Some of the top CrossFit athletes from across Australia — and the world — will descend on Wollongong this week. Photo: Down Under Championships.
If you’ve noticed a suspicious number of buff bodies about, you’re not imagining things.
Straight off the back of hosting the World Triathlon Championship Finals, Wollongong will be home to another elite fitness competition this weekend — the CrossFit Down Under Championship.
The three-day fitness extravaganza brings some of the world’s best athletes to duke it out over three intense days at the WIN Entertainment Centre.
Organiser John Bric said Wollongong had been the heartland of CrossFit in Australia and Oceania over the past 12 years.
There are a plethora of local gyms, and the CrossFit World Games qualifier is traditionally held at the WIN Entertainment Centre.
It made Wollongong a natural home for the stand-alone Down Under Championship, which has run every year since pandemic restrictions eased.
“This is an elite competition and it draws the best,” John said.
“A lot are professional athletes who do CrossFit for a living, so they compete to make prize money, practise meeting competition standards and to keep their sponsors happy.
“These competitors eat, sleep and breathe training.
“You cannot be a great CrossFit athlete without putting in the hard yards, and then to get up there at the elite level, you need talent and great genetics.
“Many of them train three hours a day, seven days a week, working on everything from gymnastics exercises to breathing techniques.”
Alongside the elite competitors, the event will host a range of divisions, from intermediate teams to masters, teens and adaptive athletes.
John said that was one of the best parts of the sport.
As impressive as it is to watch the feats performed by the top 1 per cent of competitors, everything can be scaled to make it accessible to someone on their first day.
Think the difference between the NBL and a game of pick-up basketball at the park.
John said having inclusive competitions gave everyone an opportunity to see what it was like to step into the arena.
“This gives people who want the opportunity to compete in a really professional environment to have that experience,” he said.
“Everyone is on the same floor, with the same judges.
“The vibe is really good. The majority of the spectators know someone who is competing, train themselves, or are fans of watching the events.
“It’s got a real community feel and everyone is welcome to come along and check it out.”
Six-time CrossFit World Games champion Matt Fraser will be at the event, and there will be a variety of sub-events to keep an eye out for.
John said he would love to see Aussies get behind the sport — especially as we boast one of its all-time greatest athletes, Tia-Clair Toomey.
With eight title wins, she boasts more than any athlete, male or female, in the sport.
“She’s an Australian woman, but the sport doesn’t get a lot of publicity here, so I don’t think a lot of people would recognise her,” John said.
“We don’t want people who come along to think, ‘This is what I have to look like to walk into a CrossFit gym’; this is an opportunity to showcase the best.
“It’s a brilliant opportunity to see what the sport is like, but this is the smallest percentage of top-level competitors.”
If you’d like to check out the Down Under Championships at the WIN Entertainment Centre at any time from Friday, 24 October, to Sunday, 26 October, grab tickets online here, or at the door.
