Today I want to highlight two athletes that I have had one-on-one interaction with for close to a year. Both of their competitive seasons came to a close this past weekend and both deserve major accolades.
This past weekend, Natalie Mclain could not have made me more proud with her performance at the Crossfit Games. Natalie and I started working together after she failed to capitalize on 2012 Regionals because of a 70# dumbbell. She caught my attention then as the best athlete in the SoutWest regional to not make the Games. This year she redeemed herself with more hard training and perseverance than I’ve personally ever worked with in an athlete and she made it to LA. While there she endured one of the strangest Games we have ever seen and managed to capitalize everywhere possible. After watching this event take place I could not have been more proud of Natalie. She is truly an easy athlete to coach, incredibly coachable, and her unwillingness to quit is matched by nobody I have ever worked with. She deserves every bit of credit she has received and more than she will ever get. If you don’t know who Natalie is or haven’t kept up with her over the past year. That’s not a problem. Next year you’ll have no choice…
The other athlete that deserves some SERIOUS props is Sarabeth Phillips for her performance at the USAW National Championship in Westchester, OH. Sarabeth owned up to her natural ability and after not making the Games made the trip out for Nationals. In her first National Championship EVER, she finished 4th overall and took the bronze in the clean and jerk with a 94kg final effort. Sarabeth works the night shift as a ER nurse and despite possibly the worst schedule/job to compliment training she manages to make it to the gym day in and day out to lift. She is the model of perseverance and endurance when everything around her is telling her to quit. Sarabeth pushes on and succeeds when all the odds are against her. I could not have been more excited and proud of her when she nailed that 94kg CJ for the bronze medal. There’s very few feelings that can match the kind of pride you feel when you see one of your athletes succeed. SB has a bright future ahead of her and I am positive this is just the first time I will find myself proud of her!