Emily Rolfe: Photo Finishing Her Way to the CrossFit Games

Four-tenths of a second. That’s the margin of victory that’s sending Emily Rolfe back to the CrossFit Games this summer for the second straight year.

Heading into the final event at Wodapalooza in Miami, FL last weekend, Rolfe held just a two-point lead over Colleen Fotsch. The 31-year-old Canadian knew exactly what was on the line.

“Basically, it came down to whoever beat the other on that event,” said Rolfe, in a phone interview two days after Wodapalooza, as she was waiting in an hour-long line for the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando.

It was so close that when Rolfe hit the timing button, she wasn’t sure who crossed the line first: her or Fotsch.

“I didn’t think I had done it because I looked over and she was done, too. Then I started looking for (my husband) Kyle (Rolfe) in the stands for feedback, but I couldn’t find him,” she said. “It was a stressful 15 minutes waiting on the floor to find out.”

Eventually, Rolfe did locate her husband, who was refreshing his phone over and over.

“He gave me the thumbs up and mouthed to me across the arena that I had done it. I felt more relief than anything,” said Rolfe, who celebrated that night by eating Chicago-style deep dish pizza for the first time.

“It was so good. It was meat and more meat. It had everything on it,” she said.

Considering the way the weekend started for Rolfe, it’s amazing she was even in contention heading into the final event.

“The first night I got a pretty costly no rep on the last walking lunge…so then I went back and redid it and was no repped again. That was really disappointing because without that I could have been second after Sara (Sigmundsdottir) on that event. Those lunges cost me 30 points, and I basically had to do damage control the rest of the weekend,” Rolfe said.