When You’re Born with a Genetic Anomaly

The Story.

Meet Tommy. He was born with a very rare genetic anomaly (missing Chromosome #20), so rare that he was the not only the first kid identified with it but it doesn’t even have a name yet.

Tommy couldn’t walk until he was 3-years-old. His father recalls, “we didn’t actually think he would walk at all.”

What’s the affect?

Now 17-years-old, Tommy looks like your typical kid. He’s not super athletic and prefers playing the couch potato over sports but nothing out of the ordinary. But his gross and fine motor skills were taking a lot longer to develop. Hence the reason why he used a walker at two.

What happened?

Tommy’s sister joined CrossFit Valley Forge about 3-years-ago. Then Tommy’s dad joined 2-years-ago, and his mom last year.

After seeing the positive effects, the family talked to their coach at CrossFit Valley Forge about bringing in Tommy and she was super into it. So Tom Sr. said what the heck and decided to make an intro.

The results.

Every fall, Tommy joins the other high schoolers for their annual fitness test. You know the one where you reluctantly run a mile except for the four people who are on the track team. Yeah, that one.

In September 2016, Tommy finished in 12:50, which is just a tad faster than a brisk walk.

This year, he crushed it in 8:50 after only three months doing CrossFit. We have a feeling this isn’t the end of Tommy’s PRs. Congrats buddy.