Female weightlifters couldn’t compete in the Olympics until 2000, but that didn’t stop Karyn Marshall from setting a Guinness Book of World Records standard by being the first woman to clean and jerk 300 lb. In 2011, she was inducted into the USAW Hall of Fame by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Marshall, a former Wall Street financial analyst who is now a chiropractor, found the sport of fitness at CrossFit Shrewsbury, and in 2011 she finished sixth in the 55-60 Masters Division of the Reebok CrossFit Games. Shortly after, she found a lump in her breast.
Marshall finished chemotherapy in the middle of January 2012, and when she’s asked what kept her spirits up during her treatment, she smiles and says, “Thinking about CrossFit.”
She started training for the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games Open on Jan. 31, and while she isn’t where she wants to be, she’s determined to do her very best throughout the five weeks of competition.
“I’m going to try,” she says. “I’m going to give it my all. I’m going to do what I can do. And if every week I’m stronger, then every week I’m going to be moving up that leaderboard.”
Her goal: to make it back to the Reebok CrossFit Games.
After Open Event 1, Marshall was in 224th place, and she’ll be looking to climb the leaderboard for the next four events.
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Additional reading: Hear Her Roar by Andréa Maria Cecil, published March 3, 2011.