Matt Simonton “A tough pill to swallow.”
Matt Simonton “A tough pill to swallow.”
March 16th, 2012
They say the sign of a true athlete is how you pick yourself up from defeat to face another day on the field. Well, if how former NFL kicker, Matt Simonton is handling this latest Open WOD video controversy is any indication, he epitomizes a true athlete.
“I went from challenging myself to stay on top to now having to come back and beat this adversity.”
The adversity Simonton is talking about is going from the 1st ranked man in the North East and 13th man in the world, to out of the top 60 and quite possibly not qualifying for the CrossFit Games Regionals.
“Listen, this was a tough pill to swallow. But, I respect the CrossFit administration and the community.”
After it was determined that his push presses were not meeting movement standards, Head Quarters decided to eliminate all of his reps for the push press, effectively taking the top man in the North East out of the running for Regionals with two workouts left in the Open. “I had hoped they would take out a one round or two round deduction because of the energy expenditure.”
“I don’t want to cause major waves, but it bothers me. Did I conserve energy by my push presses being out of the vertical plane? No. My elbows were locked out each and every rep. My triceps were fried the next day after the push press because of locking my elbows out.”
Simonton says the Open is about finding the top athletes with the engine, stamina and power to make it to Regionals. “I was clearly the top athlete. I don’t have the time to go to an affiliate with my family and my job. I had my father-in-law time me and count my reps because he was the only one who was available in between bottle feedings.” (Simonton has a new born son.)
This former football player says he has never and would never try and cheat the system. To prove this point, he says will continue to submit videos for the next two WODs and believes if anyone can make it back into the top 60, it’s him.
However, he is going to do one thing different for the remaining two Open WODs. Simonton is going to show his Open video to a friend who owns a Box on Long Island before submitting to the Games site to ensure standards are met. “I am confident in the next WOD. I just did muscle-ups on Tuesday and I feel good! My strongest workout is Fran because I love thrusters. The engine to do thrusters translates to my wall balls and I am excited about double unders.”
Simonton is thankful to the entire CrossFit community for their support, comments and tweets. He says don’t count this CrossFitter out. “I was the legit number one athlete in the NorthEast and I’m going to bust my butt to make it back. It would be great to make it and prove that I deserve to be at Regionals.”
They say adversity is a great teacher and causes some men to break and others to break records. What a story this will be if Matt Simonton goes from man on top to climbing his way from the bottom to make it to Regionals.
Stay tuned!
(http://trainwithheidi.com/blog)
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