Pursuing Health

Since 2008, Becca Voigt has competed in the CrossFit Games every single year, an accomplishment no other athlete can claim. As a true veteran of the sport, Becca has grown and adapted to the ever-changing demands of competition over the past decade. She's consistently finished in the top half of the field, and earned a spot on the podium with a 3rd place finish in 2011. Becca was awarded the 2014 Spirit of the Games Award for her positive attitude and sportsmanship through competition. Becca resides in Toluca Lake, California where she trains and runs her affiliate, CrossFit Training Yard.

Ron Ortiz is a 6-time CrossFit Games Masters Athlete and two-time Champion (2013 Masters Men 45-49, 2016 Masters Men 50-54). At 51 years of age, he is currently competing in the 50-54 year-old category. A firefighter for the past 18 years, Ron discovered CrossFit in 2009. He has become a staple in the CrossFit Games Masters community, and he has also taken his training to the fire station, inspiring other first responders to change their lifestyle. He is husband of 24+ years and a father of three.

Chris Spealler is a seven-time CrossFit Games athlete, coach and owner of CrossFit Park City, long-time member of the CrossFit Seminar Staff, husband, and father of two. Chris discovered CrossFit and his passion for competing in the sport following his collegiate Division 1 wrestling career. He has competed in CrossFit since 2007, collecting two Southwest Regional titles, three Top 10 CrossFit Games finishes (2007, 2008, 2010), and winning the Spirit of the Games award in 2010. After the Games in 2014, Chris has made the decision to retire from competition and instead "train for life," but with the introduction of the Masters 35-39 age group category he will once again find himself on the big stage in 2017. Chris holds a love for the outdoors, mainly skiing and mountain biking, and he has been using his newfound free time to enjoy these hobbies and more time with his family.

Annie Sakamoto is a mother of two children, four-time CrossFit Games athlete, owner of CrossFit Santa Cruz Central and one of members of the original CrossFit gym in Santa Cruz, CA. She began her CrossFit journey in 2004 when she was introduced to Greg Glassman and since then has trained, competed, and coached, bringing a veteran perspective to the ever-changing Sport of Fitness. She has competed in the team, individual, and masters divisions of the CrossFit Games and was awarded the "Sprit of the Games" in 2011. She is known as one of the original Nasty Girls alongside Nicole Carroll and Eva T., who paved the way for future generations of CrossFit women by performing muscle ups in the named workout. She's also one of the few women to have a workout named after her with the classic couplet of double unders and sit-ups known as "Annie." In her spare time, Annie enjoys surfing and spending time with her family in Santa Cruz.

You may know Nicole Carroll from her most recent role providing tips for the workouts each week of the CrossFit Games Open, or as CrossFit's Director of Training and Certification. She also happens to be one of the early members of Greg Glassman's original CrossFit gym in Santa Cruz, CA. She helped to pave the way for generations of CrossFit females to come by performing muscle ups in a video of a workout called Nasty Girls alongside Annie Sakamoto and Eva T, and the workout called Nicole that you've probably done before - that was named after her. Since that time, Nicole has been a leader in the development of the CrossFit Training and Certification department and the preservation CrossFit's core mission and culture even as the movement has grown tremendously over the past several years.

Known as "Iceland Annie," Annie Thorisdottir is a two-time Fittest Woman on Earth (2011-2012) and seven-time Reebok CrossFit Games veteran. With a background of gymnastics, pole vaulting, and boot camp, Annie made her Games debut in 2009 at 19 years of age. With very little prior CrossFit experience, she learned the snatch during the competition and performed her first muscle-up during the last event. Despite this, her raw talent was apparent and she finished in the top 10 in five of eight events. Since then, Annie has been a staple in our sport and she is known to train hard and always compete with a smile. She has battled injuries including a severe back injury that kept her out of the 2013 CrossFit Games, and heat stroke that forced her to withdraw in 2015. She owns CrossFit Reykjavik in Reykjavik, Iceland where she lives and trains for the majority of the year. Fred Aegidius is Annie's long-time boyfriend and a two-time Reebok CrossFit Games athlete from Copenhagen, Denmark, competing in 2012 and 2013. He has a background in European Handball and American Football and holds an engineering degree in biotechnology from the Danish Technological University. He currently lives and trains with Annie in Reykjavik and is making another run at the individual CrossFit Games competition in 2017.

Ben Bergeron is the owner of CrossFit New England and has coached numerous CrossFit Games athletes including champions in 5 different categories (male and female individual, male and female masters, and team). He publishes programming for competitors for free through CompTrain which is followed by thousands of athletes around the world, and coaches Masters athletes through CompTrain Masters. Ben is well recognized in the CrossFit community for opening 3 successful affiliates (CrossFit New England and Tilt I and II), and he shares his best practices for affiliate excellence in seminars and immersion experiences for affiliate owners. Katrin Davidsdottir is the reigning two-time Reebok CrossFit Games Champion (2015, 2016) from Reykjavik, Iceland. A former gymnast and track athlete, Katrin made her Games debut in 2012 at the age of 19 and has competed in the sport ever since. Her story is punctuated by a setback in 2014 when she failed to qualify for the Games, an experience which she now credits for her success as one of only two women ever to win back-to-back Games titles.

Lindy Barber is a former collegiate soccer player turned CrossFit Games athlete. She's participated in the Reebok CrossFit Games twice as an individual (2013, 2015) and most recently on the two-time defending championship team, CrossFit Mayhem Freedom. Lindy currently trains at CrossFit Mayhem with Rich Froning and the rest of her team. She thrives in the team environment and loves setting goals and overcoming the mental challenges found in competition. She is known within the community for her comeback after a significant back injury and is passionate about promoting awareness of and helping people improve core and back strength in and outside of the fitness world.

Neal Maddox has an extensive background in health and fitness as both an athlete and a coach. He played multiple sports growing up and played Division II football at Linfield College where he graduated with a degree in Exercise Science. He had a stint with the San Jose Sabercats and worked as a personal trainer before finding CrossFit in 2009. He was quickly drawn to the sport and the community, and today he is the owner and head coach at CrossFit X-treme Athletics and has competed in the CrossFit Games six times. After a year away from competition in 2016 due to injury, 2017 marks his return in the newly formed 35-39 year-old Master's category. With his 40th birthday quickly approaching, he's one of the oldest in this competitive group, yet has already made a statement early in the season by finishing 4th in the category in the Open.

Amelia Boone is a full-time corporate attorney and one of the world's most decorated obstacle racers. Since the sport's inception five years ago, she's amassed more than 30 victories and 50 podiums. Some of her career highlights include: 3x winner of the World's Toughest Mudder (2012, 2014, 2015) Spartan Race World Champion 2013 Spartan Race Points Series Champion (2013 & 2015) 3x Death Race Finisher (Winter 2012, Summer 2012, Summer 2013) I've admired Amelia's drive and success in balancing her athletic and legal careers, and I've looked to her as an inspiration for my own journey competing the the CrossFit Games while in medical school. I was so glad to finally have the opportunity to sit down and get to know Amelia near her home in the San Francisco Bay area - we had a lot to talk about!

At 23 years of age, Tia-Clair Toomey (Tia) is quite the accomplished athlete. Hailing from the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, Tia burst on the CrossFit Games scene earning the title of 2nd Fittest Woman on Earth in both 2015 and 2016. She also quickly established herself as one of Australia's best Olympic Weightlifters, earning the country's only female weightlifting spot to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. This also makes her the only athlete to compete in both the CrossFit Games and the Olympics in the same year. She currently resides in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia where she owns and runs CrossFit Gladstone alongside her coach and fiancé, Shane Orr. We caught up recently at Chris Hinshaw's annual training camp in Cookeville, TN to discuss her background and the whirlwind that has been the past few years of her life.

At 23 years of age, Tia-Clair Toomey (Tia) is quite the accomplished athlete. Hailing from the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, Tia burst on the CrossFit Games scene earning the title of 2nd Fittest Woman on Earth in both 2015 and 2016. She also quickly established herself as one of Australia's best Olympic Weightlifters, earning the country's only female weightlifting spot to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. This also makes her the only athlete to compete in both the CrossFit Games and the Olympics in the same year. She currently resides in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia where she owns and runs CrossFit Gladstone alongside her coach and fiancé, Shane Orr. We caught up recently at Chris Hinshaw's annual training camp in Cookeville, TN to discuss her background and the whirlwind that has been the past few years of her life.

Dick is currently the CEO of Chorus, a digital platform that is coming soon to re-imagine the path to personal fitness. He served previously as CEO of Twitter from 2010-2015, during which time the company grew from roughy 300 to 4,000 employees and revenue grew from nothing to $2B per year. Before his time at Twitter, Dick was CEO of FeedBurner which sold to Google in June of 2007. He was also an advisor on Season 3 of HBO's Silicon Valley. Today, Dick lives with his family in Marin, California. We caught up for a quick workout at CrossFit Marin in January 2017 before sitting down to record this podcast.

Well here we are - I can’t believe we’ve already made it to the 50th episode of Pursuing Health! First of all, I want to say a HUGE thank you to all of you for listening. We are only getting started, and I can’t wait to see how the podcast evolves over the next 50 episodes. To celebrate, I’ve put together a compilation of some of my favorite answers to the last question I typically ask all of my guests on the podcast, which is “What does a healthy life look like to you?” We’ve heard such a wide range of amazing answers to this question and I unfortunately could only share a few of them here. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy listening and thinking about your own answer to this question.

Ben was an avid baseball player growing up and was introduced to CrossFit during his senior in High School in 2008. As a self-instructed athlete, he has had eight appearances at the CrossFit Games, finishing on the podium four times and finally winning the title of "Fittest Man on Earth" in 2015. Ben Smith has a degree in mechanical engineering from Old Dominion University and is the founder and co-owner of his affiliate CrossFit Krypton where he also serves as lead programmer and coach. His personal philosophy is that through hard work and dedication anything is possible. We sat down at the 2017 Reebok Athlete Summit to catch up on his life and career as a CrossFit Games athlete.