Community

Her CrossFit PR is Walking Without a Cane

December 12, 2018 by
Enjoying Morning Chalk Up? Access additional exclusive interviews, analyses, and stories with an Rx membership.

Some background.

Jessica Gomez has been living with Multiple Sclerosis for thirteen years and walks using the assistance a cane.

A few weeks ago, Jess and her coach James Simonelli made a deal that Three Danes CrossFIt would be a cane free zone. So, every day Jess would walk into the box and place her cane up against the wall by the rig. Then when she was done she’d go back to get it and go about her day.

But then this little thing happened.

On Friday, November 30, Jess was walking back to her cane after finishing up a workout when Coach James called out across the floor to her: “Hey, why don’t you just leave it there and pick it up tomorrow?”

No answer from Jess. Thinking he made her uncomfortable, he added “It’s all good. We can do that another day where you leave your cane here.”

Without turning or missing a beat, Jess said “Nope, I’m gonna leave it here today.”

[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq0rhxKFadh/ hidecaption=true]

And so it began.

She did it. She made it the whole day without her cane.

Jess came to class the next morning. She took the 8:00 AM class, on a Saturday at that, and left her cane in the gym again.

She came to open gym on Sunday. She left her cane again.

Two weeks later, her cane is still there. Jess hasn’t used it since that fateful Friday.

Photo courtesy of Three Danes CrossFit.

She must feel amazing. 

She told us in an interview that it was about a year ago she needed to use the cane on a daily basis. “It wasn’t until then that it hit me. I had to start planning for my future, because I would need more complex mobility accomodations. Every day I pictured the day I wouldn’t be using the cane again. But never did I actually think that meant I would walk without it.”

Get the Newsletter

For a daily digest of all things CrossFit. Community, Competitions, Athletes, Tips, Recipes, Deals and more.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.