South Korea’s Choi Seung-yeon grabbed the hearts of fans in Madison, Wisconsin during July’s 2021 CrossFit Games in a matter of seconds.
Choi, the only athlete to qualify for the games from South Korea, sustained an injury during the seventh event at the Alliant Energy Centre, which featured a 200-metre run and one clean (where competitors take a barbell and get it to a standing position on their shoulders). In typical CrossFit fashion, athletes had to do this five times, as fast as they could.
“During that event, I had actually sprained my ankle very badly when I was running the last lap because the ground condition was not even,” said the 22-year-old.
“The last weight was 230 pounds, and I had not been able to succeed holding that weight up at all recently. So if I’m being honest, I was not confident I would be able to do it. Still, I tried to think as positively as I could, because weightlifting is what I am most confident at.”
All of the other competitors had finished, and then Choi felt something magical happen. The entire arena, which has a capacity of more than 10,000, rose to their feet just to cheer her on, even though she was in last place.
“When the whole crowd stood up to clap and cheer for me, I got chills in my whole body,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘I must succeed, because everybody is cheering for me’. Honestly, I don’t really recall how I did it in the end, because it was such a short moment. It was my first time ever getting such chills down my whole body, though. I was lucky that the camera captured such a moment. I will forever cherish that video clip.”
Choi first got into CrossFit when she was 19, despite not having much of an athletic background. Right away the goal was to qualify for the CrossFit Games, a feat she quickly achieved, but at times it looked as if the pandemic would rip her dream away.
Choi coaches at CrossFit Limelight, one of South Korea’s most famous CrossFit gyms. The country manager, Lee Weon-woo, coaches out of there, along with the men’s country champion, Kim Seok-beom.“At first, I thought that I might not be able to participate because of Covid-19,” Choi said. “But thanks to the CEO of Limelight, I got to go to the US a month earlier and experience life in America. I don’t think I’ll ever get to have such an experience again in my life.”
Choi got to train for the Games out of California and ended up placing 34th, which is no small feat for a debutant.
Now, perhaps in no small part thanks to her and Kim’s success, CrossFit is turning the corner in South Korea as more people adopt healthy lifestyles and the stigma surrounding the sport starts to fade.
Numerous articles have claimed CrossFit can lead to injuries. However a 2018 study published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that it is “relatively safe compared with more traditional training modalities” – though stressed the need for proper coaching when it comes to technique, especially when people are starting out.
“I didn’t think CrossFit would ever be this popular in South Korea,” said Choi. “Because people tend to think that you easily get injured by doing this, and the sport has always been more popular among hardcore fans. I think the current wide popularity of CrossFit is due to various social media platforms and YouTube. I believe the popular impression in South Korea that you can easily get injured by doing CrossFit can get better when CrossFit coaches can teach people in a more fun, yet safer way.”
Now that’s she’s already achieved her ultimate aim of making the CrossFit Games, Choi said she’s already set a new one for herself.
“I don’t want to stop just there,” she said. “My final goal now is to join the Games, hopefully next year, and get a good result so that I can further promote South Korea and Asia in the world of CrossFit. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to CrossFit, because the sport has really changed my life.”
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