Battle Cancer Raises $400K

October 26   |   POWERED BY

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Battle Cancer raises $400K to support cancer patients and families.
• Larissa Cunha calls on CrossFit to revisit her two-year suspension.
• From an eating disorder to third in the adaptive division at the Games.
• We sat down with Danielle Brandon.
• Two high schoolers top the Zelos Games final event leaderboard.

“You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction.” - George Lorimer

Battle Cancer Caps Off Record Year With Massive London Event, Raising More than $400K

The end of 2021 is quickly approaching, and Battle Cancer is celebrating a standout year. The movement that creates one-day competitions to raise money for cancer and mental health charities, held its largest one-day event and reached more than $400,000 raised in 2021 to provide support for post-cancer treatment. However, there are still more events on the horizon that functional fitness enthusiasts can embrace.

One big thing: Battle Cancer held an event in London on October 17, which featured 1,600 participants. This event marked the largest in Battle Cancer’s history, and it served as a return to the pre-COVID days where fans could attend and cheer on the athletes while helping raise crucial funds.

• Scott Britton, Battle Cancer founder: “This year, we’ve had five events across the world, our second biggest event was around 800 people. 800 people is a lot, but 1,600 is huge. So because we don’t have a barbell, because we don’t do gymnastics, because everything is really accessible, it’s phenomenal to walk around and see an actual true reflection of the community.”
• “So this year, we’ve raised half a million, which has still been kind of crazy when you start using the ‘m’ word. And then now we’ve fundraised nearly $2.3 million in total, but it was a very epic moment at the weekend to see 3000 people.”

Future fundraising: The Battle Cancer events in Manchester, London, Berlin, and Madison among others were only the tip of the fundraising iceberg. The organization has even more planned heading into 2022.

• Some of the Battle Cancer events will take place in Dubai, Dublin, Manchester, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Scotland, London, Los Angeles, and Houston.
• Britton and Battle Cancer will also head to CrossFit hallowed ground. They will hold an event at CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, TN, where Rich Froning Jr. and the defending Affiliate Cup champions train.

One event, in particular, will cap off a challenge that starts in 2021 and runs into 2022. Battle Cancer will hold an event at Wodapalooza and try to reach 1.8 million calories burned, representing people who are diagnosed with cancer every year.

• “It’s an unfortunate statistic that 1.8 million people are diagnosed in the US every year with cancer,” Britton said. “You know, it’s a huge, huge amount of people that are diagnosed and certainly, in the past 18 months have been forgotten about. So we want to try and burn one million calories.”
• “Between now and finishing Wodapalooza, we went to hit that 1.8 million at Wodapalooza collectively. So what we are going to do is encourage gyms to take part. If they want to sign up, we give them an event pack.”

Britton and the Battle Cancer crew will help the gyms and functional fitness enthusiasts set up their stations, so they can all participate in the challenge and burn as many calories as possible. They will interact virtually with each person who participates and provide some extra motivation.

The bottom line: Battle Cancer has already achieved a considerable amount in 2021, reaching new highs in fundraising. However, there is even more progress to make in the coming months and years. Battle Cancer will only grow, especially while partnering with other nonprofits and sharing programming information with CrossFit Health.

• “We’re predominantly for cancer charities and mental health charities. But we want to use the platform that we’ve built and the concept that we’ve built to allow the other nonprofits a chance to be involved.”
• “Not only are we changing lives through functional fitness, but we’re also collecting data on how people are getting stronger, fitter, they’re reducing chronic fatigue, they’re reducing chronic pain, they’re increasing mobility. So we’ve thought about sharing that data, both with CrossFit Health, but also with CrossFit Health sharing back with us.”

To take part in the calorie challenge, email [email protected] or reach out on the Battle Cancer Instagram account. To pre-register for any 2022 events, visit the Battle Cancer site.

What Diet is Right For You?

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Take this quick quiz and be matched with a diet that will work best for you and your goals.

LAUNCHED: Coming on the heels of her retirement announcement, Kari Pearce launched PHIIT, a full body, five-day-a-week high-intensity program.

AMA with Jason Khalipa: The CrossFit Games legend and CEO of NCFIT took to T-Nation for an Ask Me Anything session discussing his personal training, Leukemia, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, running NCFIT and the upcoming Rogue Legends event.

Mayhem Athlete is now an official sponsor of the Rogue Invitational.

The Fittest Experience is giving 10% of the qualifier registration fee back to local Austin, TX gyms for every member who registers. You have until November 2 to register and complete the qualifier.

MUST SEE: Transformation story of Beth Tannatt, who tied for third in the women’s lower-extremity division, who went from weighing just 99 pounds and struggling with a severe eating disorder to taking third in the women’s lower-extremity division at the 2021 CrossFit Games:

• “I started running and watching what I ate, but like many teenage girls, it spiraled out of control. I was eating very little and participating in after-school sports, counting calories, and aiming for a maximum of 1,000 calories (per day).”
• “I would have bouts of binging, purging, over-exercising, etc.,” she said. “I thought I had a good handle on my relationship with food for a few years when I started counting macros and stopped labeling foods ‘good’ and ‘bad’ until I started bodybuilding.”

Two teenagers top the Zelos Games female leaderboard on workouts 0.3 and 0.4…17-year-old Emma Cary and 15-year-old Olivia Kerstetter. Score submissions for events 3 and 4 were due Sunday, awaiting final validation. The overall winner of the competition will take home $4,000 in total prize money.

Events 0.3 and 0.4 unofficial results:

1. Emma Cary | Ilil Aleksandr
2. Olivia Kerstetter | Ioannis Papadopoulos
3. Arielle Loewen | Samuel Cournoyer
4. Kari Pearce | Dallin Pepper
5. Carolyne Prevost | Jack Rozema

Larissa Cunha Calls on CrossFit to Revisit Drug Sanction Decision

In a six post series on Instagram, CrossFit athlete Larissa Cunha calls on CrossFit to revisit their two-year ban decision, calling it unfair.

• “I do not think that the situation I find myself in is fair and I do hope that CrossFit are willing to revisit their decision,” Cunha wrote.

What she’s saying: Although Cunha said she was happy she could prove her innocence, it was apparent that she was not happy with CrossFit’s ultimate decision. As a response, she laid out the months-long journey of uncertainty she endured that all began while quarantining in Mexico before heading to the U.S. ahead of the CrossFit Games.

• Cunha says she takes some of the most common supplements like Beta-Alanine and and collagen, the two supplements that ended up having traces of Ostarine in them.
• “I have been using the same supplements from the same two companies for a long time…they are all regulated by ANVISA which is the Brazilian Food and Drug Administration” Cunha continued.

After Cunha had her B sample tested and it also proved positive for the banned substance, she began investigating how that could have happened. This led her to discover other Brazilian athletes, even a Tokyo Olympian, telling similar stories specifically testing positive for traces of the same drug, ostarine, while claiming they did not knowingly ingest the substance.

While Cunha also mentions having a limited amount of ostarine found in her samples, CrossFit has openly stated the amount found in the athlete is not taken into account. This is to prevent athletes from learning how to “cheat the system” and taper on and off of banned substances around the competition season.

She does however, bring up the argument that since the amount found in her system was so low, it could not have had performance enhancing effects, and therefore, she had no intention to cheat.

• As a result, CrossFit did lower her sentence from a four year ban to two after Cunha appealed and was able to prove her supplements were contaminated unknowingly.
• “Even so, I still wholeheartedly believe that the punishment is way too hard,” continued Cunha.
• She does admit, there was always a chance of testing positive for a banned substance by not having supplements with a Drug Free Sports label.

To strengthen her argument, Cunha brings up other professional sports and how they handle similar scenarios, specifically, the UFC. In 2018, Marvin Vettori tested positive for traces of Ostarine. Due to the limited amount, USADA concluded his supplement was contaminated and as a result, he was only suspended from the UFC for six months.

• Cunha argues that since CrossFit is a privately owned company, drug testing protocals should be treated on a case by case basis, similar to UFC.
• Her solution is that CrossFit should look at whether the athlete intentionally took a banned substance as a way to cheat, or, if like in her case, her supplements were contaiminted and the amount would have not affected her performance.

While a further reduction in her sentence may be too late, Cunha wants to bring awareness to other CrossFit athletes. She emphasized that there is always a risk of ingesting a banned substance if the products aren’t certified and — some brands have some of their products certified while others are not.

As for CrossFit as an organization, Cunha is going to continue to fight her sanction in hopes that change will come not just for her, but for the future of the sport.

• “I do believe in Eric Roza and the new regime at the company. I have been impressed with how values such as inclusivity, equality and diversity have been implemented in a successful way in the direction that the brand has taken. Therefore I challenge CrossFit to add fairness as one of its core values as well,” said Cunha.

Go deeper:

• Larissa Cunha is Legit, not just in Latin America, but Among the Best in the World
• Breaking: Larissa Cunha Fails Drug Test, CrossFit Revokes Her Games Ticket
• Larissa Cunha Receives Minimum Sentence After Proving Banned Substance Was Contaminated
• Larissa Cunha Opens Up About her Fight to Reveal the Truth, and her Two-Year Ban from Competition
• Banned Substances: How Ostarine is Creeping into the Supply Chain

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Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise. Send us a tip.

• 🎂 Happy birthday Kelley Jackson.
• 🎂 Happy birthday Nicole Roggow.
• Congratulations Vida Vetterkind on the 300 pound/136kg 3RM front squat PR.
• Bronisław Olenkowicz hits a 352 pound/160kg clean.
• Congratulations Amanda Wozny, a mom of three from VO2MAX Health and Performance in Grande Prairie, Canada on the 300 pound/136kg front squat PR.
• 🤯 Tom Flaherty does 12 unbroken strict bar muscle-ups.

Onyx Tribe CrossFit in Huntingdon, England raised more than GBP 5000 in support of Battle Cancer’s fundraiser for childhood cancer.

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