For Tommy Snarr, the opportunity to participate in the CrossFit Games this week is a bittersweet second chance.For many, just getting to the games — an annual gathering in Carson, California of international athletes for a week of grueling physical tests, all vying for the title of “fittest on earth” — is a good enough indication of physical success.
But for Snarr, 23, who is competing Monday through Friday as part of a six-person team from Mississauga (the only Ontario team to make it), it marks a long-awaited return to competitive sports on an international stage.
“It’s my second chance,” he said. “I always wanted to make it to the Olympics snowboarding … it’s another way to try and make it to the top.”
Snarr spent five years competing professionally in snowboarding, placing third in the 2007 Canadian Winter Games and representing Canada during the 2008 Junior World Championships.
But a mistake on a jump during Canadian Nationals in 2009 broke his back, spelling the end of the longtime athlete’s snowboarding career.
He was only 20 at the time.
Adding to the difficulty, Snarr’s mother Jacqueline Snarr, who is credited with building Ontario’s snowboarding regulatory body and organizing numerous competitions, died a year later in a snowboarding accident.
It hasn’t been an easy road to recovery, but on the mend from breaking his back, Snarr turned CrossFit into a second life.
He’d been using CrossFit — a high intensity workout involving Olympic lifts and gymnastics — as cross training for snowboarding since 2007, but after the accident Snarr ramped up his involvement.
“My first workout was (called) GI Jane and I had no skin on either of my hands when I was done,” he said, looking at his hands. “That’s what CrossFit is to me. It’s just hard work.”
Snarr kept up the hard work when at 21 he jumped at the opportunity to co-own CrossFit Select, the team’s Mississauga gym.
Now in addition to coaching, he trains twice a day for a few hours, usually for four days in a row with a day or two of rest.
It hasn’t been easy. In 2010, Snarr ranked fifth regionally as an individual competitor, three spots shy of making it to the games. Since only the top two teams and individuals from each region make it through to the games, the team also faced a tough break, placing third in both 2011 and 2012.
Despite the victory, Snarr still has mixed feelings and is open about his struggles with depression.
“I wasn’t the same, my mom wasn’t there,” he said. “I was happy because we made it but … it was hard.”
The team’s goal now is to be the fittest of the four Canadian teams who qualified and to be one of the top 20 teams in the world.
They’re all committed to making it happen.
On a muggy Sunday afternoon, most of the team can be found at the gym, glistening with sweat with chalk-coated hands to improve their grip.
Peter D’Amore, Holly McIlroy, Chris Baillie, Pamela Evans and Lesley Naumowich have all been doing CrossFit for a few years.
While practicing her jerk over and over — a lift involving raising a weighted barbell over her head until her arms are straight and the bar is stationary — Naumowich said this year could have easily been a repeat of previous years.
“We were never a shoe-in by any means,” she said, which is why their success is so much sweeter.
“I believed in us,” she said. “I kind of knew we were going to go (to the games), I have so much faith in my teammates.”
Naumowich’s faith and her teammates’ ability to master skills such as muscle ups — a pull-up that transitions into a dip — might contribute to their success, but after thinking on it Snarr said the team’s success is built on a good understanding of CrossFit.
“It’s the understanding of the determination that it takes to make it to the big leagues.”
Despite the team’s success, Snarr plans on going solo next year and continuing with his hard-fought comeback. Reported by Toronto Star 5 days ago.