Highland Park High School sophomore Ashley Gimbel took up CrossFit training the summer before her freshman year and quickly became a devoted enthusiast. The 16-year-old recently competed in her first CrossFit Open.
Q: How do you describe CrossFit training to your friends?
A: CrossFit is a combination of Olympic-style weight lifting, cardio exercise and gymnastics skills. No workout is ever the same, except for a benchmark workshop, which you repeat every month to see how much better you are getting.
Q: You also play volleyball, basketball and softball at Highland Park High School. So what about CrossFit do you find so compelling?
A: It is nothing like a team sport. It is only you. There are no politics. The harder you work, the better you get. You control your own progress. I love the community in CrossFit too. Everyone is cheering you on at the end of your workout.
Q: I understand you work out at 6 a.m. before school, and rode your bike to The Box at 5:30 a.m. when you were too young to drive. Did you ever think of giving it up?
A: The gym is only about a mile from home, but I had my school backpack, my volleyball bag, my CrossFit bag, my clothes for school. There was a lot of stuff to carry. I was really happy to have a mid-November birthday so I could get my driver’s license before there was snow on the ground.
Q: Were you surprised by your success in the CrossFit Open your first time out?
A: I was completely blown away. I placed 4th in the U.S. in the scaled division for 16 and 17-year-old girls.
Q: In the CrossFit Games, people are competing for the title, The Fittest Man or Woman on Earth. Is that a bit of an overstatement?
A: The first CrossFit Games were in 2007 and for the first few years, the winners were very fit people, but not the ‘fittest people on earth’. But now, the winners are absolute beasts. Their numbers for lifting are Olympic-level numbers. They have swimming and running in their workouts. There is no doubt in my mind they are the fittest people on earth.
Q: What’s your favorite subject in school?
A: Probably Spanish. I like how you have the ability to communicate with other people whom you wouldn’t be able to communicate with otherwise.
Q: What’s your guilty pleasure?
A: I eat a lot of food, multiple meals a day. My favorite food is pasta with salmon.
— Karen Berkowitz
Shout Out is a weekly feature where we get to know and introduce our readers to their fellow community members and local visitors throughout suburban Chicago. Check out more online at ChicagoTribune.com/ShoutOut.
