In an interview with Pat Sherwood, Chris Spealler has clarified that despite an impressive Open performance that left him in 22nd place in the South West Region, he will likely sit out Regionals if he receives an invite. Spealler — a seven-time CrossFit Games competitor and one of the sport’s first and most memorable elite athletes — is taking a back seat to competing in order to focus on coaching and spending more time with his family.
The full video is below. In it, Spealler tells Sherwood his “all or nothing” personality makes it difficult to balance competition with life’s other obligations, including time spent coaching a few Games hopefuls in his growing roster of athletes.
It’s no big surprise that Chris Spealler is foregoing competition this year to focus on other things, and he generally announced his retirement after the 2014 season. (Spealler missed out on the 2013 Games, but qualified again in 2014 in dramatic fashion.) What is surprising is his top-25 Open performance in a strong South West, especially since Spealler claims he’s only working out once a day by taking class at his gym.
He’s also still making career-best strength gains, as evidenced by the squat and clean & jerk PRs embedded below.
A video posted by Chris Spealler (@cspealler) on
Spealler’s best-ever Games result came in 2010, when he finished third behind Graham Holmberg and Rich Froning.
