Inside Emily Rolfe’s Season of Setbacks — and Her Plan to Come Back Stronger
After standing on the CrossFit Games podium for the first time in 2024, Emily Rolfe was feeling more motivated than ever.
- The five-time Games athlete was hungry, healthy, and eager to improve on her performance in 2025.
But things didn’t unfold that way.
What Happened Next
Rolfe narrowly missed qualifying for the 2025 CrossFit Games by just one spot at the first In-Person Qualifying Event (IPQE) of the 2025 season, the Mayhem Classic.
It was disappointing, but she knew she would have plenty more opportunities to earn her invite to the 2025 Games. That is, until an injury changed the narrative.
- “Two weeks after Mayhem, I hurt my back, and since then I haven’t felt healthy,” Rolfe told the Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
The injury kept her on the floor for five days with muscle spasms that wouldn’t go away. Even after the spasms stopped, the pain lingered.
She continued to train despite the injury; however, while overcompensating to protect her back during a workout, she wound up pulling her adductor.
Rolfe chose not to compete in the In-Affiliate Semifinals but did participate in the World Fitness Project’s (WFP) Tour Stop I the following weekend, despite not being 100%.
- Rolfe held her own and sat in seventh place after Day 1. But then she felt a pop during a one-rep max jerk event. It was her elbow.
Rolfe tore her ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), which sits on the inside of the elbow and supports the joint. There was also a partially torn flexor tendon.
The setbacks were piling up.
Worth noting: This is essentially the same elbow injury that Brooke Wells suffered during the snatch event at the 2021 CrossFit Games.
Wells had surgery and spent the year rehabilitating her elbow before returning to place fifth at the CrossFit Games the following year. Rolfe chose a different route, as doctors offered her the option to recover without surgery.
- “If the elbow joint is unstable, you have to have surgery, but mine was miraculously still stable, so it was up to me whether or not I wanted surgery,” she said, adding that she was told the rehab process without surgery is about six months.
The non-surgical option spoke to Rolfe, who chose to pursue extensive physical therapy and other rehab methods, such as blood flow restriction training and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections.
- “It has all been working, and my physio has been amazing. Everything is going according to plan,” Rolfe said.
In fact, Rolfe felt healthy enough to compete at the WFP Tour Stop II in August, just four months after the injury.
- She knew she wasn’t at her best, but said her goal was simply “to pick up as many points as possible to put me in a decent position for the WFP Finals [in December].”
Rolfe finished 19th overall and heads into the WFP Finals ranked 23rd, aiming to secure another WFP pro card contract next season.
Her goal, however, is simply to stay healthy.
- “Emotionally, dealing with all these injuries has been tough, and so was missing the Games this summer,” she said. “The recovery is long and tedious, so at this point, I just want to enter a competition feeling good. I haven’t had that since Mayhem, which isn’t a good feeling as an athlete. So I just want to feel healthy.”
Today, Rolfe said she feels she’s at 90% and hopes to be back to 100% for the WFP Finals.
- “I feel like I can trust my elbow again, and I finally feel like myself again. I finally feel like I’m turning the bend here, so I’m optimistic for the end of this year and next season,” she said.
Looking to 2026
At 35 years old, people often ask Rolfe if retirement is near. She isn’t sure.
- “I joke with Pat [Vellner] about this. We have been in our last year for five years, but then there always seems to be a reason to do one more, one more,” she laughed.
Last year, had someone told her before the Games that she would finish on the podium, Rolfe said she thought she would be so happy that she would “ride off into the sunset and be done.” But when she did finish on the podium, instead of feeling like it was time to retire, she felt more motivated than ever to keep going.
- “And now that I have been injured all season and missed the Games, I don’t want it to end this way. Every year, there just seems to be something different to light a fire under me,” she said.
And so, Rolfe will continue. One more time (and maybe a few more after that).
Featured image: World Fitness Project
