side of myself
publicly and just feeling confident in that and so especially when I started with Carrie I was like
okay we are going to um have to do some new and very uncomfortable things here but to
achieve my goal and to do what I want to do that's kind of what needed to be done
um and so Carrie has been really great in just allowing me to take that at my own pace let me
know what's comfortable for you then I'll know and we will adapt and adjust from there now I
feel so comfortable just what my leg is like laying anywhere and everywhere in this gym at
all time so we have encountered challenges you know every time we step foot into this gym but
somehow we figure out how to overcome them and I'm excited to keep doing that with her this community
Carrie Carey makes me want to come back here every single day just um I could get emotional talking
about it but just to know that she feels proud of me and working with me and doing these things
together I mean like they say if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together
and I fully am a firm believer in that I think CrossFit is the perfect community that showcases
exactly that and I would not want to be doing this with anyone else but caring I'm really really
excited to see the damage that we're going to do in terms of continuing on this CrossFit journey
and I also am really just excited to hopefully be a change maker in the world of adaptive Athletics
and especially as it pertains to CrossFit I think that there is a lot of growth ahead for us a lot
of changes that need to be made but we're headed in the right direction and so it's just going to
take people like myself and some other adaptive cross CrossFit athletes that we have out there
on the field right now to continue doing this work and just showing folks what's possible
foreign