Justin Bergh: The Interview
Growing up in central Florida, Justin Bergh’s first taste of how life works came in the form of two sports: baseball and horse racing. His father was a world renowned horse trainer, regularly traveling overseas for work. The high school he went to, Oak Hall School in Gainesville, Florida had elite level coaches who were the best of the best, major league scouts and sons of former players.
Whether he was at home, on the field, or in the classroom, Bergh said from day one, life seemed to boil down to one word: performance.
“We would go to Poland and buy horses and bring them back and train them,” said the 40-year-old about some of his earliest memories. “So I didn’t grow up in a household where my parents had traditional 9 to 5 jobs, they worked for themselves.”
He was surrounded by teachers, mentors, professionals and was able to draw up a blueprint and roadmap for success: train to perform, and train to be your best.
“I never had a view of work as a kid other than it was performance oriented, and so it was only later, after high school and college when I got into CrossFit that I realized my whole world paradigm was based around that idea.”
Bergh’s road to his eventual title of General Manager of Sport for CrossFit is one birthed out of his acumen on the baseball diamond, and his proficiency within the professional sporting realm. A right handed pitcher, he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 2004 in the 47th round, however injuries marred part of his development phase, but he has little qualms that he never got to stand atop a mound in a big league stadium.
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