SULLIVAN, Ill. (WAND) - One of the best CrossFitters in the world spends his days training in Sullivan where he runs his own gym and coaches others in the sport he fell in love with in 2010.
Guy Cravatta has competed locally, nationally, and now has clinched a spot in the finals of the 2024 CrossFit games.
Cravatta shared, "[I thought] I'll just try to have fun and quickly I realized, I can't. I don't know how to just have fun doing it. I want to be the best."
Injuries have hindered Cravatta's chances at the world title in years past.
Cravatta said, "[I was] trying to walk that fine line of pushing myself to get better, but at the same time not overdoing it. And I didn't do a very good job. About three weeks prior to the competition, I end up having multiple multiple injuries within one week strained my right quad, my left quad, my lat, my neck, I started having back spasms, and my body is just breaking down."
Cravatta still ended up finishing 17th in the world with all those injuries, but he had decided at the time that he wouldn't try to compete again, saying, "It took my body about three months to recover. I said I'm never going to do this again because it's just it's so time consuming and took over my life just wanting to be great."
Eventually, he was convinced to give it another try by his wife and friends, and now he is ranked 3rd in the world heading into the finals, beating out more that 5,000 people worldwide to compete for the title.
"The leaderboard comes out and I'm tied for third worldwide and I'm going to the CrossFit games and I've been blessed," said Cravatta. "It's been an accomplishment that, you know, I've kind of been dreaming about for 14 years now."
The competition gets underway August 26th and will run for four days.
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