CrossFit Games Veteran Amanda Barnhart Leaves CompTrain
Perennial CrossFit Games top-ten athlete Amanda Barnhart announced in an Instagram post on Friday morning that she was leaving CompTrain and moving back to Ohio.
- “After two really great years with CompTrain in Massachusetts, my husband (Wesley Barnhart) and I have decided to move back to Ohio to be closer to our family,” said Barnhart in her post.
Why it matters: Barnhart’s departure from CompTrain marks the fourth instance in the last three Games offseasons that a high-profile athlete has left the New England-based training camp.
- Brooke Wells, who never lived in Massachusetts while a CompTrain athlete, announced her departure in November of 2020 and soon after announced she was a PRVN athlete.
- Katrin Davidsdottir left CompTrain and Massachusetts to move back to Iceland and train with Jami Tikkanen and his Training Program camp last November.
- Samuel Kwant, the 2020 second “Fittest Man on Earth,” announced on his Instagram in March that he moved back to Washington and left CompTrain after spending the 2021 season in Massachusetts training.
- Lost in the departures was longtime CompTrain coach Harry Palley who stepped away from coaching athletes for CompTrain last October. Among the athletes Palley coached were Kwant and Barnhart.
- Palley announced in July that he was joining the HWPO team as a coach. Palley coached Kwant during this past season and at the Games where Kwant placed fourth.
- The cupboard is not bare though for CompTrain head coach and founder Ben Bergeron and his coaching staff, he still has Games athletes Cole Sager and Sydney Michalyshen as well as Chandler Smith.
The bottom line: The 30-year old Barnhart placed 14th at the Games this season, her worst finish since placing 15th in 2018 as a rookie. Her departure is not uncommon for athletes who simply need a change of scenery and coaching philosophy to keep progressing in the sport.
- Her departure, as outlined in her IG post, appears to be more about the need to be back in Ohio and around family, just like it was for Davidsdottir and Kwant. The result of that move for those two athletes had varying results in 2022. How it will affect Barnhart will be dependent on who she chooses to be coached and programmed by for the 2023 season.
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