I think if I just limited myself to being an athlete I'd be doing a disservice to the other demographics that I represent.

I'm a wrestler, I'm a former West Point or I'm an army officer, you know, all these different like intersectionalities that are composed within me and everyone has their own group of intersectionalities that they represent.

So that's how you, if you want to create understanding about something that you do that's outside the gym, the cross the box is a great space for it because of again what you said.

So that's kind of, it's not a responsibility, but it's an opportunity that I think should be recognized and capitalized upon.

Hello and welcome to pursuing health. I'm Dr. Julie Fushe, family physician and former cross-vigames athlete.

Here I bring you information and inspiration to help bridge the gap between fitness and medicine

and support your

journey toward your healthiest self. Thank you so much for joining me. Now

let's get started with this week's episode. In this week's episode of

pursuing health I am sitting down with Cross the Games

athlete and Army Captain Chandler Smith. Chandler attended West Point where he

studied American politics and Spanish and he also competed in wrestling and while he was there he received the

Warrior Athlete of Excellence Award in recognition of his mental toughness, coachability,

perseverance, and athletic skill if that tells you anything about him.

In 2012, Chandler first set the goal of qualifying for the CrossFit Games in 2022.

He ended up achieving this goal three years early by qualifying to the games last year in

2019 and now he has his sight set on climbing up that leaderboard. He made his first splash

on the competitive scene at the 2016 Atlantic Regional

where he had some outstanding performances and narrowly missed qualifying to the games that year.

Then in 2017 an injury resulting in the loss of part of his ring finger cut his open season short and in 2018 a deployment to Bulgaria meant work took priority over his training.

When he returned to the states Chandler resumed his focus on training for the

CrossFit Games and ultimately qualified late in the season through the 2019 Rogue Invitational.

...