15 yr previous Saskatoon woman competing towards the worlds greatest at CrossFit Video games

Brynn Delainey, has made the top 30 in the world for her age group (15-16) at the 2022 CrossFit Games. This was good enough to put her in this years semifinal, which is one stage further than her previous year.

“It’s actually like unbelievable, it’s unreal. I can’t comprehend that I’m top 30 in the world currently… I can’t describe it. It’s just surreal. I can’t, I don’t know how to describe this,” Delainey said.

(Delainey getting her muscles engaged to begin workout #3 for the 2022 CrossFit Games)

To get to this point in the competition is a big accomplishment for Delainey because her age group starts out with about 3000 teens. The first round starts with all the participants and it’s called the “Open” because it is available for anyone from anywhere around the world, one just needs to send in a video of themselves doing the three CrossFit workouts required. Once all the submissions from the “Open” are received, the top 10% is taken onto the next round (quarterfinals). So only 300 teens advance from the “Open” round. After the quarterfinals the top 10% is taken once again (top 1% of the whole competition), which leaves 30 girls in the semifinal. From the semifinals, the girls who finish in the top 10 of the standings move on to the finals, which are held in Madison, Wisconsin in August.

All the workouts leading up to the final are completed virtually in the athletes home training facilities. This is something that Delainey feels has helped her remain calm and put fourth her best effort in every workout.

She says, “To be honest, I would be more nervous if I were doing it alone. And I didn’t have my coaches with me the whole time. And I didn’t have like my family members and my teammates here to support me.”

(Delainey in the middle of workout #3 for the CrossFit Games performing a snatch while coach Cain motivates her)

A big motivator in Delainey’s CrossFit career thus far has been her Coach, Jason Cain, who was very experienced and successful competing in CrossFit. Cain is the owner and general manager of CrossFit 306 which is located here in Saskatoon. Delainey is the main reason why Cain decided to create a high performance team program for kids her age. To ensure that if kids want to put in the work, they can compete with the best around the world.

Cain says, “She had the desire to really see what you could do with the sport. And we realized in order to take her to the next level, we’d have to build a whole different program around it.”

To explain the sport of CrossFit in simple terms; it is competitive workouts that help improve your overall fitness. There are many different exercises in CrossFit that work very different muscle groups.

Here is what the six semifinals workouts consisted of for Delainey and the rest of her age group:

Workout #1

• 500 meters row
• 30 bench presses
• 1,000 meter row
• 20 bench presses
• 2,000 meters row
• 10 bench presses

95 pounds

Time cap: 30 minutes

Workout #2

eight rounds for time:

• 1 legless rope climb
• 6 farmers carries
• 15 box jumps

Two 24 kilogram kettlebells, 25 foot farmers carry, 15 foot rope climb, 24 inch box

Time cap: 20 minutes

Workout #3

Complete as many repetitions as possible in 10 minutes of:

• 10 snatches, weight 1
  rest 1 minute
• 10 snatches, weight 2
  rest 1 minute
• 10 snatches, weight 3
  rest 1 minute

Max rep snatches in time remaining, weight 4

75, 95, 105, 125 pounds

Time cap: 10 minutes

Workout #4

• 50 GHD sit ups
• 8 handstand walks
• 50 GHD sit ups
• 8 handstand walks
• Max-rep bar muscle-ups in the time remaining

25-ft handstand walk

Time cap: 12 minutes

Workout #5

Starting every 2 minutes until the reps cannot be completed in the interval:

25 wall ball shots

Add 5 repetitions after each 2-minute interval. Immediately following the end of the final 2-minute interval, begin Workout 6.

14-lb ball to 10-ft target

Workout #6

1-rep-max clean and jerk

Time begins immediately following the final 2-minute interval of Workout 5. Workouts 5 and 6 must be completed sequentially in a single effort.

Time cap: 5 minutes

The 15 year old started the semifinals in the 28th position and was a long shot to make it the the finals at this years CrossFit Games. She did improve though and upped her ranking to finish the games in the 21st position. If you want to check out everything related to the NOBULL CrossFit Games and where Brynn Delainey ranked in all of her workouts check out their website: https://games.crossfit.com/

Reporter: Matthew Merriman