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Former Hockeyroo Katelin Van Zyl has hung up her jersey to flex her muscles in a completely new arena, qualifying for the world CrossFit Games.
The Gold Coast mum has added Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics and even strongman skills to her wheelhouse to compete in a sport where there is no limit to how athletes are physically tested.
For the 27-year-old, training three hours a day is the easy part compared with chasing after her two-year-old son, Hunter.
"Juggle, that's the biggest word. Every day is different, so I just have to wake up and just try and get in, get it done, do what I need to do and just try and train as much as I can," she said.
Van Zyl started CrossFit in 2013 when she was sidelined from Hockey, a sport she had played for 22 years.
"I had a jaw injury, which stopped me from competing anymore. That's how I started doing CrossFit, because that's pretty much the only thing that I could do," she said.
Clearly a natural, Van Zyl quickly established herself as one of the top competitors in the Pacific Region.
But competing on the world stage in the United States was not part of the original plan, until she secured a top 20 spot in this year's qualifiers.
"Of course it's amazing. I'm super proud and super happy, but our goal was to try and stay within Australia within the top eight," she said.
The Australian women have a great track record at the world CrossFit Games, with fellow Queenslander Tia Clair Toomey crowned "Fittest on Earth" for the past two years.
"I don't compare myself to everyone else, I just want to literally go there, be prepared as well as I can and just do what I know I am capable of," Van Zyl said.
Brisbane data analyst Courtney Haley has also secured a qualifying spot after debuting at the Games in Wisconsin last year.
Despite an impressive performance placing 23rd in the world in 2018, Haley was not entirely confident of her chances of returning.
"This season was really uncertain initially, they changed the whole qualifying structure so wasn't sure that I'd be going back," she said.
CrossFit is not the only sport in which she has competed for Australia, formerly a competitive gymnast for 13 years.
"I think that's really helped me a lot in picking up not only the gymnastics type CrossFit movements but picking up weightlifting and everything else just because I have a really good sense of where my body is in space and it helps to learn things faster," she said.
The 23-year-old said part of the fun of preparing for the games in July is "you never know what you're going to come up against."
"Sometimes they tell you an hour beforehand, you're going to row a marathon, you're going to pick up heavy stones so you've got to be prepared for everything," she said.
Brisbane Coach and fellow qualifier Matt McLeod is hoping a swimming event will be scheduled, given that is his sporting background.
"Wouldn't mind something in the water [but] in saying that there's a lot of other guys who can swim well too," McLeod said.
At his gym in Morningside in Brisbane's East, McLeod's preparation includes training three hours a day, six days a week.
"Sometimes on the seventh day I might just rest it or if I want to do a running session or a track session or something like that I will," he said.
"You don't not go to the Games to win, so I am going to go there and try make a name for myself."
The sport itself though is not just for the elite.
CrossFit gyms have been popping up around the world since 2001 — there are now 15,000 facilities across more than 160 countries.
The discipline describes itself as preparing participants "for the demands of a healthy, functional, independent life and provides a hedge against chronic disease and incapacity".
Haley is not surprised the sport appeals to the masses.
"You do something different every single day. When you walk into a CrossFit gym, you don't know what the workout is going to be and you have a whole group of really wonderful, friendly people who are going through the same thing with you," she said.
Topics: exercise-and-fitness, sport, brisbane-4000, qld
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