Last year, we wrote an article on the Romanian teen, Barni Bojte, who aspires to one day compete at the Reebok CrossFit Games. Unlike most CrossFit® athletes who compete, Bojte doesn’t have a home box he attends, an affiliate he can call on, or even a full gym with equipment he needs to train with.
Bojte lives nearly 100 miles from the closest affiliate and has pretty much self taught himself most of the movements in his career. In addition, the movements he’s taught himself were also often performed with homemade equipment, such as his iron bar and iron plates.
None of these challenges have stopped or even deterred this teenage athlete from chasing his dreams. Which is why it’s great to see him back to chasing his Reebok CrossFit Games dream with his most recent YouTube video.
He completed 17.1 four times with his best recorded score coming in at 12:16. This isn’t the best score in the books, so Bojte definitely has his work cut out for him. But maybe we can still see Bojte turn it around and make his regional competition.
The CrossFit Games website did a great in-depth interview with him last year. Bojte’s idol and main influencer is CrossFit Games athlete Lacee Kovacs. Last year, Bojte’s father wrote to Kovacs explaining how he was Bojte’s idol and inspiration. After receiving his letter, Kovacs invited Bojte to come out and train with him for four days.
During his training with Kovacs, they worked on his snatch and fine tuned positioning that Bojte struggled with teaching himself. Not a bad deal for a self-taught athlete getting to train with his idol.
Will Bojte make it to his regional competition this year? Only time will tell, but we certainly hope he does. For everyone who needs an extra push for the next Open workout, just think about Bojte crushing Open workouts in his shed with homemade equipment.
It’s athletes like Bojte that help push and broaden sports through their drive and inspiration.
Feature image screenshot from Barni Bojte YouTube page.