Local business owner and athlete Taryn Romanowich - owner of CrossFit FUNCTION - recently competed at the 2015 CrossFit Games Canada West Open qualifier, finishing second out of nearly three thousand athletes after five weeks of rigorous competition.
The impressive result means that Romanowich, 27, has now qualified to compete at the Western Super Regional in Tacoma, Washington, starting on Friday, May 29, for the right to represent the West (Western Canada and Northwestern United States) at the CrossFit Games, which is CrossFit’s version of the Olympic Games. “Qualifying for the CrossFit Games is something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I began doing CrossFit seriously,” offered Romanowich, who has tried to qualify for the last three years, even coming agonizingly close on one occasion finishing just two spots away from qualifying. “Everything I do revolves around that goal. My life is 365 24/7 all about qualifying. I eat, sleep, live, breath for it.
“Everything I do is all around my goal of qualifying and I believe I am worthy of achieving these goals and I’m more than capable of it.”
In fact, if the rules in the past were the same as they were now Romanowich would have actually qualified a couple of years ago, instead of finishing two spots back. “In my early years they used to only take the top two from Canada West, but now the top five go,” offered Romanowich. “So one year I finished fourth and missed out because of that finish, which if I did that now would mean I too would qualify for the CrossFit Games.
But back then I didn’t go. Instead I had to watch others go. I can’t explain the feeling standing in the crowd watching the athletes get their medals and Games packages when you were just two spots away.”
However instead of dwelling on what could have been, Romanowich uses it as fuel; The memory of coming oh so close to her goal, only to watch others experience joy and jubilation as she felt disappointment and sadness is something that spurs her on instead of weighs her down. “Thinking back on it, that fueled my year of training leading up to the next year and ever since then it gets more aggressive and aggressive just how much I want it,” said Romanowich, continuing, “I don’t want to experience that again. I want to be the one getting the Games package and moving on to the CrossFit Games.
“I know I can make it if I work harder than ever and that’s what I’ve been doing. We’ll just see if it’s enough at the end of the month.”
As of yet she says she is unsure as to what challenges await her, saying that CrossFit HQ always put together different events. “I’ll find out soon what they’ll have in store for us, but it can be anything that will test our fitness,” mentioned Romanowich, adding that events such as Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics or running are only a few of the many challenges that may be in store for her. “CrossFit is a combination of Olympic weightlifting, calisthenics, gymnastics, body weight movement and then cardio components like rowing, running, skipping, that stuff.
“So what they’ll do is they mash it all together and make it into a workout. So whether it’s ‘perform this amount of work for time’, ‘here’s your time limit, how much work can you do in this time?’ or ‘who can lift the most weights’, the point is the events or workouts involve everything and we have to do is as quick and as flawless as possible.”
Romanowich will leave for Tacoma, Washington, and the Super Regionals either Wednesday, May 27, or Thursday, May 28 and begin competing for a spot at the CrossFit Games on Friday, May 29.
