Strong Women of Invictus

Strong Women of Invictus
Written by C.J. Martin

I am reminded every day that I have the pleasure of coaching some of the most amazing athletes in the world. But as is common in life, when you’re surrounded by amazing things, they become your norm. So I can be prone to take things for granted, and I find myself assuming that these athletes will do something that seems humanly impossible. But even I couldn’t help but to have been floored by some of the amazing feats of strength accomplished by some of our strong women of Invictus over the last week.

All of the women highlighted below are training to compete in the sport of CrossFit. We lift because we love it, and because it is essential to the sport of CrossFit, but we don’t do it to the detriment of their gymnastics or energy systems training. Each of these women is proficient with the many bodyweight and conditioning demands thrown at CrossFit athletes (muscle-ups, handstand push-ups, double-unders, sprinting, etc…). In short, they are incredibly well-rounded, phenomenal athletes.

Anyone who knows me understands that strong women fire me up, so I am going to let their actions tell the story. You won’t have to strain too hard to imagine my pride.

In less than five days, a few of our women accomplished the following things:
Lauren Fisher (132 lbs) takes second place at USA Weightlifting Junior Nationals with a 168 kg total (73 kg snatch, 95 kg C&J). This was her first real Olympic weightlifting competition.

Ayo Anise entered her first power lifting competition (unequipped, natural), won and set new USAPL state records in the Squat (308 lbs), Bench Press (181 lbs), and Deadlift (424 lbs – video below) for a total of 913 lbs.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (125 lbs) hit a PR on her Back Squat (295 lbs) and her Clean & Jerk (225 lbs).

I don’t have video of the following, but they are equally impressive:
Nichole DeHart hit PRs on her Back Squat (280 lbs) and Jerk (240 lbs).
Heather Hipensteel – a newer Invictus athlete who is still learning mechanics – hit a PR Clean of 83 kgs (183 lbs).
Stephanie McCormack hit a PR Clean of 86 kgs (190 lbs).

I am nearly certain that there are other incredible feats of strength that I am missing, and I apologize to all of you ladies that I missed. Please help me by adding to comments anything I missed.