“The reason why it is that I fight is to carry the message to other people who struggle with addiction and alcoholism, to tell them that there’s a way out, and if I can do it, you can do it,” says Court McGee.
A UFC fighter and CrossFitter, Court McGee says he recovered from a drug overdose in 2005.
“It was the low of the low,” he says in describing the circumstances of his overdose and how it changed him.
After the incident, he went to rehab and over time sobered up. His life turned around.
“I started coaching and helping to coach wrestling in a high school,” he says. “It was one of the best times in my life, man. I was actually doing something for somebody else for nothing in return—I didn’t get paid or anything.”
McGee started working and invested himself in a small gym where he pursued a career in martial arts—something he had wanted to do since he was five years old, he says.
“I like the competition. I like being in the fight,” he says.
“It keeps me sober to know that there’s possibility that somebody could benefit from my story,” McGee says.
“You know when it gets hard, you just keep going. You just put your chin down and you just keep going, just like in a fight.”
9min 11sec
Video by Again Faster.
Additional reading: Second Chances—CrossFit Works, Part 2 by Peter Egyed and Kevin O’Malley, published Feb. 6, 2010.