The ladies of Union Fitness caught our eye because each of them brings something unique to the team, and two of them are coming back from injuries. We had to hear their story in their own words, so we pulled up with them and chatted about what everyone brings to the table and what the weekend holds for them.
GG: I saw that you, Chelsea, have a basketball background. What other athletic backgrounds do you have on the team?
Meg Walters: I danced all growing up, so through college as well.
Danielle Kot: I played soccer previously.
GG: Nice, so a lot of diversity. Do you think that brings different strengths to the team? Do you all bring something different to the table?
Chelsea Lyons: Actually, yeah. Danielle’s soccer background—she can go for days. Her endurance is just unreal. It’s really unmatched, her endurance level. I’m really athletic and explosive, and that’s probably due to basketball. I’m quick, good plyometric skills, things like that.
MW: And it’s more like body awareness for me, just through dance. Things like moving around a barbell came naturally to me.
CL: And her celebrations are on point.
GG: Haha that’s important! So it sounds like you’ve all had some injuries in the past?
DK: I’m ok!
CL: I broke my leg in 2013 playing basketball, and I was overseas actually, I was playing in Europe. So I broke it over there and had to come back here. I started CrossFit as a rehab tool, hopefully to go back and play professionally again. And I just fell in love with CrossFit and ended up making it my career as well. So that’s how my story came about.
MW: And I just had wrist surgery 6 months ago. I tore a ligament on my wrist doing CrossFit. It was right before the Open. I jumped up to the pull up bar and felt it snap. We think it happened prior and just gave at that point. I had to have emergency surgery, which kind of ruined the last year for me. Now this is kind of the first competition back!
GG: That’s exciting! Welcome back. How has preparation for the Granite Games gone then, seeing as you guys are coming back from injury. How do you think it’s going to go?
CL: I think it’s going to go great. We prepared to be ready to do anything and everything in case she [Meg] couldn’t do it, just based on what she can handle with her wrist, what makes it hurt. And it turns out that we lucked out with this programming. There’s really just a couple things that actually hurt it. And I mean, my ankle is always going to be bummed out, her [Danielle’s] knee is always going to be bummed out, we’re just tough, we’re toughing it out.
Meg – And they’re coming out of Regionals, so they’re coming off of that and their training is just continuing over, whereas I’ve slowly phased in now in the past couple months.
Hopefully Regionals next year?
Meg – Yes! But we’ve all competed before. I haven’t competed with Danielle before, but they’ve competed before. And I’ve competed with Chelsea before. We’re great friends outside the gym as well, which really helsp with our communication.
And you know you work well together as a team.
Meg – Yes. We’re honest, I think that’s the most important part. When you’re on the floor and have to call like, You suck at this. Don’t do it! We’re at least honest and know each other as an athlete.
So what is the event you guys think will be the most fun, or that you’re gonna go out there and dominate?
CL: See, that’s hard. We had fun with a lot of them, but we don’t know what the competition’s going to bring. We might think we’re dominating, but there could be a girl that goes 30 seconds faster than us. We practiced the Deadly Ropes, and we had a lot of fun doing that one. Doesn’t mean it’s going to be a number one spot! We had a lot of fun doing it.
MW: I’m excited to see people dumbbell snatch! That’s new, I’ve never been in a competition where it’s incorporated. I’m excited for it, I’m curious where we line up.
I’ve seen a lot of people practicing that one. That and the carry. Did you girls practice the carry?
CL: No! We fashioned 2 sandbags together with some duct tape and pulleys, so it’s not exactly the carry, but it’s pretty close!
