Pat Sherwood: She won the Open last year and she went to the CrossFit Games, but she did it on a team.
2017. She will compete as an Individual.
Kari Pearce, the pride of the United States. Second place.
She was the fittest American woman at the Games last year.
Based upon this Open performance, I believe in Camille in 2017.
2014 champ–was the fittest woman then, but fell off. Had her worst Games finish last year.
Kari: My name is Kari Pearce. I live in Garwood, New Jersey. Last year I finished fifth
at the Reebok CrossFit Games.
We are going to the bus stop to go to New York City.
I head into the city around 6 a.m. to be there–I have a client at 8 a.m. so it's quite a commute.
We're out in Garwood, New Jersey right now. I moved out here in September of last year
So I was in the city before that.
My coach is out here, so I moved out to focus more on training.
So I usually leave my house at 6:10, then I'll walk to the bus stop.
As I walk up a hill I can see if a bus is there or not, so yesterday we got to run to the bus stop
because you never know when the next one's going to come.
Usually it's about an hour and a half from door-to-door.
There was one time last week where it was two hours and I was literally running through New York City
with my backpack on.
And then I usually get to the city and I have a private client from 8 to 9 a.m.
He did some hill sprints the other day so his hip flexors are a little tight.
He does the running, I'll do the lifting.
Yeah, that was because of the push-ups and pull-ups... and I can run, too.
Ian: You got strawberries and fish?
Jamie: Yup! Thought I'd slip them in somehow.
Ian: Strawberries and fish. Go right together. Like peanut butter and coffee.
Jamie: Yeah. Exactly like that.
I'm Jamie Greene. I am from Dunedin, New Zealand. I currently live in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
And I train at CrossFit YAS.
Elliot: So you're going to do 15 over the shoulders,
400 meter carry in the bear hug position,
bring it back to here, and then another 15 over the shoulder.
Not for time. Jamie: No, it's going to ruin my nails, too.
Elliot: A real, genuine person. She works hard, she's very motivated. She has two emotions: tired and hungry.
If she's one of those two things, you leave her alone.
But then there's a very deep drive within her that only a few people get to see.
She hates losing. Her sister is a competitive runner and so she used to go out running
with her sister, and even though she was never ever going to beat her sister,
their dad used to say, "Oh it's okay, Jaime." You know, like first loser and stuff like that.
And I think it's just stuck with her from an early age, that she's just got a drive to win.
Jaime: Before CrossFit, I did gymnastics for about ten years.
And then throughout high school, university, and any time before CrossFit
I was playing rugby and touch rugby, mostly.
The last year, when I came first in the Open, I felt like I was really fit
and from there I was probably at my peak of fit year.
So Regionals went well and team stuff went well, but I felt like I leveled out, almost.
So then in the off season, I focused more on my strengths and skills again.
So then coming into the Open, I felt a lot stronger. Maybe not fitter because that needed to come later on–
more at Regionals. I think now I've sorted out a bit that that peak comes a bit later, hopefully.
Camille: My name is Camille Leblanc-Bazinet.
So I've been to the Games seven times and my best finish was first place in 2014.
And I train at CrossFit Roots in Boulder.
I don't know why, but I have the Backstreet Boys song in my head.
Heber: Who's your favorite Backstreet Boy? Camille: It was Ryan. The curly hair?
What was the curly hair? Dave. Dave was my favorite Backstreet Boy.
Hey. Show everyone how good of a boy you are.
Or not.
Dave: So I started an Instagram account about
a little over a week ago and all I've been posting are pictures of Cam wearing
her green face mask for her skin
and in a week I've gotten 10,000 followers.
Heber: What's the handle? Dave: davefreakinlipson.
Camille: We're going to celebrate our five year anniversary this summer.
And since the past five year, he's been taking picture of me eating.
Like, I don't know what's wrong with him.
He take picture of me eating. Like, but it's not a new thing. It's always been like,
"Wait wait wait! I have to take a picture of this!" I'm like, "Why? I'm eating a sandwich."
This is my husband and he try to terrorize me.
Every year, you learn things and then you modify your program with whatever you've learned.
So I was just watching Greg's talk about intensity and adaptation
and he talked about it with so much passion that I was like, "Yeah. Yeah. Be intense."
Kari: 8K row about to go down.
Ian: Gross.
Kari: I know.
I got these peppers at the store.
My weightlifting coach, his name is Akin, he's from Nigeria and he was actually a weightlifter, himself.
He actually coached a lot of national champions for Nigeria.
And he's very, very intense.
He doesn't mess around, but I mean it's exactly what I need right now.
So one of my biggest weaknesses right now is front squats.
My overhead squat is actually higher than my front squat by like 12 pounds
which most people, it's not the case.
So we've just been incorporating squats on squats on squats.
Elliot: There have been like three occasions now that we've either had a competition
or we've had a media team come in and she's had to go and buy a razor
cause she's got hairy armpits.
There you go. See?
Jaime: It's horrible.
Just making sure. Mariah: Making sure of what?
Jaime: That's horrible.
Not really bothered, though.
People will get me.
Mariah: How often do you shave your armpits?
Jaime: In the toilets? Quite often.
So in the Middle East, in the UAE, there's a lot of local ladies who obviously they cover up
with their abaya and that. So then, working out, they can only be seen by a woman
or unless they want to train in a mixed gym they can cover up. Obviously it's pretty hot here
and you don't always want to do that.
So we ended up opening the ladies gym. Obviously they come in, it's a separate gym.
They can take their abayas off. We run the classes and so this weekend we had the first throwdown.
We see them in classes and they're a bit cautious and they don't want to pick up too much weight
or whatever. But once they get thrown into the competition environment they're just like anyone else.
They were lifting deadlifts like triple the weight we've seen them do and actually pushing
on the Assault Bike and things like that.
So it's really good to see how far they've come.
And at the end so many of them were buzzing and now I think the classes are going to push a bit harder.
Mariah: What are you doing right now? Jaime: paddle boarding.
Let's see some Abu Dhabi sunsets. Normally the six of us just sit on the couch.
We're out on Yas island so it's a lot quieter out here. There's a lot to do here.
You got your beaches, the mall, the sport center, and that. But we went halfway into the city
to go paddle boarding to see the sunset.
I think just because people get caught up in CrossFit like it's all indoor or whatever
but there's so much other stuff out there.
It's a nice way to spend the night.
Relax. It's quite a good community in Abu Dhabi if you can find the right ones.
Heber: How often do you guys do this hike? Camille: Every two week, I guess.
Pretty often. We like it.
It's easy.
Well in the Colorado world, you wouldn't call this a hike.
This is like a nature walk.
Come on. You put yourself in that mess, buddy.
Dave: Could take it to the lab.
Camille: He know you're a liar. He love the snow. He's just going nuts.
Heber: I feel there's no way there's a human poop that big.
Camille: Wait until you get married. You see a lot. You see a lot of things.
Kari: Some chicken and peppers and spicy brown mustard.
My favorite meal, if you haven't noticed already.
Mariah: And you eat it with a spoon? Kari: Sometimes with a fork, but I got a spoon today.
Everything's clear again. [laughs]
If you look like him, you better come my way.
I'm looking, you know.
But you better have a good personality and everything, too. Not just the looks.
There's more than that. You gotta be a good person. You can't just look the part.
Be hot that way.
I mean you might be pretty to the eye but you won't stick around, I guess.
Sean Woodland: And Kari Pearce will get her first career event win at the CrossFit Games
as she takes Murph!
Kari: As everyone says, it's grueling.
You know, the five days in a row of consistent competition.
You're going, going, going.
Nothing else compares. You really can't even explain it to anybody when they ask
"What's it like?" It's really one of those things you have to experience. You can't put it into words.
Announcer: This year she placed fifth. That's a 16 place-improvement. Come on out, Kari Pearce!
Kari: It means a lot to be the fittest American woman. It's just so cool to be the top of your country.
Just thinking about in any sport or whatever it is. I go to different gyms and people come over
and they compliment me and people know who I am and want to take pictures and sometimes people are like,
"Don't you get sick of that?"
NO! I never do! I love talking to people. I love getting to know people.
It's just another reason that motivates me every day.
And sometimes if I'm not feeling motivated or whatever, I'll look back to pictures from the Games
and just remember why I do this. To be the top American. Do it for your country.
Jaime: We got there the first day and we got a bit of a fright like, "Oh my god, all these teams are so big."
Or like, "They all look so athletic. Straight into work CrossFitters."
And then by the end of the weekend, it came to the last workout and we were all pretty confident by the end.
We were all happy. We're tired, but we're all happy. We're feeling all right. We're happy to get out there
and give 100% on that last workout and we hung on to third place.
So then when we got onto the podium, all of us stood up there and go, "What the hell? How did we end up here?"
But we were also so pleased with it.
You see the individual competition and it makes you want even more, so you come home
and you see what they've been doing and you go, "Oh I'm going to try training for that now."
Like, we've done the team. Now let's try the next part.
Camille: What I think especially I've been—now for the eighth year—kind of under watchful eye.
You start to have pressure to perform and everyone rank you, right?
So everything is about the rank. Everything is about, "You're worth this because you're ranked that."
Or, "You're worth this because you have that."
And all that is kind of B.S. I'm worth me because I'm me.
You kind of lose sight of that as thing piled up.
You get nervous of losing your sponsor or this or that. You're like, "Is my career going to be over
"if X, Y, and Z?" But all of that shouldn't have any effect on who you are
because who you are is who you are.
So I think that going through that, through all these year, you lose a little bit of yourself.
And that's something that I definitely realize in the past two years and I just went back to being me.
I'm really having fun and I'm having fun searching to see how good I can be.
I work my ass off.
But there's so many things that have to align, so I'm working on aligning all the things
I have control over. I think a lot of people can win the CrossFit Games.
And I think I can do it again.
Jaime: There is a bit of pressure with people being like, "Oh you're going to do really well."
"You've done well in the Open."
But, it doesn't really bother me too much.
My goal to Regionals is obviously to make the CrossFit Games.
If I did make it that far, then my goals would change, obviously to be in that top-10, top-5
at the CrossFit Games.
I think it's going to be very different as an individual, but I'm looking forward to it.
Kari: I think I can win the Games. I've worked just as hard, if not harder than other people
and I mean I've improved a lot over the past year. I deserve to be on the podium.
I work really hard, day in and day out. I know for everybody else, that's the goal.
For all of us. We're all fighting to get it, but I've put in the work and I'm excited to see what happens.
To see it pay off.
Sam: If I want to win the CrossFit Games, I'll win the CrossFit Games.
No pain! Let's go!