Tom Miazga Not Bitter He Won’t be in Madison, Urges Adaptive Athletes to “Be Patient” and “Keep Participating”
Tom Miazga’s parents knew something wasn’t quite right with their son when he was still a baby.
Miazga walked very late, and when he did walk he was a “furniture holder,” he explained. And when he did eventually start letting go of things, his gait just wasn’t right.
Shortly after that, when just a toddler, Miazga, now 31, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that stems from abnormal development or damage to the parts of the brain that control movement, balance and posture.
Doctors still don’t know why Miazga—the recent Seated with Hip Semifinals Champion—ended up with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, a condition that led him to have a handful of surgeries when he was a small child in an attempt to lengthen his muscles.
Today, cerebral palsy mostly affects Miazga’s lower body. He can walk, but slowly and erratically, he explained, so he generally sticks to a wheelchair because it’s generally faster for him to move about, and helps him “get to places on time,” explained Miazga, a Level 1 CrossFit coach at Adapt and Conquer CrossFit in Grafton, WI, and a full-time swim coach.
Games rosters set: The Last Chance Qualifier leaderboard is now final and Elena Carratala Sanahuja has unseeded Katrin Davidsdottir and will be heading to the CrossFit Games via the second women’s seed. The other qualifiers are Arielle Loewen, Tim Paulson, and Jonne Koski.
In case you missed it, also: Our YouTube channel was down temporarily over the weekend, but we’re back with a boatload of new content. Lauren Kalil, the host of The Bottom Line, spoke to James Townsend and Greg Lanctot about whether they think Justin Medeiros can repeat at the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
New digs: Harry Palley, formerly of CompTrain, is the latest member to join Mat Fraser’s growing HWPO camp as the chief operations officer.
Workouts dropped: The CanWest Games, which go July 15-17 in Port Coquitlam, BC, have released their workouts. 😎
CROSSFIT GAMES
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Italian Elisa Fuliano Set to Debut at 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games Eight Months After Arthritis Diagnosis
Elisa Fuliano has qualified for her first CrossFit Games just eight months after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
“Really, my world fell down,” Italian Fuliano said. “I thought I had to quit CrossFit and every kind of sport. But I didn’t give up, I found the strength to go on and I wanted to be competitive and, I found the strength.”
Rheumatoid arthritis is a degenerative autoimmune disease. Fuliano has pain in her wrists and feet as the disease attacks her joints. She probably only has two or three years left of competing.
“I knew I could reach a higher level and I was angry, and this was stopping me reaching my goal. I was unhappy, I was angry with life,” she said.
The List of Celebrities Who Have Done CrossFit Continues to Grow
Former Navy SEAL Jared Shaw turned heads in a Men’s Health story when he revealed that “The Terminal List” star Chris Pratt had completed Murph several times while preparing to play the role of James Reece.
This revelation created questions about other celebrities that have done CrossFit or “functional fitness” to prepare for their respective careers or just to feel better on a daily basis. The list is far from complete due to many keeping their training styles private, but there are some notable names.
Max Greenfield, who starred as Schmidt in “New Girl” and Dave in “The Neighborhood,” has been very open over the years about his love of CrossFit. He spent an entire segment of “Late Night With Seth Meyers” talking about attending the 2017 CrossFit Games and geeking out while meeting Mat Fraser.
As well as being recommended by Mat Fraser, beta-alanine has been consistently proven to improve exercise capacity in most workouts. But most people complain of a “tingling” or “itching” sensation when they take it. Is this normal? What causes it? And should you be worried?
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Wall balls are great, medball cleans are fine, but this exercise...this gets your blood pumping. Discover one of the best drills you're probably not doing but should add to your strength routine.
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It's probably more than you want to, but it may well be less than you think. Hear Chris Hinshaw talk about how often CrossFit athletes should be running and why you don't need a large training volume to get great results.
🐸 Lazar Djukic gets froggy with these hurdle hops.
Teen athlete Olivia Kerstetter is getting strong strong during her Games prep— to the tune of a back squat over 300 pounds/136kg.
A GoFundMe has been started for Amica CrossFit in Matamoras, PA after nearly everything in the gym burned down in an electrical fire.
Started by Donna Fleming in 2018, the gym is proudly female-owned and operated, and is now in desperate need of a few immediate purchases while they secure a new location and attempt to rebuild.
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