Since about 2009, I’ve followed the Crossfit Games, sometimes called the “Forty, Fittest Men and Women on Earth.” I consider them a sort of birthday present, since they happen in August every year.
This August is a very special year since three events I love watching/participating in are happening in August. I’m sure you can guess one of them without me saying anything—that is, of course, the Olympics. The other two are, as mentioned above, the Crossfit Games, and you’ll probably laugh at this, but the last is called the “World’s Longest Yard Sale,” which stretches 690 miles from Noccalula Falls, in Gadsden, Alabama, to somewhere in Michigan.
We won’t discuss the Yard Sale, although it’s impressive in its own right. Instead, we’ll focus on the Olympics and the Crossfit Games.
You know about the Olympics but may not know as much about the Crossfit Games, so here’s a little information. In 2024:
– 344,000 athletes from around the world registered for the “Open” competition
– The competition has age groups from 14-65+
– The top 25% from the “Open” make quarterfinals
– Eventually, the top 40 men and top 40 women make it to the Games, and only the top three medal.
“The CrossFit Games are similar to the Olympics. The athletes who qualify are the world’s best and have differentiated themselves from hundreds of thousands of competitors. For most qualifiers, it’s the culmination of years of incredible effort and commitment.” Crossfit.com
So, there’s a 1 in 344,000 chance of winning the Crossfit Games, which isn’t very good odds unless your name is Rich Froning, Matt Fraser, or Tia Clair Tomey-Orr.
Let’s talk briefly about the Olympics.
– “From the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., the Games were held every four years in Olympia…in honor of the god Zeus.”
– “In A.D. 393, Emperor Theodosius 1, a Christian, called for a ban on all “pagan” festivals, ending the ancient Olympic tradition after nearly 12 centuries.” History.com
– “The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece in 1896.” History.com
– “According to Pausanias [a Greek traveler], it [the kotinos or olive wreath] was introduced by Heracles as a prize for the running race winner to honor his father Zeus…There was only one winner per event, crowned with an olive wreath made of wild-olive leaves from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus at Olympia…” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_wreath
“This year, athletes will compete across 32 sports in 329 events before the Paris Olympic Games end on August 11.” Today.com
Although I don’t have the exact numbers, to give you an idea, 11,000 athletes participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Obviously, 2020 was a terrible year for the world, but these numbers should give us some idea of how many people are competing.
What amazes me about the 344,000 Crossfit Open athletes and the potential 11,000+/- Olympic Athletes is the amount of hard work those numbers represent.
Here are some quotes from Olympic and Crossfit Athletes:
“If you want to be the best in the world, you have to know without a shadow of a doubt that you worked harder than anyone else in the world today,” Chaunte Lowe said, quoting a teammate.
- Chaunte is an American athlete who competes in the high jump. She’s a four-time Olympian. She’s the 08 bronze medalist, the 05 World Champs silver medalist, and the 2012 World Indoor gold medalist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaunté_Lowe
“I wanted to be one of the best basketball players to ever play and anything else that fell outside of that lane, I didn’t have time for.” Kobe Bryant
“My sister competed in gymnastics until she was like 17. She was a level 9 gymnast, training level 10. She was really good, and she quit because of the pressure, and everyone compared her to me.” Simone Biles talking about her sister.
My favorite Crossfit Champion of all time is Rich Froning, the ” four-time fittest man on earth.” I loved watching him compete.
One of the things he said about being a champion was, “To be the best, you have to be a little bit obsessive.”
“Crossfit had become kind of my life…You know, you start putting your identity in that. You put your identity in Crossfit and how you do in Crossfit.” Rich Froning
For those who know me or have heard my teaching, you know that I often say these six little words can change your life: “Your Identity is Found in Christ.” Tim Copeland
The five-time Fittest Man on Earth, Matt Fraser, told a story about 2020 when everything was locked down. He took a trip to a friend’s ski resort, which was closed, and hung out with some people who didn’t know much about Crossfit or him. He said that’s when he realized that he hadn’t thought about anything except Crossfit and winning the Games in four years.
When I listen to interviews with top-level athletes, a common theme is the hard work behind the scenes that no one sees. One person said, “It’s years of hard work for 11 seconds.” I can’t recall who said that, but she was referring to an 11-second sprint on a track.
Out of those 11,000 Olympians and 40 Crossfitters, I’m confident none would say the road to being at the Olympics or Crossfit Games was easy. It requires countless hours of training in various disciplines: recovery, eating right, waking up early, and going to bed early. Being at the top level requires perseverance and mental strength, but perhaps another word sums up what it takes to be the best even more concisely. Before discussing that word, let me tell you about my fitness journey.
When I discovered Crossfit in 2009, I started training on my own, as did many others at the time. Crossfit gyms were unavailable to most of us, and “garage gyms” were the standard.
After training for about a year, I started thinking I might have a chance to compete. I even started allowing myself to think I could compete in Regionals one day. At the time, regionals were where you qualified for the Games.
I often trained for 4+ hours a day, seven days a week. After training for a couple of years, I realized I would have to make sacrifices if I wanted to compete in Crossfit.
I lacked Olympic Weightlifting skills and would need a coach. If I stood any chance, I needed to increase my numbers in the deadlift, squat, clean and jerk, and snatch, among other movements. Then I started realizing that I lacked the proper gymnastic skills, like handstand walking, handstand pushups, and muscle ups, and the list started piling up.
I was training daily, doing the Workouts of the Day (every day), weight-lifting, working on gymnastics, and it hit me. If I want to compete, I’ll need to devote myself to this sport and that thought scared me as someone who’d given his heart to Jesus in 2009.
Devotion wasn’t a word I tossed around casually. I viewed it as something given to Christ, not anything else. In my mind, it was either Christ or Crossfit. It was probably 2011 or so when I realized the dream to compete in Crossfit would not align with serving Christ for me.
It’s not that I don’t think you can serve Christ and compete, but for me personally, that level of devotion was reserved for something more special than competing in a competition, which brings me to my next point.
1 Corinthians 9:25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
1. The wreath mentioned above is the Greek word: stephanos.
2. It means: the wreath or garland that was given as a prize to victors in public games
I told you above that I would tell you what word best sums up an athlete’s path to success, and as you may have guessed, that word is devotion. Successful athletes are often (if not always) completely devoted to the sport they compete in.
Consider this: John 19:2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.
I find it interesting that the Greek word used in the above passage is stephanos
Paul said, in 1 Cor. 9:25 that we’re competing for an imperishable stephanos or a victors crown.
I’m sure they had no idea what they were doing, but the Roman guards crowned Christ with a victor’s crown. Not the pleasant wreath awarded to games athletes, but a crown of suffering.
The crown placed on Jesus’ head as a form of mockery actually served as an example of the perfection of Christ through suffering.
Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Let’s look back at 1 Corinthians 9:25. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
Consider what Paul said about the hard work of being an Apostle: 1 Cor. 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
He continues this line of thinking in his letter to Timothy.
2 Timothy 2:1 ¶
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
Notice that Paul starts by telling Timothy there is grace in Jesus for the journey. He tells him to share in Christ’s suffering, avoid being entangled in worldly affairs, and compete according to the rules.
No matter how amazing an Olympian’s or Crossfitter’s achievement, it pales compared to the words every Christian desires to hear one day: well done, my good and faithful servant.