The CrossFit Games have been running annually since 2007 and this year East Kilbride mum-of-two Ali Crawford earned an impressive second-place finish.
The 45-year-old switched from regular gym life to CrossFit in 2013 and started competing seriously around five years ago.
Only the top 20 athletes from each age group gain entry to the Games.
In 2018, she became the first Scot to qualify, coming in 14th. Three years on, pegged as an underdog after qualifying by the skin of her teeth in 19th place, she made it all the way to the podium in the Women’s Masters 45-49 category.
“This year was a different mindset to 2018,” Crawford explains. “I was proud to have qualified back then and had no real ambition to win. When you’re lined up against 20 of the fittest women in the world your own age, it is hard to stay in your own lane and believe in yourself. I was overwhelmed.”
The Games, in Wisconsin this summer, took place over three days. To test their cross-discipline abilities, competitors only receive a briefing of the daily events the night before.
With no union or governing body, CrossFit is for amateurs, although some athletes in the United States do train full-time and are considered ‘Elites’.
Crawford works as a finance analyst by day, leads fitness classes and trains hard in her own time, putting in at least two hours per day, five or six times per week.
“You have to take training seriously,” she says.