Area Man Named Fittest Man In The World For Age Range
August 12, 2022 at 10:51 p.m.
Area Man Named Fittest Man In The World For Age Range
By Connor McCann-
An instructor at Warsaw’s CrossFit gym, Haymaker, since it opened in 2013, Wong started competing in the fitness world in 2016 at the CrossFit regionals. Competition has taken Wong around the country and world, the furthest trek being to Ireland in 2019. Taking a few years off here and there, Wong returned to competition this year in hopes of taking the Fittest Man crown.
“I didn’t think I’d make it at first, to be honest,” Wong said. “But as things went along I started figuring I had a real shot. All of a sudden I’m the winner.”
The competition starts in late February, and is open to anyone in the world. In Wong’s age group this year, competition started with around 30,000 athletes. To continue qualifying, athletes submit videos of themselves taking on the various workouts CrossFit can engineer.
The same process applies for the quarterfinals, which takes the top 10% of the initial field. Competitors complete five to six workouts over the course of three days and await a judge’s ruling on the final 30 athletes that will advance to the semifinals. From there, the top ten make it to the finals in Madison.
“Each round, the tests get harder and harder,” Wong said. “The online portion could be anything, various movements like gymnastics and handstand walks. There’s power lifting, endurance activities like skiing, rowing, you have to be prepared for anything.”
CrossFit assigns workouts with very little turnaround time for completion to ensure athletes are submitting the purest form of their skills.
“For the final, they let us know what workouts we were going to be doing about 12 hours before the competition starts, so there’s not much time to prepare or practice. The final was almost all new movements,” Wong said.
The movements included parallel bars one might see in an Olympic gymnastics event, rope climbs and 200-pound sandbag lifts. Competing on the biggest stage in CrossFit for the very first time, Wong was able to outmuscle the other nine competitors, some veterans and some rookies, to take the title.
“It was so crazy. I’m still refreshing the leader board to make sure it’s real and I wasn’t dreaming,” Wong laughed. “I’m a father, I have a full time job, so this isn’t something I can commit to as much as some other guys. I kept joking during the semis, I hope I finish in 11th. Know I’m good enough but I don’t have to commit to that level of crazy. I finished in third. It was like, ‘Here we go.’”
The penultimate event in the competition was a swim. With Wong holding onto the lead with just two events to go, his goal for the swim was simple: don’t screw up. He would end up winning the event and adding on to his lead.
“I’m not the best swimmer, I can survive in the water,” Wong said. “There were times I was close to doggy paddling the rest of the way but winning that event gave me a big enough lead that I didn’t have to go all out in that last one.”
The final workout was a sandbag clean, which involves lifting the bag up to your chest while squatting. Seeing only a couple of bags left in front of him, reality began to set in for Wong.
“I had two reps left, and I looked at my wife who was right in front of me. I threw down the last bag and she was right there telling me ‘you did it, you won,’” Wong said. “It was so surreal because I never planned on this. Everybody is coming up to congratulate me and it hadn’t set in yet. I thought they were kidding.”
Wong has had people reaching out from all over the world to offer their congratulations on the victory. As for what’s next. Wong is unsure. A couple of local competitions have piqued his interest, such as a three-day competition in October. He hasn’t decided if he will try to defend his title as the World's Fittest Man.
“It was a lot of work and strain on the family. It takes a lot of time and effort to work out twice a day and work a full time job. But if the season progresses and I can stay healthy and happy I’ll do it. The biggest hurdle is getting mentally ready,” Wong said.
In the meantime, Wong will be staying busy at CrossFit Haymaker.
“It’s the best community I’ve been a part of. There’s people that want to get involved with the competitions and there’s people who want to look good and work out with their friends,” Wong said. “Everyone is super supportive along the way, it’s another family. If it’s something you want to do, trust the process, put in the effort, and it’ll pay off.”
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An instructor at Warsaw’s CrossFit gym, Haymaker, since it opened in 2013, Wong started competing in the fitness world in 2016 at the CrossFit regionals. Competition has taken Wong around the country and world, the furthest trek being to Ireland in 2019. Taking a few years off here and there, Wong returned to competition this year in hopes of taking the Fittest Man crown.
“I didn’t think I’d make it at first, to be honest,” Wong said. “But as things went along I started figuring I had a real shot. All of a sudden I’m the winner.”
The competition starts in late February, and is open to anyone in the world. In Wong’s age group this year, competition started with around 30,000 athletes. To continue qualifying, athletes submit videos of themselves taking on the various workouts CrossFit can engineer.
The same process applies for the quarterfinals, which takes the top 10% of the initial field. Competitors complete five to six workouts over the course of three days and await a judge’s ruling on the final 30 athletes that will advance to the semifinals. From there, the top ten make it to the finals in Madison.
“Each round, the tests get harder and harder,” Wong said. “The online portion could be anything, various movements like gymnastics and handstand walks. There’s power lifting, endurance activities like skiing, rowing, you have to be prepared for anything.”
CrossFit assigns workouts with very little turnaround time for completion to ensure athletes are submitting the purest form of their skills.
“For the final, they let us know what workouts we were going to be doing about 12 hours before the competition starts, so there’s not much time to prepare or practice. The final was almost all new movements,” Wong said.
The movements included parallel bars one might see in an Olympic gymnastics event, rope climbs and 200-pound sandbag lifts. Competing on the biggest stage in CrossFit for the very first time, Wong was able to outmuscle the other nine competitors, some veterans and some rookies, to take the title.
“It was so crazy. I’m still refreshing the leader board to make sure it’s real and I wasn’t dreaming,” Wong laughed. “I’m a father, I have a full time job, so this isn’t something I can commit to as much as some other guys. I kept joking during the semis, I hope I finish in 11th. Know I’m good enough but I don’t have to commit to that level of crazy. I finished in third. It was like, ‘Here we go.’”
The penultimate event in the competition was a swim. With Wong holding onto the lead with just two events to go, his goal for the swim was simple: don’t screw up. He would end up winning the event and adding on to his lead.
“I’m not the best swimmer, I can survive in the water,” Wong said. “There were times I was close to doggy paddling the rest of the way but winning that event gave me a big enough lead that I didn’t have to go all out in that last one.”
The final workout was a sandbag clean, which involves lifting the bag up to your chest while squatting. Seeing only a couple of bags left in front of him, reality began to set in for Wong.
“I had two reps left, and I looked at my wife who was right in front of me. I threw down the last bag and she was right there telling me ‘you did it, you won,’” Wong said. “It was so surreal because I never planned on this. Everybody is coming up to congratulate me and it hadn’t set in yet. I thought they were kidding.”
Wong has had people reaching out from all over the world to offer their congratulations on the victory. As for what’s next. Wong is unsure. A couple of local competitions have piqued his interest, such as a three-day competition in October. He hasn’t decided if he will try to defend his title as the World's Fittest Man.
“It was a lot of work and strain on the family. It takes a lot of time and effort to work out twice a day and work a full time job. But if the season progresses and I can stay healthy and happy I’ll do it. The biggest hurdle is getting mentally ready,” Wong said.
In the meantime, Wong will be staying busy at CrossFit Haymaker.
“It’s the best community I’ve been a part of. There’s people that want to get involved with the competitions and there’s people who want to look good and work out with their friends,” Wong said. “Everyone is super supportive along the way, it’s another family. If it’s something you want to do, trust the process, put in the effort, and it’ll pay off.”
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