For years, Emily Rolfe dreamed of standing on the podium at the CrossFit Games. And after five attempts, she finally realized her goal with a third-place finish in Fort Worth, TX, at the 2024 Games.
Only, there was no podium for her to stand on.
Instead, the closing ceremony on Sunday, August 11, focused on Serbian competitor Lazar Đukić, who died on the first day of the competition. There was no podium, no national anthem, and no Spirit of the Games or Rookie of the Year awards this summer.
- “It was very solemn,” the 34-year-old Rolfe said of the mood at Dickies Arena as athletes were awarded their medals at the completion of this year’s Games.
After placing a rose on Đukić’s starting block, athletes were called up to receive their medals. However, these medals weren’t placed around their necks but instead were simply handed to the athletes.
- “I was third place so I was the first to get called up, and I wasn’t sure what to do. It was really awkward for everyone. They took a photo, and I was like, ‘Do I smile?’” Rolfe said.
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In that moment, she said she felt pride but not happiness. “And that’s okay, given the weight of the weekend,” she said.
- “It was almost a guilty feeling for feeling proud of what I have done,” she said.
Rolfe added: “It doesn’t take away from what I did…and as nice as it would have been to have a podium celebration, there were much bigger things going on and many mixed emotions. It just gives me even more of an incentive to try for it again.”
Just like that, with her medal in hand, Rolfe left Dickies Arena as the third Fittest Woman on Earth. Instead of going to an after-party like she would have any other year, she said she just went for a quiet dinner with “my people.”
The uncertainties of how to act or what to say didn’t end there. Rolfe even questioned what she was supposed to say on social media. Everyone was posting about Đukić, so was it even appropriate for her to post about the biggest accomplishment of her career?
- “Every athlete was walking on eggshells…It was like damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” she said.
So Rolfe did the only thing she felt was right for her: To be as honest as she could, which meant acknowledging the proudest moment of her career.
Rolfe wrote on Instagram:
- “A podium finish at the CrossFit games has always been a dream that I’ve been working so hard for, and I finally achieved it. This weekend was incredibly tough. It wasn’t easy for any Games athlete. It was hard physically, mentally and emotionally for every single one of us. We didn’t know what to do and we were in an impossible position all weekend. The proudest moment of my career and also the most heartbreaking.”
How She Got There
Rolfe first qualified for the CrossFit Games in 2019, where she placed 18th. She went on to qualify again in 2020 via Wodapalooza during the Sanctional Era. But when the pandemic hit, CrossFit reshuffled the qualification process, and she ended up losing her spot.
- Or, as she says, “I was COVID cut.”
Since then, Rolfe has been a mainstay at the Games every year, finishing 15th in 2021 and 12th in 2023.
This year, though, she came into Fort Worth “by far the fittest I have ever been,” she said.
Rolfe credits this newfound fitness at least partially to her coach and husband, Kyle Rolfe, for implementing what they called “DOT training” into her program.
Essentially, Rolfe did what she calls “very intense training” for 30 to 45 minutes two to three days a week all year. The goal was “to go as hard as you can for as long as you can, then recover and repeat,” she said.
Kyle’s DOT training — which increased in volume and power output while the rest decreased as the year progressed — helped her improve her overall fitness, power output, muscular endurance, and mental strength to handle hard workouts.
- “It hurt so bad, and I hated it and had anxiety over it the night before, but it paid off,” she said. “I said to Kyle [after the Games], none of the workouts at the Games hurt as much as DOT did.”
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She added: “Knowing you’ve done that all year is the best feeling going into the Games.”
This newfound fitness helped Rolfe spend the entire weekend in the top three, right beside seven-time champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr.
- “You want to be in that lane beside her. That was the best thing to push me to be my best,” Rolfe said.
One Big Thing
Rolfe, who has proven herself to be one of the best runners in the sport, basically didn’t run all year.
She never did a 5k run in training, and she rarely ran during her metabolic conditioning training workouts. In fact, the only one-mile run she did was a couple of weeks before the Games when she knew it would be tested in Fort Worth.
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Rolfe and Kyle knew she would still be more than competitive in the distance events without working on her running. Instead, they focused on becoming a stronger all-around CrossFit athlete across all other modalities.
- The result: She was third on “Lake Day” — a 3.5-mile run followed by an 800-meter swim — and sixth on “Track and Field,” an event featuring a one-mile run followed by a shuttle run and bag carry event.
The Big Picture
Though finally making the podium didn’t feel exactly how Rolfe expected it would, she couldn’t be more proud of her performance in Fort Worth.
- “OK, so I don’t have a happy podium picture, but I know what I have done,” she said.
And it has led her to want to continue on the path she’s on.
If you had asked her prior to the Games if she would retire if she made the podium, she would have said yes. But things are different now.
- “But now I’m like, well as long as I can keep improving and I stay healthy I’m going to keep going and see what else I can do,” she added.
Featured image: @carlitosfleury / Instagram
