The legendary CrossFitter embarks on training for his sixth Games by turning his training and nutrition upside down. Russell Greene reports.
Throughout his athletic career, Chris Spealler has been known for pushing his smaller frame to compete with larger athletes. It began long before he found CrossFit. After wrestling for four years in high school, he earned a scholarship to wrestle at Lock Haven University. There, he was known for out-powering 197-lb. Division 1 wrestlers on the Airdyne.
Spealler is such a skilled athlete it’s strange to call anything a struggle for him. His five-time CrossFit Games career, however, has been defined by the same struggle he encountered as a wrestler: capitalizing on his speed and stamina while forcing his body to exert ever-larger amounts of force seemingly through strength of will alone.
Each year he has excelled at events testing skill, speed and endurance. On the other hand, events with heavy weight have always held him back in the rankings. Spealler has reached new limits by lifting heavier loads each year, yet he has never seemed to get quite strong enough to win.
This year, however, “Speal” is trying something different. Fed up with simply getting stronger while staying relatively the same size, he’s embarked on a radical weight-gain plan.