All Workouts today have been cancelled. We appreciate your flexibility and apologize for any inconvenience. Workouts will resume tomorrow!

This Friday the 2012 London Olympics officially open, with things getting fully underway on Saturday. As Sean mentioned, you may find greater appreciation in watching the Artistic Gymnastics and Weightlifting events since you are well aware of the difficulty to perform many of their moves from the work we do here at Intrepid. To find out when events are going on, check the full schedule here.

http://library.mtsu.edu/tps/images/thumbnails/1904_Olympic_Games_detail.png

I recently came across an article on NPR of interest, which talked about Olympic events that have fallen by the wayside. The picture above is from an event only held at the 1904 Olympics, called “All Around Dumbbell”. In this event, they had several movements you’d find familiar. Take a look at the list and you will recognize the one-arm snatch, jerk, press, clean and dual-handed press and jerk, all performed with dumbbells. Substitute the dumbbells for kettlebells and you could easily think of a WOD or warmup where we’ve utilized this skillset.

The list of former Olympic events that translate to CrossFit don’t stop there. While it may seem more like an game for grade school or a picnic, Tug-of-War was featured in the 1900 through 1920 Games. The Olympics also used to feature Rope Climb, in distances anywhere from 25ft to 50ft! (For reference, the ropes at Intrepid are 10 feet long.)

Perhaps the most CrossFittish event that I saw could be something out of a future Frogman Challenge. In the 1900 Olympics, they featured a 200m Obstacle Race as part of the swimming program! Here’s a description:

A combination of a swimming event and an obstacle race, the competitors had to climb over a pole, then scramble over a row of boats, and then swim under another row of boats. All this was done in the to swim in the River Seine, so they competitors also had to contend with the current.

 Hopefully you’re as excited to watch this year’s Games as I am, since you can probably relate to the athletes in a different way than before you tried your hand at gymnastics or weightlifting. While most of us may be past the window to be a future competitor, it still may help stoke your inner fire to set a new PR goals!

WOD 07.25.12