MILTON, Ont. - The first stage of qualification for the annual CrossFit Games, which draws athletes from all over the world to compete for the title of 'fittest alive,' is known as the Open. Hundreds of thousands of athletes compete each year in the Open, which advertises itself as the sporting event with the most participants worldwide.

This year's Open was held virtually from February 24 to March 14. Of the 1,384 teams competing in the team division, the four athletes from Polsky's Strength and Conditioning (PSC) in Kitchener placed fifth. They retained that ranking through the quarterfinals, which took place in April.

All this in their first year competing together as a team.

Team CrossFit PSC are Polsky's Strength and Conditioning owners Nick and Kate Anapolsky, Shawn Clarke, and recent Laurier graduate Erica Folo.

Folo first started CrossFit when she was 14. Then a talented 100- and 200-meter runner with the Burlington Track and Field Club, Folo started working out at CrossFit Connection in Burlington in order to improve her strength and conditioning for track. She soon noticed she had even more of an aptitude and inclination towards CrossFit and decided to pursue it competitively.

At 17, she qualified for the 2018 CrossFit games in the 16-17 age girls division, having placed first among all Canadians in that year's Open. She finished the Games in twelfth place worldwide.

Folo credits her family – particularly her dad and brother, who would do workouts with her when she first started out – for helping her on her fitness journey. Jason Bird, the former owner of CrossFit Connection and her first CrossFit coach, she says also had a huge impact.

"He helped me get to the games in 2018, he was a huge imprint on my life in the early stages [of my CrossFit career]."

Keeping your body in condition to compete at the CrossFit Games is no small commitment, and Folo decided to take it easy for her first three years at Laurier, though she still did CrossFit workouts recreationally.

She also worked at the Athletic Complex as a Fitness Centre Attendant, as well as with the men's rugby team as a student trainer.

"Working at Laurier gym was amazing because I got to meet so many people that were like-minded... I'm super happy I got involved with those two things because it was a great experience. Meeting all the guys on the rugby team and the fellow athletic therapist was great and I feel like I built some friendships that I'll carry for a long time."

This past year, her fourth at Laurier, Folo decided it was time to revisit competitive CrossFit. This led her to Polsky's Strength and Conditioning.

"I had been to Polsky strength and conditioning a few times, the only reason why I wasn't going there [regularly] was just travel, I didn't have a car," said Folo. She thanks Neil Lawson and Brett and Lindsay Walker, friends from home, for helping her with transport costs, and teammate Shawn Clarke for providing rides to and from the gym once she committed to joining CrossFit PSC.

"[The team] reached out to me this January, so it's kind of been on the go since January, six days a week, full time."

Rather impressively, Folo trained for, then competed in the Open and quarterfinals while finishing her final semester at Laurier. After graduating, she lived with teammates Nick and Kate Anapolsky in the lead-up to the Atlas Games.

The Atlas Games are one of thirteen semifinal competitions which serve as the final qualifiers for the CrossFit Games. They were held on the weekend of June 10-12 in Montreal. Despite their impressive performance in the Open and quarterfinals, CrossFit PSC just missed out on qualifying for the Games, finishing seventh and a mere 50 points out of the top five.

"A few things happened [at the Atlas Games] that we weren't prepared for," said Folo. "[We were] competing against a bunch of teams that have done this live competition as a team before, so it was a bit of a shock to us and a huge learning experience to prepare us for what's to come next year."

For the Open and quarterfinals, athletes performed their workouts at their home gyms and submitted their scores via video or in front of a registered judge. They're given an unlimited amount of attempts within a time period of a few days to do so.

The Atlas Games were held live at the Complexe Sportif Claude-Robillard, which can seat up to 6,500 spectators, and athletes only have one chance to complete each exercise. What's more, the athletes only know two of the workouts in advance of the competition, the rest are posted just a few days beforehand.

For a relatively inexperienced team such as CrossFit PSC, this presents quite the challenge.

"Training for competition, you definitely have to hit a lot more skills than when you're training just for yourself... so that means being well trained on things like ring muscle-ups, high-skill gymnastics like handstand walking, stuff that the average person doesn't need to do unless they think "oh this kind of looks cool."

Of course, these exercises are extremely difficult even for competitive CrossFit athletes, never mind "the average person."

"Handstand walking is my enemy, that's something that I've never been good at," admits Folo. "Weightlifting is kind of my thing, I like a heavy barbell... but when it comes to any high-skill gymnastics, I'm not bad at it, but I don't love it, there's something about it that's just so hard to grasp for me."

While not qualifying for this year's games is certainly disappointing, Folo is proud of her team's performance.

"We didn't punch a ticket to the games... but this year I built relationships with the best people. Being on this team with these three amazing athletes has taught me what it's like to love what you do," she said in an Instagram post.

Folo is working at a golf course in Milton for the summer and is thinking of pursuing a post-graduate education in athletic therapy or sonography in the near future.
  
Rest assured, she and CrossFit PSC will be back next season to "give it another shot."

"I'm excited to see where we will go as a team – this season was only the beginning for us."