CrossFit Games Rookie Spotlight: Austin Hatfield – Elite CrossFit Athlete by Day, Rabbit Farmer by Night
Austin Hatfield, who hails from Beckley, WV, was an athlete to watch from the very start of the North America East Semifinal, especially when it was revealed that outside of being an elite CrossFit athlete, he’s also a rabbit farmer.
The soon-to-be 25-year-old picked up his first Semifinals event win during Event 2, where his unbroken front squats and quick transition times from the toes-to-bar to the barbell paid off.
Hatfield found a coach just a year ago and has fully committed to the sport.
- “I kind of went all in. I took care of nutrition and recovery and really focused more on training. I worked a little bit on the side. Everybody knows now that I’m a rabbit farmer,” Hatfield told Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
Hatfield trains out of CrossFit Coal and is a CrossFit Mayhem athlete.
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Committing to the Sport
His coach is Jake Naumcheff, with whom he started working just a year ago.
Before that, he followed Mayhem Athlete’s competitive track and Semifinalist track. While he did make Semifinals last year, this was the first year Hatfield dialed in and cemented his place among the other elites.
- “I do feel like I belong. All the effort and training I put into it, it’d be hard not to feel like I don’t belong in that field,” Hatfield said.
After Semifinals, Hatfield and his coach sat down and discussed where he left some points on the table and where there was room for improvement.
- He finished the weekend in eighth place, qualifying him for his first-ever CrossFit Games appearance.
Preparing for Fort Worth
The focus for the next several weeks will be on training, Hatfield adds. But he will continue doing rabbit farming on the side as time allows.
Hatfield breeds the rabbits and says it’s more of a part-time job than people might think.
- “I have between 60 to 70 females and about 10 males. And I’ll just breed rabbits, and I keep them in pretty big cages, have them all separated, they’ll have their cage,” Hatfield said.
He adds that the rabbits breed once a month, and essentially, he rinses and repeats that cycle. Once the babies are old enough, he takes them to a market to sell.
- “Everybody asks me what happens with the rabbits, and I say I have no clue. I drop them off, get my paperwork, and go home.”
(But the assumption is they go home as pets…or for consumption)
Hatfield trains six hours daily and believes it is a worthwhile sacrifice that “you wouldn’t think about on a day-to-day basis, but it does take a lot of your time.”
Between now and the Games, he intends to go to CrossFit Mayhem for one-on-one time with his coach and have other training partners during his sessions.
- Hatfield trains mostly alone in West Virginia but has some friends jump into his training from time to time.
While it isn’t ideal, he knows he must put in the work if he wants the best outcome.
He adds that he chose the Mayhem training camp because of its values: faith, family, and fitness.
- “If you want to get it done, you have to do what you have to do,” he said. “I feel like these other big camps may have people that might push them a little bit more. But I just try to push myself as best that I can when I’m alone and I hope that’s the best.”
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Featured image: @taylorjordan04 / Instagram