CrossFit Games Rookie Spotlight: Slow and Steady Growth Earned Jack Rozema a 2024 Games Invite
Jack Rozema was born to be an elite, competitive athlete.
Growing up in Michigan, Rozema was a three-sport athlete in high school, playing football, wrestling, and baseball, keeping him busy all year round.
In addition to sports, Rozema had military aspirations early in life.
- “During my sophomore year in high school, I applied to West Point, which was a long process,” Rozema said in an interview with the Morning Chalk Up. “I was hopeful I would get accepted there and play football. I’d always wanted to serve in the military, and this seemed like a great combination.”
Rozema wasn’t accepted to West Point, but all hope was not lost.
He soon received a letter stating that, although he had not been accepted, he had been offered a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship to any four-year university he wanted to attend.
Several days later, Rozema got a call from his high school wrestling coach, letting him know that the team at Ohio State wanted him in for an official visit.
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Goal #1 – The Olympics
He ended up as a preferred walk-on for the Buckeyes wrestling program. The wide-eyed 17-year-old was in awe that fall when he arrived on campus.
- “It was definitely a culture shock,” he remembered. “I had never thought about going to school out of state, but it seemed like too good of an opportunity to say no.”
The Ohio State University is a perennial powerhouse and a feeder program for the USA Olympic Wrestling Team. And Rozema was surrounded by older, bigger, and more talented men. It was “an insanely competitive [wrestling] room,” Rozema told us.
- “I absolutely did not belong in the room, physical-wise,” Rozema remembered. “I also got injured my freshman year in a freak incident — I was kneed in the face, broke my nose, and ended up with a titanium plate in the right side of my face with three screws because my skull was basically dented from this guy’s knee.”
Rozema tried returning after his injury, competing against 35 to 40 guys on the team for only 10 starting spots. All while simultaneously participating in the ROTC program.
- Rozema: “It was rare; I think I was the only Division I athlete doing both ROTC and a sport. I definitely had extra commitments and had to learn to balance everything — I didn’t have a choice in my mind.”
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Rozema dug deep, steeling his resolve. And it was during these early college years that his Christian faith continued to grow.
- “[Being a college student at a Big Ten University was] a challenging environment for that,” he said. “Being somewhere where being a Christian was not very popular. My faith grew a lot on the team because we had a strong culture of people who were believers in Jesus that hung together and built each other up.”
Goal #2 – Law School
His hard work and faith got him through college. He knew that he had been given gifts and wanted to use them to the best of his ability to glorify God.
Near graduation, Rozema decided his next step after the ROTC program. He considered going the infantry route or getting a professional degree, but he ultimately decided on law school, electing for an educational delay on his commission. He was accepted into The Ohio State Law School.
- Rozema explained another factor in the decision: “My wife and I were engaged at the time, and we wanted to stay in the area.”
As he transitioned to law school, he also transitioned from wrestling to CrossFit.
He jumped in the deep end.
- “17.1 I was my first CrossFit workout ever,” Rozema shared, “I had seen it on ESPN that year, and I wanted to try it and see what it was about.”
For those uninitiated, CrossFit Open 17.1 had an ascending rep of single-arm dumbbell snatches (10-20-30-40-50) with 15 burpee box jump-overs after each set.
- Athletes who tackled the workout at the time described it as “complete cardiovascular and respiratory distress.”
Rozema logged a solid score in 17.1, which caught the attention of people at the gym.
His excellent strength and conditioning base was a perfect foundation, and the successful result piqued his interest in exploring it further.
Once he caught his breath in law school, Rozema started CrossFit more consistently.
He earned his CrossFit L-1 certificate, began to coach classes, and became good friends with the owner of the local affiliate.
Goal #3 – The CrossFit Games
Rozema graduated in 2020, studied for and passed the bar exam, and began active duty in January 2021.
His first assignment was in Fort Riley, KS, where he continued training CrossFit, now logging scores in the North America West region.
He qualified for Semifinals in 2021 for the first time and placed 15th at the Granite Games
- “Once I got to Kansas, I was able to start training more consistently,” he says. “I had done some other qualifiers, and I knew I was getting better. After the Granite Games, I qualified for the 2022 Semifinals and went to the Atlas Games.”
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He finished 15th again and knew that he had to commit if he wanted to level up.
- “I still had some weaknesses that were haunting me,” Rozema reflected. “After that season, I realized I had to commit to this to get better or just stop doing the sport because I would not be okay with competing and finishing where I had been on the leaderboard.”
It was a tough balancing act—putting 100% effort into his CrossFit training, maintaining his full-time job in the Army, and being the man, partner, and servant he wanted to be.
- “It’s just been a slow but steady trajectory upward,” he said.
After three years of finishing in the upper-middle of the pack at Semifinals, Rozema finally broke through this year, taking sixth at the 2024 Syndicate Crown, the North America East Semifinal.
He started following Mayhem Athlete programming back in 2022 after the Atlas Games. Before that, he said he “would just pick and choose” what he worked on in a given training session.
Rozema thinks the recipe for his success this season was simple; it just took some time.
- “It’s a combination of those things,” he told us, “me finding more consistency over time, training multiple times a week at the right times of day, sleeping and eating right. Plus, following Mayhem consistently and committing and trusting in the programming.”
Rozema’s consistency was on display at the Semifinals this year. He had only two finishes outside the top 12, and his worst was 16th place in Event 2.
- He laughed when he explained what happened: “Those double unders! My shoelace came untied!”
The Bottom Line
Rozema is excited to share his first CrossFit Games experience with his cheering squad.
His parents are coming down from Michigan to join his wife, and he is allowing himself to truly experience the joy of finally breaking through and qualifying for his first CrossFit Games.
- “I think that’s how you stay in a sport for the long run–you have to find enjoyment and satisfaction in it, and you enjoy the training even when it is painful and long,” he said.
The third time has been the charm for Rozema, and as he shared, “it’s cool to see the hard work pay off.”
- “I have the privilege to be out there with the best guys in the sport that dedicate their lives to it and see what happens. I don’t take it lightly; it’s awesome to be a part of that.”
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Featured image: @jackrozema7 / Instagram