Back in June, at the end of CrossFit Week, our guest editor and resident CrossFit authority Aiden wrote in his Games preview that his prediction to win is Britain's own Sam Briggs. Well, I bet you wish you'd listened to him now and put some money on her, because at the end of that month, that is precisely what happened.
After finishing 19th at the Games in Sweden in 2010, when she prepared for the first day of competition by eating and drinking 'a bambi burger and a Carlsberg', Samantha had made the CrossFit world sit up and take notice in 2011 when she was a standout performer despite missing out on the podium and finishing 4th. Due to a knee injury she missed the entire 2012 season. Her comeback has been spectacular. She qualified for the Games by winning the European Regional with performances that must have been truly scary to her fellow competitors and earmarked her as one of the favourites for the whole thing. And then at the Games themselves, she didn't disappoint.
Pleasingly, Sam's incredible achievement did not go unnoticed by the British media, and she appeared on BBC Breakfast, which is about as high profile as it gets at that time in the morning. 'I'm just looking at you absolutely amazed!' female presenter Louise Minchin, who has completed triathlons herself, gushed. Whether Louise was amazed by the typically understated way Sam had just explained what the competition involved, or whether she was amazed by the sight of Sam's shoulders and arms you can decide for yourself by watching a recording of the clip here.
Despite having got the kind of winner's cheque that would be unimaginable in female bodybuilding, she is not about to give up her day job as a firefighter in West Yorkshire. And after the BBC interview she celebrated her success by spending three hours getting a new tattoo. You've got to love her!
And Sam is by no means finished now she has reached the top. Her mantra of 'Lift, run, swing, pull, push, jump, row, throw, swim, hit, cycle, recover & repeat!' still applies. 'It'd be stupid for me to think I could go back to the Games and win being the same athlete then that I am now. I think I need to constantly evolve and there's certain areas we need to work on and hopefully I'll go back a stronger athlete next year,' she has said.
You can follow Sam on Twitter, via the CrossFit Games website, or its youtube channel.
For a much longer interview with Sam post-Games, visit BoxRox.
Or, for the brave only perhaps, the Train Manchester website.
Enjoy!
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