I’m 29, so a bit older than MOB, Emma Cary and Haley Adams, and I think at the end of the day these women are just making big kid choices now.
I don’t think the onus is on CF to “protect their mental health”, I think all three of these women had to evaluate their own breaking points. I guess my only worry for them now is their financial pictures cause I do think sponsorships will dry eventually.
Teens can be tested (any athlete who signs up for the open can be tested), but I think they are tested in the same manner, but with less frequency than the elites. An awful testing protocol all around
Good point. I also think it is worth mentioning that the young men aren't dominating the same way the women are. Justin Medeiros didn't dominate in the teens division, Dallin Pepper isn't dominating in the elite division. Huge difference in comparison to the young women who are dominating from age 16. Just another factor though. PEDs use is a good point
Something something about putting a teenager into an environment where they are surrounded by people several years older than them with little community outside of it.
This is an interesting take and I don’t disagree. Curious why you think the teenager being around adults isolates them potentially? Compared to the mindset that it prepares them or matures them in ways
When you were twenty were you concerned about impressing a bunch of crusty 30-40 year olds in their dying sport? Or did you want to have fun with people your age?
I think these training camps are places for massive burnout. A co petit Ive environment where every workout is an all out gut and mental check is not gonna create long lasting athletes. Emma Lawson and Jack Farlow are doing it right. They are the oonly ones with Mammoth and that coach is smart to be solo to them. They will make it farther than anyone in these elite ‘camps’
This is just what will happen in an individual performance sport, where the onus is on you. It is also a sport with no organization or expectations, it's just "random" for lack of a better term, so having a defined goal is very difficult. Team sports are superior for this and various other reasons.
Also, get them off of social media, or encourage following more team/community oriented content. CrossFit operates under a guise of "community" but it is really just ego feeding for the most part.
Yeah I agree that social media likely has a ton to do with it. Mental health issues skyrocketed with the creation of social media and women at that age are often caught up in it.
If you have SM and can have someone else run your account I think that’s a great place to start.
I think the “random” aspect of no organizations is a huge point here. I didn’t think of that but it makes a lot of sense.
I totally agree on the individual sport pressure. I competed in martial arts for 9 or 10 years, and I remember the pressure being insane. My dad was my biggest supporter win or lose, but we learned that if he entered my view while I was competing, I would almost always mess up, just from the fear of disappointing him. Similar thing when I was wrestling. I wish there was a solution here for athletes
I agree with the “random” aspect as well.
CrossFit is also weird as a “profession” or sport to pursue because the people around you in your training space will likely never have the same goal as you. So you’re likely to feel isolated in that regard too. Individual sports aren’t unusual and children participate in them all the time: tennis, gymnastics, track, golf, swimming etc. The difference is the other kids they’re participating with have the same training plan with the same intensity and the same goals if you will. They compete at the same meets, they operate as a “team” while they’re competing as individuals. CrossFit doesn’t have that. It must be so lonely to put that much passion and time into one thing while I’m sure it seems the people around you never care at the same level.
Emma Cary doesn't really fit here. She took a year off because of a back injury...then came back and looked poised to have a good year. She is leaving for religious reasons...
So I'm not sure it really follows your pattern. Unless you call her wanting to delve deeper into her faith a mental health crisis? I didn't really read her post like that though.
She said that CrossFit became more important to her than Jesus, so she's going to take a break to get close to him...
Or something to that general effect.
It's not really clear, but she has claimed it's to give her more time to devote more time to church and religion. Apparently she wants to do this more than she wants to do CrossFit. It's all on her Instagram.
The back injury year off is definitely a separate thing. I interpreted her post about religious reasons as “taking a break to find myself” in a religion coded way. I could be wrong here though.
That is some very deep coded language though. She may need to find herself and find purpose but if she's just looking at is as crossfit vs religion the only places she'll end up is deeper in her religious rabbit hole. I hope she takes the time off to be introspective and reflective holistically.
That's not necessarily a mental health crisis. I don't know her, and therefore must take things at face value. Is she having a crisis of faith? Sure. But that's not the same thing as a mental health crisis.
I’m not great at quoting Bible verses but it is addressed in the Bible to my understanding as you should only worship one God. The concept is that she’s allowing the most important thing in her life to be CrossFit, so in a way she’s worshipping CrossFit as a God instead of focusing on Jesus/God. They talk about this in Faith RX (a Christian CrossFit group).
Similar to baseball pitchers blowing their UCL b/c they threw so much in grade/high school, get to college or minor leagues then get injured. We don’t even know the long term ramifications of youth CrossFit with weights at a young age. Maybe somewhat similar to gymnastics at a high level ? As a father to a collegiate athlete in baseball and the other going to college for swimming possibly, I’ve seen high school girls with bad shoulder injuries, knees, etc
Boys too but I’m noticing a trend of more girls with these injuries, the only conclusion I can see is overuse. These girls were playing multiple sports at the same time plus lifting weights, never missing a workout/practice.
With the injuries to girls, there is also a decent amount of research pointing to gear and equipment being designed around the male anatomy. Not to discount your point, because I have been that kid playing two sports while doing CF 5-6 times a week and the overuse is real, I just do know that the rates of say, ACL tears are partially attributed to shoe design and anatomy. This is likely the field that my senior year project will be on, and the career path I hope to enter, so I like to share about it :)
It's very hard work without a ton of payoff unless you're consistently at the very top. We see numerous posts here about people burning out and we do a fraction of what they do to hopefully get a chance to place high at the Games.
Weren’t they all home schooled in part so that they could have more time to train. Before these breaks did they have much/any work life balance with kids their own age outside of training for the Games? Cuz they sure didn’t seem to…Emma Lawson doesn’t seem as far down the path to burnout and she attended regular high school etc in Canada while she was training and sounds like she didn’t forget activities than just train for CrossFot
I think the issue stems from being so immersed in the life of training the person never gets time to themselves to develop who they are as a person. Being constantly on the go, as focused as some of those athletes are, they just haven't had the time to slow down and focus on life and develop the person they really want to be. Add in the spotlight of being on social media and everyone in your face all the time, it doesn't give anyone a chance to be by themselves to learn who they really are.
I come from rowing and track and field.
I competed when I was a teen and the first year of college. Had a lot of fun, it was stress free and made amazing memories.
But I also did not have the insane pressure of competing internationally at high level with a sponsor or stuff like that.
Most of the athletes that I have seen competing at the Olympic Youth games or junior world championships quit and/or git injured in their early 20s.
That is to say that I believe local competitions are totally fair and can be encouraged.
I will die on this hill, but I think teenagers have ni space in competing at high levels like olympics/ world championships.
Let kids be kids FFS.
I think some of the issues are the volume of training required to be proficient in the sport itself. I look at gymnastics or figure skating as similar niche sports where your body (or mind, or both) are broken by like age 20 if you compete at a high level. but even still, we're seeing the same with kids who do things like AAU or wrestling where there's just so much pressure put on athletes to do well at a young age. kids should be running in dirt and playing games with their friends, not "training" in a gym.
also, I do think that the governing body of sport needs to protect athletes from themselves. Age requirements of 21 would be great, as would providing mental health professionals that are available for athletes to use, more thought put into preventing injuries for athletes when programming work outs, and injury protocol that dictates when an athlete should be removed from competition, in order to save them from themselves (podcasts with Herb Dean in UFC around this subject are fascinating to listen to).
However, that's almost impossible to do in the CF space. Partially because it's a niche sport and HQ has no money. But mostly, because at its core, CF still has this "my warm up is harder than your workout"/Pukie the Clown culture that glorifies things like Roman competing with a broken foot, when honestly that should never have been allowed to happen.
Specifically for female athletes, we can't even begin to have these conversations without acknowledging the elephant in the room of that nearly all, if not all, top level athletes in this sport have, at some point in time, taken some amount of PED. This impacts your health and wellness in many ways and if not done correctly will lead to long-term injury (ex. brooke ence, sarah sigmundsdottir). Female athletes also have to endure their bodies being nit picked apart. Folks in the space feel welcome to comment on their bodies, and I can't imagine that doesn't weigh on you after some point. Older athletes likely have better tools and support to handle it, but can you imagine being 15 and having to deal with that? I couldn't.
Given that, I think it's us, the community, who need to do better. whether it's pushing for more change, calling out the sexists, etc.
I completely agree that an age for “elites” should be set.
Also the amount of competition teens are allowed to undertake.
I always thought it was bullshit to push these athletes in any sport to their limits when they are 14 years old. Let them be teenagers ffs.
I was pushed to my limits in rowing when I was 14 and it severely impacted my physical and mental health. Same as I think there should be a higher age requirement for the Olympics.
After seeing this post I got curious about some of the bigger global events e.g. Olympics and it seems like they leave it to the international sports federation - therefore it could be anywhere from 15 onwards depending on the sport.
I think sports like life can not be defined by minimum age like if a 10 year old can go to college or become an actor or a famous artist because of their abilities then they could. It's not necessary these kids will be the longest or most successful in their fields but it does happen that way too.
Burn out is a fact and it's something they and their support system has to be able to help cope with assuming that the individual wants to continue doing it too.
I am not sure if everyone is always thinking of longevity in their career as a priority - many might be looking at maximizing what they have today because no one can predict tomorrow. 🤷
I’m 29, so a bit older than MOB, Emma Cary and Haley Adams, and I think at the end of the day these women are just making big kid choices now. I don’t think the onus is on CF to “protect their mental health”, I think all three of these women had to evaluate their own breaking points. I guess my only worry for them now is their financial pictures cause I do think sponsorships will dry eventually.
The elephant in the room is PED use for elites. Are the teens tested?
Teens can be tested (any athlete who signs up for the open can be tested), but I think they are tested in the same manner, but with less frequency than the elites. An awful testing protocol all around
Young women have more to lose from PED use maybe that’s why we don’t see young men dropping at the same rate
Good point. I also think it is worth mentioning that the young men aren't dominating the same way the women are. Justin Medeiros didn't dominate in the teens division, Dallin Pepper isn't dominating in the elite division. Huge difference in comparison to the young women who are dominating from age 16. Just another factor though. PEDs use is a good point
By USADA? No. By a third-party company that CrossFit selects and can determine what to do with the results? Yes.
The teens are tested by Drug Free Sport with the same level of testing as elites?
Something something about putting a teenager into an environment where they are surrounded by people several years older than them with little community outside of it.
This is an interesting take and I don’t disagree. Curious why you think the teenager being around adults isolates them potentially? Compared to the mindset that it prepares them or matures them in ways
When you were twenty were you concerned about impressing a bunch of crusty 30-40 year olds in their dying sport? Or did you want to have fun with people your age?
I think these training camps are places for massive burnout. A co petit Ive environment where every workout is an all out gut and mental check is not gonna create long lasting athletes. Emma Lawson and Jack Farlow are doing it right. They are the oonly ones with Mammoth and that coach is smart to be solo to them. They will make it farther than anyone in these elite ‘camps’
This is just what will happen in an individual performance sport, where the onus is on you. It is also a sport with no organization or expectations, it's just "random" for lack of a better term, so having a defined goal is very difficult. Team sports are superior for this and various other reasons. Also, get them off of social media, or encourage following more team/community oriented content. CrossFit operates under a guise of "community" but it is really just ego feeding for the most part.
Yeah I agree that social media likely has a ton to do with it. Mental health issues skyrocketed with the creation of social media and women at that age are often caught up in it. If you have SM and can have someone else run your account I think that’s a great place to start.
I think the “random” aspect of no organizations is a huge point here. I didn’t think of that but it makes a lot of sense. I totally agree on the individual sport pressure. I competed in martial arts for 9 or 10 years, and I remember the pressure being insane. My dad was my biggest supporter win or lose, but we learned that if he entered my view while I was competing, I would almost always mess up, just from the fear of disappointing him. Similar thing when I was wrestling. I wish there was a solution here for athletes
I agree with the “random” aspect as well. CrossFit is also weird as a “profession” or sport to pursue because the people around you in your training space will likely never have the same goal as you. So you’re likely to feel isolated in that regard too. Individual sports aren’t unusual and children participate in them all the time: tennis, gymnastics, track, golf, swimming etc. The difference is the other kids they’re participating with have the same training plan with the same intensity and the same goals if you will. They compete at the same meets, they operate as a “team” while they’re competing as individuals. CrossFit doesn’t have that. It must be so lonely to put that much passion and time into one thing while I’m sure it seems the people around you never care at the same level.
Emma Cary doesn't really fit here. She took a year off because of a back injury...then came back and looked poised to have a good year. She is leaving for religious reasons... So I'm not sure it really follows your pattern. Unless you call her wanting to delve deeper into her faith a mental health crisis? I didn't really read her post like that though.
[удалено]
She said that CrossFit became more important to her than Jesus, so she's going to take a break to get close to him... Or something to that general effect.
It's not really clear, but she has claimed it's to give her more time to devote more time to church and religion. Apparently she wants to do this more than she wants to do CrossFit. It's all on her Instagram.
[basically](https://youtu.be/C9JgZ45ENl4?si=h7SCxJLC3QplRSoZ)
The back injury year off is definitely a separate thing. I interpreted her post about religious reasons as “taking a break to find myself” in a religion coded way. I could be wrong here though.
That is some very deep coded language though. She may need to find herself and find purpose but if she's just looking at is as crossfit vs religion the only places she'll end up is deeper in her religious rabbit hole. I hope she takes the time off to be introspective and reflective holistically.
That's not necessarily a mental health crisis. I don't know her, and therefore must take things at face value. Is she having a crisis of faith? Sure. But that's not the same thing as a mental health crisis.
I’m not great at quoting Bible verses but it is addressed in the Bible to my understanding as you should only worship one God. The concept is that she’s allowing the most important thing in her life to be CrossFit, so in a way she’s worshipping CrossFit as a God instead of focusing on Jesus/God. They talk about this in Faith RX (a Christian CrossFit group).
Similar to baseball pitchers blowing their UCL b/c they threw so much in grade/high school, get to college or minor leagues then get injured. We don’t even know the long term ramifications of youth CrossFit with weights at a young age. Maybe somewhat similar to gymnastics at a high level ? As a father to a collegiate athlete in baseball and the other going to college for swimming possibly, I’ve seen high school girls with bad shoulder injuries, knees, etc Boys too but I’m noticing a trend of more girls with these injuries, the only conclusion I can see is overuse. These girls were playing multiple sports at the same time plus lifting weights, never missing a workout/practice.
With the injuries to girls, there is also a decent amount of research pointing to gear and equipment being designed around the male anatomy. Not to discount your point, because I have been that kid playing two sports while doing CF 5-6 times a week and the overuse is real, I just do know that the rates of say, ACL tears are partially attributed to shoe design and anatomy. This is likely the field that my senior year project will be on, and the career path I hope to enter, so I like to share about it :)
It's very hard work without a ton of payoff unless you're consistently at the very top. We see numerous posts here about people burning out and we do a fraction of what they do to hopefully get a chance to place high at the Games.
Weren’t they all home schooled in part so that they could have more time to train. Before these breaks did they have much/any work life balance with kids their own age outside of training for the Games? Cuz they sure didn’t seem to…Emma Lawson doesn’t seem as far down the path to burnout and she attended regular high school etc in Canada while she was training and sounds like she didn’t forget activities than just train for CrossFot
I think the issue stems from being so immersed in the life of training the person never gets time to themselves to develop who they are as a person. Being constantly on the go, as focused as some of those athletes are, they just haven't had the time to slow down and focus on life and develop the person they really want to be. Add in the spotlight of being on social media and everyone in your face all the time, it doesn't give anyone a chance to be by themselves to learn who they really are.
I come from rowing and track and field. I competed when I was a teen and the first year of college. Had a lot of fun, it was stress free and made amazing memories. But I also did not have the insane pressure of competing internationally at high level with a sponsor or stuff like that. Most of the athletes that I have seen competing at the Olympic Youth games or junior world championships quit and/or git injured in their early 20s. That is to say that I believe local competitions are totally fair and can be encouraged. I will die on this hill, but I think teenagers have ni space in competing at high levels like olympics/ world championships. Let kids be kids FFS.
I think some of the issues are the volume of training required to be proficient in the sport itself. I look at gymnastics or figure skating as similar niche sports where your body (or mind, or both) are broken by like age 20 if you compete at a high level. but even still, we're seeing the same with kids who do things like AAU or wrestling where there's just so much pressure put on athletes to do well at a young age. kids should be running in dirt and playing games with their friends, not "training" in a gym. also, I do think that the governing body of sport needs to protect athletes from themselves. Age requirements of 21 would be great, as would providing mental health professionals that are available for athletes to use, more thought put into preventing injuries for athletes when programming work outs, and injury protocol that dictates when an athlete should be removed from competition, in order to save them from themselves (podcasts with Herb Dean in UFC around this subject are fascinating to listen to). However, that's almost impossible to do in the CF space. Partially because it's a niche sport and HQ has no money. But mostly, because at its core, CF still has this "my warm up is harder than your workout"/Pukie the Clown culture that glorifies things like Roman competing with a broken foot, when honestly that should never have been allowed to happen. Specifically for female athletes, we can't even begin to have these conversations without acknowledging the elephant in the room of that nearly all, if not all, top level athletes in this sport have, at some point in time, taken some amount of PED. This impacts your health and wellness in many ways and if not done correctly will lead to long-term injury (ex. brooke ence, sarah sigmundsdottir). Female athletes also have to endure their bodies being nit picked apart. Folks in the space feel welcome to comment on their bodies, and I can't imagine that doesn't weigh on you after some point. Older athletes likely have better tools and support to handle it, but can you imagine being 15 and having to deal with that? I couldn't. Given that, I think it's us, the community, who need to do better. whether it's pushing for more change, calling out the sexists, etc.
I completely agree that an age for “elites” should be set. Also the amount of competition teens are allowed to undertake. I always thought it was bullshit to push these athletes in any sport to their limits when they are 14 years old. Let them be teenagers ffs. I was pushed to my limits in rowing when I was 14 and it severely impacted my physical and mental health. Same as I think there should be a higher age requirement for the Olympics.
Not sure what safeguards you can put in place to stop someone taking time off to devote their time to god
[удалено]
Fentanyl is a part of typical PEDs? And are all drugs more expensive now? Like how expensive? I thought these athletes were tested…v naive i guess
I'd put my money on a large part of the perceived burn out due to the pressures of keeping a social media presence.
After seeing this post I got curious about some of the bigger global events e.g. Olympics and it seems like they leave it to the international sports federation - therefore it could be anywhere from 15 onwards depending on the sport. I think sports like life can not be defined by minimum age like if a 10 year old can go to college or become an actor or a famous artist because of their abilities then they could. It's not necessary these kids will be the longest or most successful in their fields but it does happen that way too. Burn out is a fact and it's something they and their support system has to be able to help cope with assuming that the individual wants to continue doing it too. I am not sure if everyone is always thinking of longevity in their career as a priority - many might be looking at maximizing what they have today because no one can predict tomorrow. 🤷