A Carlow Mayo Township resident has been taking the CrossFit world by storm since she started the sport back in 2012. Patricia McGill, who is currently first in the world in the open segment at the 2024 CrossFit games, talks to The Bancroft Times about her CrossFit journey over the past dozen years and her aspirations for the future.
Another Carlow Mayo resident, Marilyn Bowman, told The Bancroft Times about McGill’s achievements in the CrossFit world, and we reached out to McGill to get a more detailed view of her journey. Moving to Carlow Mayo when she retired in 2014, she says that her first time on the podium at the CrossFit games was in 2019, and it meant the most to her as it was so unexpected and had been a dream of hers since she started seven years earlier.
CrossFit was developed by Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai in 2000. It is a registered trademark and the biggest fitness chain in the world, with approximately 12,000 affiliated gyms in over 150 countries, according to www.crossfit.com. The CrossFit games have been held since 2007. McGill describes CrossFit as, at a basic level, a strength and conditioning workout that is made up of functional movements performed at high intensity. “But it’s much more than that. Some days, I lift heavy, some light. I dead lift, clean and squat. I use barbells, dumbbells, rowers, echo bikes, pull up bars, jump ropes and a host of other things. Some workouts are long, others short. It tests us to see how capable we are dealing with physical challenges. It’s also a supportive worldwide community of supportive athletes,” she says.
A triathlete before she embarked on her CrossFit journey, McGill says she read in her triathlon magazine that CrossFit was a good way to become a better triathlete. Within three years, she says she stopped doing triathlon and focused on CrossFit. While she says she’s not really had any mentors during her years in CrossFit, she gives special mention to her coach at CrossFit Lindsay, Ryan Hawkrigg, who has been there for her entire time doing CrossFit. “He’s been great. He always believes in me even when I don’t in myself,” she says.
McGill says she trains primarily at home, and has a full CrossFit gym in her basem*nt. “I try to get to Lindsay once a week to work out with my coach and spend some time with other members of the CrossFit community. The community is so much of the magic of CrossFit,” she says.
As to what she enjoys most about CrossFit, McGill says it varies so much it’s hard to say. “Each day is different. I embrace variety. I’m good at things like rowing and wall balls and heavy lifting,” she says.
Before CrossFit, in addition to triathlons, McGill enjoyed other physical activities like running, road cycling, mountain bike racing, and more casual activities like kayaking and hiking. McGill says her best memory doing CrossFit over the years is all the wonderful people she’s met from all over the world, while the worst memory was failing at some rope climbs at the games in 2022.
McGill is currently competing to qualify for the 2024 CrossFit games and is now first in the world during the open segment. “I did well in the open. Now I move on to the quarter finals and semi-finals to qualify for the 2024 games,” she says.
McGill tells The Bancroft Times that this is the beginning of the CrossFit season and it’s the largest sporting event in terms of participation in the world, with over 340,000 people participating this year. “It’s the first stage in our season. From this, 25 per cent continue on to quarter finals [April 2-22] and from this 200 to semi-finals [May 8-June 2], then 20 get invited to the CrossFit games [Aug. 8-11]. As in many sports, it’s by age group in the masters’ categories. I aged up to the 65 years plus age group this year. I have made it to the games in the past and finished on the podium every time. I just wanted to clarify that I haven’t made the games yet this year,” she says. “I still have to make it through the next set of qualifiers to make it.”
Michael Riley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Bancroft Times
