CrossFit Games Rookie Spotlight: Humble and Focused, Aimee Cringle Prepares for First Games Appearance
The phrase “comparison is the thief of joy” is common in the sport of CrossFit, as we often see others excelling in areas where we struggle.
It’s no different for the elites.
Aimee Cringle shifted her mindset, found a new coach, and stayed focused on her training. Now, she’s headed to the CrossFit Games for the first time.
Cringle, 25, hails from the Isle of Man but trains in the United Kingdom. She came into the 2024 Europe Semifinal as an athlete on the rise after her impressive Open and Quarterfinal finishes, where she placed 10th and 19th worldwide, respectively.
Remind me: The CrossFit Semifinal stage wrapped up in early June after three weeks of hard-fought competition.
Cringle competed in the Europe Semifinal during the first weekend and put on a show for the crowd right out of the gate.
- She finished in fifth place overall, landing well ahead of the cutline and onto her very first Games.
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Instant Connection
Cringle found CrossFit in high school after overhearing a classmate on the bus mention it. She attended her first kids’ class, and the rest is history.
- “I’ve never not been [training CrossFit] since then,” Cringle told the Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
Cringle completed a nursing course in 2021, but she chose to go full-time into CrossFit. In 2022, she moved to the UK and has since focused full-time on making it to the Games as an elite individual.
Her coach, Fraser Mckenzie, has also been a big part of Cringle’s recent success. Mckenzie is a coach and trainer out of Blueprint Training in the UK and saw her potential from the very beginning.
- “I definitely felt like, watching her in her first Semifinals when I wasn’t her coach, that she would make it. She had all the right ingredients; it was just [about] fine-tuning a few things,” Mckenzie tells Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
Those ingredients?
Mckenzie says Cringle had the capacity and strength, but it was just about learning how to “do the skills properly and how to move properly.”
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Quieting the Noise
Feelings of doubt can creep in, especially when an athlete is fully invested in a goal, but keeping those thoughts at bay and trusting the process has been key to Cringle’s progression from early on.
Mckenzie had her break things down and rebuild skills with a stronger technique and more driven focus.
- “In me, I’m like, how am I going to get better? How am I going to be linking ring muscle-ups like you see everyone do? And then I tell myself, am I even good at this? But what we did worked, I think,” Cringle said.
Luckily, Cringle has been pretty healthy thus far as an elite athlete and has only faced one setback with her elbow.
She has an incredible engine and enjoys training…a lot.
- “Giving Aimee a present is just giving Aimee a workout,” Mckenzie said.
Cringle has competed in every Semifinal since 2021, but this year is the first year her season has not ended there.
While social media can be overwhelming at times, Cringle focuses on her training, staying in her lane, and quieting the noise around her.
- “I just try not to say too much on Instagram before a competition,” said Cringle, who worries about not living up to what she says come competition weekend. “I have this thing where I feel like I can’t post too much because what if I didn’t perform well that day? Then I’m just saying stuff that’s not true.”
Mckenzie added that most analysts leading up to the Semifinal didn’t focus much attention on Cringle as a frontrunner, which played in her favor.
Cringle’s Semifinal finishes over the years:
- 2021: Team, 15th place
- 2022: Individual, 12th place
- 2023: Individual, 19th place
- 2024: Individual, 5th place
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Dialing In
Between now and the Games in August, Cringle and Mckenzie won’t steer far from the training plan they were using before Semifinals.
A big focus of her training was on higher-level skills, and both hope that will pay off come August.
Cringle will also be dialing in all the outside factors within her control, including sleep, nutrition, and recovery.
- “I’m confident no matter what’s thrown at her that we’ll put on a good performance. And we’re going to try to aim high and try to aim for the top 10,” Mckenzie said.
Featured image: @aimee_cringle and @truth_films / Instagram