Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Just a note to our valued readers: We will be off next week for the holidays, but back in action Jan. 2 and ready to rock for the 2023 season!
In today’s edition:
Nova Scotia CrossFit community mourns loss of Terri Jackson
Breaking down the top CrossFit moments of the year
Who is confirmed for indy at the 2023 TYR Wodapalooza
A look back at Morning Chalk Up’s year, by the numbers
“Things are not quite so simple always as black and white.”- Doris Lessing
NEWS
Nova Scotia CrossFit Gym Mourns Losing “Lifeblood” of the Community, Coach Terri Jackson
When Terri Jackson’s friend Keely Wadden asked her to help start her affiliate in 2015, Jackson didn’t hesitate.
And one year later, when flooding due to a major storm caused CrossFit D10 in Place Bay, Nova Scotia to lose everything, Jackson didn’t hesitate to open her garage up as a temporary space for members to train until Wadden found a new space and re-opened in May 2017.
That’s just the kind of person she was, said Keely Wadden, the owner of CrossFit D10.
Needless to say, Wadden and the entire D10 community is devastated, as 51-year-old Jackson, who Wadden described as “the lifeblood of our community,” died quite suddenly of cancer earlier this month.
“Terri put everything she had into CrossFit D10. It really was her life. She was so passionate about helping people live happier, healthier lives through CrossFit,” Keely said of Jackson, who was also the head coach at the gym.
“Without her, we would not have made it through the flood, rebuild, COVID lockdown etc…Terri embodied everything our community represents and strives to be. Terri believed in everyone who walked through our doors and got so much joy from being able to show people their true potential.”
Remembering Jackson: To pay their respects, the CrossFit D10 community designed a workout they called Legend in honor of their beloved coach.
“It was some of her favorite movements,” Wadden said of the workout, where they used where the letters in the word legend fall in the alphabet to determine the rep scheme.
Legend
6 Rounds for Time:
12 thrusters
5 clean and jerks
7 lateral burpees
5 snatches
14 box jumps
4 deadlifts
47 double-unders (as 47 is the sum of the letters that spell legend)
Through their grief, more than 100 people showed up on December 17, to watch 50-plus members of the community tackle the workout and remember Jackson. Further, other gyms across Canada, and as far away as New York and Florida also participated in her honor, Wadden said.
“It was a beautiful and brutal day. A group of us did the workout before the event kicked off and it was very emotional. Lots of hugs, sweat and tears,” she said.
Wadden admitted she wasn’t sure how she would continue to even go to the gym, let alone run it, without her friend, but she realizes now she can.
She has to.
“It is where we are closest to her. She is everywhere you look and somehow there is this renewed sense of purpose and we know that together keeping this place alive is the best way to honor her,” Wadden said.
“This is where we will come together and heal and through that process create something beautiful in her memory. It’s the only way forward.”
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In case you missed it: Morning Chalk Up’s Lauren Kalil and Dex Hopkins take a look at the elite men’s and women’s rosters on the individual side of the competition — and discuss who they’re excited to see throwdown in Miami, Florida at TYR Wodapalooza.
Another one: You can basically call TYR Wodapalooza the tournament of super teams as now Emily Rolfe, Sara Sigmundsdottir and Katelin Van Zyl have confirmed.
He’s in!: Roman Khrennikov will also be competing team at TYR Wodapalooza, along with Willy Georges and Jay Crouch, adding yet another super team to this super competition.
Interesting read: Melissa Urban (founder of Whole30) talks about how to not stress about your WHOOP/wearable data.
NEWS
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Ten Biggest Moments in CrossFit in 2022
As we turn the page on 2022 and look ahead to 2023, here’s a quick look back at ten of the biggest moments in CrossFit during the past year. From Tia-Clair Toomey’s historic sixth CrossFit Games titles to Adrian Bozman’s rookie season as Games programmer, and from a new CEO at the helm to a familiar face fired and rehired, it was quite a year in the sport we all love.
Elite Individuals Confirmed to Compete at TYR Wodapalooza
Morning Chalk Up’s Lauren Kalil and Dex Hopkins take a look at the elite men’s and women’s rosters on the individual side of the competition — and discuss who they’re excited to see throwdown in Miami, Florida at TYR Wodapalooza.
The last (almost) 365 days have been nothing short of action-packed in the CrossFit community. And as the chief team that covers the sport, we’ve had a blast (and maybe a few too many cups of coffee) keeping you up to speed over the last 12 months. To wrap up a fantastic 2022, we thought we’d give you a little insight to the news we brought you all year long about the stories, athletes, volunteers, heroes and everything in between within the functional fitness ecosystem.
Largely in part to fantastic sponsors, industry-leading brands and Partner Events that help power Morning Chalk up, we sent 260 editions of the free newsletter — totaling 19,000,000 emails.
As you may notice, our newsletter directs readers to our website, where they can dive deeper into storylines and related topics. Just over 3-million of you popped over to morningchalkup.com at one point or another — 210,000 of those being on August 4th (day two of the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games).
Bringing you at least four stories per day is no easy feat, so internally we added two writers to the team (welcome Teaganne and Joey!), and we also brought on columnists like Mark Agnew and Tracy Tucker. Almost 50 individual journalists contributed to our written content, collectively producing about 1,600 articles (Emily Beersclocking the most on the team).
In 2021 we launched our Community blogging platform, which brought almost 400 pieces of original, audience-created content to functional fitness fans around the world this year alone.
There’s rarely a shortage of news in this sport, but there are two headlines in particular that garnered the most attention: perhaps not surprisingly, Dave Catro’s exodus, and return, to CrossFit, Inc.
The Castro interest carried over to social, making the same stories our two most talked about posts in 2022. Dave Castro being let go was shared almost 18,000 times, and Dave Casto’s back almost 17,000 times.
Internally, Kelly Sekulovski joined us on the business operations front, Joe Genetin-Pilawa(Editor) returned to the team, Lauren Kalil became full-time as Senior Producer of Multimedia, and Preslie Hirsch also joined the squad — first as a support associate, then as a part-time writer, and eventually full-time as Senior Content Manager in the fall.
Even the best analysts in the game can’t possibly quantify the highlights and shoutouts we were able to help echo community-wide. Collectively we all threw down at hundreds of local competitions, gave at least a million fist bumps (don’t fact check that one), and sweat in spaces and with people we hold dear. Subscribers like yourself give us countless ideas, big smiles and fuel to keep pushing forward in this ever-changing industry.
Can’t help but wonder how much chalk we all went through…
See you in 2023, and thanks for being here.
COMPETITION
2023 TYR Wodapalooza: Men’s Team Division Preview
The top athletes in CrossFit return to Miami on January 12-15 for TYR Wodapalooza 2023. The team division, in particular, will feature numerous groups of males attempting to dethrone The Boys. The full list is available on our regularly-updated roster, but here are a few teams we are excited to watch.
Remind me: The Boys is the super team featuring Travis Mayer, Noah Ohlsen, and Chandler Smith. The members of this trio have extensive experience competing at the CrossFit Games in the individual division, and they have the chemistry that helps them work well together. When they come together, they form a CrossFit Megazord.
The Boys racked up 770 points during the 2022 competition on the strength of four event wins, a runner-up, and two third-place finishes.
The Boys ended the weekend ahead of Thunder From Down Under, which featured Khan Porter, James Newbury, and Jay Crouch. Team Hercules – Travis Williams, Roy Gamboa, and Logan Collins – finished the weekend third.
The Boys will now have an opportunity to defend their title as they return to Miami’s Bayfront Park. However, they will face some stiff competition from new and returning athletes alike.
Tired of standing in the kitchen and missing out on family time while you’re flipping pancakes? Make a sheet pan pancake assortment with all your favorite toppings to mix it up.
If you're going to become a certified nutrition coach, wouldn't you want to learn from the best? The RP Certification Program is BACK and better than ever. As a Morning Chalk Up Reader, you can save $200 on your seat by using code "MCU22". Better act fast while there's still seats!
If you are catching snatches or jerks with slightly bent arms, then you are probably not a fan of either of those lifts. That’s why “land and lockout” might be a gamechanger for you.
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There’s hearing about a strict pull up. Then there’s hearing about a strict pull up from Ben Bergeron. Learn the key points of performance from an expert and how this translates over into other pulling movements.
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