Sevan Matossian (00:00):
But hey, you have kids. You’re used to, you probably have, all parents are good talkers. Bam. We’re live. Good morning everyone. Am I saying your name right? Andrea?
Andrea Wilson (00:12):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (00:12):
Andrea Wilson. Okay. I know some people go by Andrea, but Andrea,
Andrea Wilson (00:16):
Yep. It’s Andrea.
Sevan Matossian (00:17):
Andrea Wilson. Hey, thanks for coming on. Congratulations for making it to the CrossFit Games. You must be getting pumped. You look like you’re ready to go right now.
Andrea Wilson (00:26):
I’m excited. I’m excited to go to a new location, new venue, kind of have the stacking of CrossFits this year, so it’s, it’s exciting.
Sevan Matossian (00:37):
Hey, where are you? Where’s home for you?
Andrea Wilson (00:40):
Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Sevan Matossian (00:41):
Okay. Is that a good place?
Andrea Wilson (00:44):
It is Midwestern. I love it.
Sevan Matossian (00:46):
Yeah, I’ve been to the Dakotas a few times and every time I’ve absolutely loved it. Great states, both of ’em, north and south.
Andrea Wilson (00:53):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (00:54):
Are you guys friends? Do North South Dakota friends or do they have a friendly rivalry, or how are the states?
Andrea Wilson (01:00):
I think the rivalry is probably more like East and West River
Sevan Matossian (01:05):
Than the state, the two states
Andrea Wilson (01:06):
Than the states. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (01:08):
Hey, I know you’re on here because of your remarkable accomplishments as an athlete, but I want to tell you when I dig through as a father, when I dig through your Instagram, what I’m most impressed by is your parenting and the fact that you’re working out and hanging out so much with your kids. How old are your kids?
Andrea Wilson (01:28):
11 and six.
Sevan Matossian (01:30):
How do you think you do that? What do you think it is that makes ’em that they want to hang out with mom and do hard stuff?
Andrea Wilson (01:39):
I think it’s just having ’em a part of my daily life and not trying to separate what I do versus my time and their time. I mean, there very much is when I’m doing a workout, my 6-year-old knows he’s not allowed in the gym, but as they’ve gotten older, seeing it and being a part of it. And my oldest one came to the games with me last year, and he absolutely loved watching that, and I think that’s given him motivation. But yeah, I think it’s more just I try and make every activity that I do. I’m a single mom, so they’re with me a lot of the time, so just making them a part of my day-to-day life and not making it my own time.
Sevan Matossian (02:27):
Hey, Andrea, when does the 6-year-old get to be? Because I have some pretty strict rules about when I work out also,
Andrea Wilson (02:35):
And
Sevan Matossian (02:36):
I’m trying to remember when it changed, but there was a point when they just weren’t allowed in there.
Andrea Wilson (02:42):
If
Sevan Matossian (02:42):
I was working out and like you said, your six year old’s not allowed in there, but now I have a 9-year-old and two seven year olds, and they can be in there when I’m working out. But there is still a really strict rule. Do not talk to me unless there’s a fire. Do not. I don’t care if you’re hungry, I just need some time. I don’t care if you’re hungry. The house better be on fire. There better be a stranger in the house. Do you remember when that changed for your 11-year-old and why it changed? Oh, you froze.
Andrea Wilson (03:15):
He has always been a rule follower, and I can pretty much trust what I tell him that he will follow through with my 6-year-old, not at all the same. He is a little terror, so I imagine that I’ll have to be more strict with him, but my role with him right now is kind of like when there’s a class, absolutely not class time, respect to gym, respect the coach, you’re not allowed back here. And then when it’s open gym time or just me in the gym after that, then I try and incorporate them a little bit more into the time and the space.
Sevan Matossian (03:50):
Okay, so for you it’s because there’s other people there? For me, it was kind of like safety. I was always, I was just concerned I was going to drop something on him or set something down on him, or he was going to come running by and hit their shin on a barbell or something like that. Do you train, so you train exclusively at an affiliate?
Andrea Wilson (04:09):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (04:10):
And what’s the name of that affiliate?
Andrea Wilson (04:11):
CrossFit Viable.
Sevan Matossian (04:13):
CrossFit viable?
Andrea Wilson (04:15):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (04:15):
Are you the owner?
Andrea Wilson (04:16):
No.
Sevan Matossian (04:19):
But are you a coach there?
Andrea Wilson (04:21):
No, I would be a terrible coach.
Sevan Matossian (04:23):
Seriously.
Andrea Wilson (04:26):
I would be very strict and I think I would find it very frustrating with my expectations.
Sevan Matossian (04:33):
Oh, interesting. Interesting. Okay. Well, hey, maybe there’s a special class for that. Andrea, come get slapped around by Andrea. No bullshit with Andrea.
Andrea Wilson (04:44):
That’s right.
Sevan Matossian (04:47):
And so you take the classes there? With the classes?
Andrea Wilson (04:50):
I do. Not anymore. When I first started off, I did just one-on-one with the owner. I was real nervous and had no idea what I was doing, and then he really wanted me to get into doing the classes. So after a little bit of time I started doing classes. And then probably for the last two years or so, I’m there during the class, but I’m not following the class programming. I’m there during the class and open gym afterward, and I’m doing different programming.
Sevan Matossian (05:23):
Hey, what division are you competing in? San Antonio.
Andrea Wilson (05:27):
Seated. One
Sevan Matossian (05:28):
Seated. Explain that to me. The different seated.
Andrea Wilson (05:31):
Yeah. So they have three seated categories this year. They’ve typically had two seated, one and two. And the difference with that is they define it as hip function in a more general sense, but I think they’ve started adding further testing where it’s not exclusively hip function, it’s more a full body comparison, but for greater people that don’t know the exact differences, hip function is a good way of defining it. A lot of the seated two athletes can stand up and talk to you or can lean forward and support themselves with their feet where the I will just,
Sevan Matossian (06:12):
And that’s seat one. Seat one has no hip function?
Andrea Wilson (06:14):
Correct.
Sevan Matossian (06:15):
Okay. And then what’s three is like? You have
Andrea Wilson (06:21):
Three is I think our quad division. So having impairment in your upper extremities as well.
Sevan Matossian (06:27):
Oh, okay. So the first two are in relationship to hip function. And the third is you got some pieces missing up top,
Andrea Wilson (06:36):
Not pieces missing, but impairment as far like higher up spinal cord injuries
Sevan Matossian (06:41):
Where you
Andrea Wilson (06:42):
Have grip
Sevan Matossian (06:44):
Functional
Andrea Wilson (06:45):
Control.
Sevan Matossian (06:46):
On one hand I could see where people like the divisions because it keeps you with your people, but I could also see where a really competitive person wouldn’t like it. They just want to beat everyone’s ass.
Andrea Wilson (06:58):
So the unfortunate thing I’ve found there are very few seated women competing. And so over the years I’ve actually, a lot of palooza groups us together, and that’s been one of my favorite competitions because there is a seated two athlete that I can chase after. I’ve often got into it being like, well, I’m not going to be able to catch her, but it’s something to chase. So I understand from both ends because a lot of times the difference in function ends up helping in things such as transitions. She can get in and out of her chair faster where I have to physically pick up my legs and move. And so things like that, it’s just can be frustrating because it’s like, well, that’s not really a fitness thing. But at the same time, I prefer to have something to compete and chase after than to be separated into so many different groups where we lose our competition.
Sevan Matossian (08:00):
I want to go back to your kids really quick before I completely let that go and lose that. Hey, your kids. How often do your kids work out?
Andrea Wilson (08:10):
It really depends on, in the summer, especially this year, my oldest is every day, multiple times a day. He’s kind of got OCD with it right now, I would say. And then my little one, he is just kind all over the place. He’s doing trampoline and tumbling, so he’s getting that kind gymnastics background in there, but for the most part, he’s just playing.
Sevan Matossian (08:38):
Yeah, I think that’s, I’m watching my seven year olds are finally getting more and more into it. This is your 6-year-old?
Andrea Wilson (08:48):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (08:51):
Hey, and you get yourself in that trampoline?
Andrea Wilson (08:54):
Yes, all the time.
Sevan Matossian (08:56):
Yeah. Crazy. God, you’re a good mom. I fucking hate going in the trampoline.
Andrea Wilson (09:00):
It’s a good arm workout.
Sevan Matossian (09:02):
Yeah, I bet. I bet. I’m always sore the next day after going in the trampoline. You get a lot of mom bounce me. Mom, bounce me double. Bounce me.
Andrea Wilson (09:13):
Mom. Double bounce. Yes.
Sevan Matossian (09:15):
Yeah, it says right here not to do that. I know. Just do it. Hey, all of our injuries are double bounce injuries in our trans.
Andrea Wilson (09:24):
That’s so true.
Sevan Matossian (09:25):
All the injuries are double bounce injuries. Now. My wife’s got this rule, only one kid at a time. I can’t even believe we’re actually pulling it off.
Andrea Wilson (09:32):
Wow.
Sevan Matossian (09:33):
I know. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. I want to go back to how you found CrossFit. What was the entrance into the gym? You said you started with just one-on-one classes. How did that happen?
Andrea Wilson (09:47):
Yeah, so I had been not doing much for several years after my initial injury I had when I was 17, and then I entered college and spent a good decade focus on academia and career. And I was still swimming, hand cycling, recreational stuff, but not really working out. And then I had seen a challenge put up by someone to do a Tough Mudder, and I was like, you know what? That sounds kind of cool. She’s doing it in a chair. That’s something I’d like to train for. And she recommended reaching out to a CrossFit gym. And it just so happened that my dad works with the CrossFit gym that I go to the owner vet. One of his good friends is my dad’s boss. So he brought me in and that’s kind of how I started the one-on-one training. And it was for that tough mutter. And as I got into it, I was like, I don’t want to do this tough mutter where I still have to rely on people getting me through this race. I don’t relying on people for anything. So once I started getting a little bit athleticism back, it was kind of exciting to just be like, what can I do by on my own? And I dropped the tough mutter and just kind of kept doing my own thing.
Sevan Matossian (11:12):
So you did go to that CrossFit gym to train for the tough mutter?
Andrea Wilson (11:15):
Yeah, initially.
Sevan Matossian (11:16):
And how long did you do that?
Andrea Wilson (11:20):
I was doing the one-on-one probably for two months before I started taking the CrossFit classes. But it was very quick that the mindset changed for me of like, I just want to do this.
Sevan Matossian (11:33):
You just want to do CrossFit?
Andrea Wilson (11:35):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (11:37):
When you do tough mud in a wheelchair, so you’re going over terrain, like unpaved paths and all that in a wheelchair.
Andrea Wilson (11:43):
So I’ve never done it, but the girl that I was following, her name’s Jessie, that does do it. She relies on a team of people to help her get through it.
Sevan Matossian (11:53):
Okay. Sorry. So I missed that. So you trained for it but never did it. Correct. You just ended up just falling right into the CrossFit trap.
Andrea Wilson (12:00):
Yep, exactly.
Sevan Matossian (12:01):
Hey, how was that going into the gym the first time? Did they know what they were doing?
Andrea Wilson (12:06):
Absolutely not. Cool. Neither one of us did, but I think that was part of the benefit. He was really up for taking me on and working and figuring things out with me. We did a lot of weird shit at first, but I think through that we were able to figure out what works for my body, what works for my impairment, and I really appreciated the dedication to, he had never worked with an adaptive athlete before and really was up for the challenge.
Sevan Matossian (12:44):
Hey, so isn’t that interesting? So there was some, if the two bars are competence versus experience, there was something about this person’s competence that made you realize that you trusted them to use you as a Guinea pig to figure out, right? I mean, there must’ve been something you got off this dude or this gal that made you be like, okay. I mean, man, it’s your body at the end of the day. You don’t want to get jacked
Andrea Wilson (13:16):
Up. Yeah, absolutely. It was a gradual development of trust. That being said, I think I’m also one that’s kind of like, my body’s fucked up anyways. Let’s give it a try. Yeah, okay. I’m not really afraid to throw myself around, but yeah, it was a development over time of let’s figure out. Initially I didn’t have, my chair now had the back wheel for all of my lifting initially. I didn’t have a sports chair, and so I did all of my lifting and just backed up against a wall, which I couldn’t imagine trying to do now. But it was things over time that just we figured out and how to make it work. And what’s the best way of adapting.
Sevan Matossian (13:59):
A back wheel is kind of like a wheelie bar like you would see on those motorcycles or drag cars
Andrea Wilson (14:05):
Instead of, so in standard hospital wheelchairs, they have those wheely bars where there’ll be two of ’em and they’re really tiny and they basically just stop you from tipping over this one. It’s a bigger wheel and it comes out further and it provides that full stability.
Sevan Matossian (14:25):
Hey, is that when you just cruise around, does that wheel roll on the ground or do you have to engage it by leaning back?
Andrea Wilson (14:32):
So it is very slightly off the ground because otherwise the five wheels on uneven ground, you end up catching funny. If they’re all flush, you don’t roll well. But it is very as close to being flush as it can, but it’s removable. So when I’m not lifting, I take it off or for certain movements that I don’t want it on,
Sevan Matossian (14:58):
It’s a quick release.
Andrea Wilson (15:00):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (15:01):
Hey, is that an invention for around before you needed it or is that an invention for you, or is that an invention for people in your situation?
Andrea Wilson (15:09):
So this is a performance chair, and it is specifically designed for CrossFit. A girl, Vanessa, I think her name, helped the company initially design it, but it was already in existence before I came around.
Sevan Matossian (15:26):
Holy cow. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that. That’s a CrossFit specific chair.
Andrea Wilson (15:31):
Yeah. Yep. And performance, the majority of seated athletes use this performance chair.
Sevan Matossian (15:37):
How much is that chair?
Andrea Wilson (15:40):
I don’t remember, but it was paid out of pocket. It’s not an insurance coverage chair.
Sevan Matossian (15:44):
It’s expensive.
Andrea Wilson (15:46):
It’s expensive. Yes.
Sevan Matossian (15:47):
Yeah, you want, forget how expensive it was.
Andrea Wilson (15:50):
Exactly.
Sevan Matossian (15:51):
Yeah, it looks expensive. Yeah, someone wrote big bucks. Yeah, it looks expensive.
Andrea Wilson (15:57):
That being said, I want to give a shout out to that company.
Sevan Matossian (16:07):
Oh, we lost her. I lost her. Andrea testing like this does something. Testing one, two. Andrea, you froze. Andrea Wilson’s competing September 19th through the 22nd in San Antonio. If you have not been to her Instagram, you should go. She has a shit shitload of followers, and it is a crazy, crazy Instagram account. It is wild. She is an absolute freak athlete. You’ll be Holy cow. Wow. Okay. So it’s a wow. It’s a $4,500 chair by the time you get out.
Andrea Wilson (17:01):
Yeah, minimum.
Sevan Matossian (17:02):
Wow. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And it’s not like you’re going to buy the $4,000 version and not click all the extra buttons, right? Yeah, exactly. Okay, so it’s a $5,000 chair. Yeah, that’s right. Damn good on these people for doing that. Good on them. It’s a perform x, X fit. Yeah. Oh shit. It might be more than, oh shit, it might be more than 5,000. Wow. Oh yeah. Careless tie. Look. Wow, this is awesome. All the upgrades you can do it. Air mesh, upholstery, seatbelt. Well, that all-terrain tires, premo sentinel, trot tires, high pressure tires. I wonder if you just get all that shit you got to, right? Yeah. You can use it every day. Yeah, totally. It’s basically your legs right at that point.
Andrea Wilson (18:06):
Right.
Sevan Matossian (18:07):
You might as well get all the good shit. That’s
Andrea Wilson (18:11):
Insane.
Sevan Matossian (18:14):
Let’s see if she’s going to come back on. I hope she does. That interview seemed kind of short, didn’t it? There? She’s a little bit, yay.
Andrea Wilson (18:27):
Am I back?
Sevan Matossian (18:28):
Yeah, you’re back. That’s South Dakota internet.
Andrea Wilson (18:35):
Oh shit.
Sevan Matossian (18:37):
That was South Dakota internet.
Andrea Wilson (18:42):
Let’s see. I can’t hear you though.
Sevan Matossian (18:45):
Maybe there’s a button you have to push on settings. Oh, I’ll text you settings. Check the gear, the bottom down menu. South Dakota
Andrea Wilson (19:08):
Must not have very good internet.
Sevan Matossian (19:12):
I liked. Liked her new location better. Now we could see her. She was in the dark and her audio seemed better too. I wonder if she switched. Dude, I’m holy arms dude. You wait till you see, we get into her fucking Instagram. I’m telling you, she’s a freak dude. Pegboards rock climbing. Like the guy yesterday, rope climbing. Her core is nuts. Her nuts. And she’s a strength to body weight ratio. Absolute monster. There’s videos of her doing, did you see I finally sent you the notes. Yeah, I got ’em. Okay. There’s a video on her Instagram where she’s doing a muscle up in a wheelchair. It’s kind of crazy. How’s that?
Andrea Wilson (19:56):
That’s good.
Sevan Matossian (19:57):
Yeah, girl. Hey, so we were looking at the chair while you were gone. So that chair’s crazy and what a great company. They got all the options for you. That’s over $5,000. That’s like $6,000 by the time you sit in it the first time.
Andrea Wilson (20:12):
Oh yeah. It’s over that. Once you add on the special features and the wheels that, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:19):
Hey, this is going to be a weird question, but do you love your chair? When you wake up in the morning, do you see it and you’re like, fuck, that’s my chair. I fucking love you.
Andrea Wilson (20:26):
You know what? I absolutely love this chair for working out, and I hate it for day to day.
Sevan Matossian (20:32):
And how come? Because that back wheel bump shit or
Andrea Wilson (20:34):
No, I take it off, but it’s like a different pair of shoes. I sit differently in it. The amount of how far back it’s called the dump from the angle, from your knees to your butt, how far you actually sit into the chair. And the back rest is a little bit higher than in my everyday chair. I love it for working out. My everyday chair is actually broken right now, and I’m using this one and I hate it.
Sevan Matossian (21:01):
How did your everyday chair break?
Andrea Wilson (21:03):
I don’t know. I think maybe when my kid threw it in the back of the car one day.
Sevan Matossian (21:09):
And what’s broken on it?
Andrea Wilson (21:11):
The actual welding of the back broke on it.
Sevan Matossian (21:16):
So you’re going somewhere and you get out and you go to get your chair and it’s just all fucked up.
Andrea Wilson (21:21):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (21:22):
What do you do? You got to go back home or you got crutches or
Andrea Wilson (21:26):
Crutches wouldn’t help me any. I just don’t lean as hard back on it. I can function without the back rests there, so I am making due until I can get it to a welder. That’ll be a quicker fix than insurance.
Sevan Matossian (21:43):
Or what about getting a new chair?
Andrea Wilson (21:45):
I am going to get a new chair, but that takes months. Whereas I’ve got a welder here in town that can give me a quick fix. In the meanwhile,
Sevan Matossian (21:52):
A Dakota talk, a welder. There’s a welder within a thousand miles of me. Hey, do you know a welder?
Andrea Wilson (22:01):
I know a place that does welding that I can take it to. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (22:05):
That’s crazy. Chris said, I know a guy crazy.
Andrea Wilson (22:08):
That’s right,
Sevan Matossian (22:09):
Man. Wow. It’s different in California. Hey, how much does a regular chair cost? Just like your day used chair.
Andrea Wilson (22:21):
Depends on insurance. At least with insurance coverage, I can get a new one of those every five years. Unfortunately. I’ve got two different sets of insurance. So my day-to-day one is usually covered.
Sevan Matossian (22:35):
But do you have any idea how much those are? Are they expensive? Standard?
Andrea Wilson (22:38):
There’s a huge range based on the material that’s used to make the chair the different options that you go into it. The different companies. There’s a couple of large companies that insurances work with that those chairs are $2,000, where most smaller companies, you’re going to get closer to the six or seven.
Sevan Matossian (23:01):
Okay. So it’s a full crazy range too. You could spend a fortune on that too.
Andrea Wilson (23:05):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (23:06):
Hey, Andrea, why won’t crutches work for you? Because you don’t have control of your hip. So it’s like being on a slack line.
Andrea Wilson (23:13):
Yeah, I have nothing below my hip bones, so yeah, it wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Sevan Matossian (23:21):
And you had your kids after your accident?
Andrea Wilson (23:23):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (23:24):
How was that? Being pregnant,
Andrea Wilson (23:26):
I loved being pregnant. I felt really healthy with both my pregnancies toward the very end. Transfers get hard. My center of gravity is thrown off so much, but for the most part, I think position are sometimes thrown off a little afraid of how my body will handle it. But both of my pregnancies were really easy for me.
Sevan Matossian (23:49):
Yeah, that’s amazing. And you still have your legs.
Andrea Wilson (23:54):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (23:55):
But no use of them?
Andrea Wilson (23:56):
Correct.
Sevan Matossian (23:59):
Yesterday there was a guy on who removed part of his leg because he had no use of it. I’m guessing that you’ve thought of that.
Andrea Wilson (24:08):
I have actually. And the biggest thing that they typically don’t with spinal cord injuries is because even if we don’t have use of ’em, it provides a counterbalance for transferring or for leaning forward on things. It still provides some maintenance of center of gravity, aside from it being a major surgery and the complications that can go with that.
Sevan Matossian (24:31):
Yeah. I apologize for this superficial comment. She’s gorgeous. That’s disgusting. Don’t treat her like that. I really am sorry about that. Well, no more of that stuff. Nonsense.
Andrea Wilson (24:40):
That’s right.
Sevan Matossian (24:41):
She’s a person. No one likes to be called Gorgeous. And so you go to the class for two months and then you get into the main class. And how was that? Was that scary at all?
Andrea Wilson (24:56):
For me, initially, just because I like to keep to myself. I am very introverted and the idea of being in a class setting and then also being in a class setting as the only adaptive athlete, how to incorporate that. And at the time, still not really even knowing what an adaptive athlete in CrossFit meant. But it was a good class setting. It was a small gym at the time, and it was a great community and they really took me on well,
Sevan Matossian (25:25):
And that was also in Sioux Falls?
Andrea Wilson (25:29):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:30):
And are you still at that same gym?
Andrea Wilson (25:32):
Same gym? It’s a larger facility. The gym’s grown a lot over the years, but yes, it’s the same gym.
Sevan Matossian (25:38):
Oh, I love to hear that. And any other adaptive athletes in the gym?
Andrea Wilson (25:41):
No,
Sevan Matossian (25:43):
That’s interesting. How long have you been there?
Andrea Wilson (25:47):
Five years.
Sevan Matossian (25:49):
Oh, that’s interesting that the word hasn’t gotten out. I’m surprised the word hasn’t gotten out and other people haven’t come there.
Andrea Wilson (25:57):
I think it’s also just more of the, like I said, finding adaptive athletes. We’re not that large of a metropolitan area, like finding the athletes and then whether or not they actually want to do CrossFit. Yeah, there’s a guy, I’ve been on his case here in town that would be a lower athlete that I’ve been trying for years and haven’t gotten them in yet. But
Sevan Matossian (26:22):
I’m guessing once a year the local TV station or a newspaper article or someone comes out and does a piece on you that gets out?
Andrea Wilson (26:30):
I have not
Sevan Matossian (26:31):
Seriously, I’m okay with that. Yeah, I know. I could already tell. You’re like, nah, no attention
Andrea Wilson (26:37):
To it. No, I’m good.
Sevan Matossian (26:39):
Keep it off of me. Hey, how is that with Instagram, you have a pretty amazing Instagram account. You have a shitload of followers. Are you comfortable with that?
Andrea Wilson (26:49):
I have become comfortable with it. I think the thing that makes me most comfortable with it is the idea that I can do whatever I want and I can put it out there and then I don’t have to do it. I don’t have to speak about it to anyone. I don’t have to explain myself. A lot of my videos, there’s large comment threads that I don’t have to read. I don’t have to. I can put myself out there without having to really explain myself to anyone.
Sevan Matossian (27:19):
And I live in a small town too, and it’s probably like that too. Outside of the gym. No one knows who you are. You just go about your business. It’s only when you go on Instagram that it’s like, holy shit, there’s the girl in a wheelchair that does the crazy shit.
Andrea Wilson (27:33):
Right.
Sevan Matossian (27:34):
Yeah. That’s cool. So as soon as you put your phone down, you have all your anonymity back
Andrea Wilson (27:39):
For the most part. Yes.
Sevan Matossian (27:41):
Yeah, that’s cool. So you do the class and when’s the first competition you do?
Andrea Wilson (27:48):
First competition I did was the bacon beat down in Daytona Beach, which would’ve been in 21 maybe.
Sevan Matossian (28:01):
And so at that point, you’ve been doing CrossFit for how long?
Andrea Wilson (28:07):
I started in the end of 2018.
Sevan Matossian (28:11):
Okay, so three years.
Andrea Wilson (28:12):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (28:14):
And why did you do that? What made you want to get into the competitive space?
Andrea Wilson (28:21):
Well, I had done the open, I think the first year or two I did the open. I didn’t know that Wheel WA existed and we just adapted the open as we thought it should be done. And then finding wheel wat and seeing that they had actual open workouts for us at the time was really exciting. And finding, so one thing, I think social, I don’t like social media, but for adaptive athletes, I think social media has been a really great thing because we are so dispersed. It helped me to find and see what other people are doing and bring a dispersed community together. I think finding that out there made me want to go to some competitions and actually meet some of the people that I was seeing online.
Sevan Matossian (29:14):
So more than the competitive thing, you’re like, oh, I learned how to use the rower, adapt the rower with this guy. I learned how to adapt the assault bike with this guy. Oh, this guy gave me the inspiration to do my first pull up with my wheelchair to attached to me. I want to meet these people.
Andrea Wilson (29:27):
Exactly.
Sevan Matossian (29:28):
So it was more of a get together.
Andrea Wilson (29:31):
And I mean, not even just among seated athletes. I had been watching Vic for a long time. Vic was going to be at Vic Comp. I want to go meet Vic and watch him do a rope climb.
Sevan Matossian (29:40):
Right, right. And so it’s more of a get together where you guys work out.
Andrea Wilson (29:48):
What do you mean
Sevan Matossian (29:49):
The competitions?
Andrea Wilson (29:51):
Oh, we like to try and make them a intense competition, but at the end of the day.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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