Three Windsor athletes advance to semi-finals in CrossFit world championships

They’re part of an adaptive program for athletes who have intellectual or physical disabilities.

“It makes me a lot stronger,” Julia Lane told CTV News. “I just keep on pushing myself to be the greatest champion as you can be.”

Lane is a member at All Level CrossFit in Windsor where she trains with Iesha Ellwood and Adam Fase.

Lane and Ellwood placed second and 14th respectively in the open adaptive intellectual female division with Fase placing 18th in the adaptive intellectual male division.

The top 20 athletes moves on, so now all three are into the semi-finals, hoping for a Top 10 finish to move on to the in-person competition, according to Stephanie Seguin, co-founder of the Chasing Hazel Foundation.

Seguin also launched the adaptive CrossFit program six years ago, when she couldn’t find a gym for her daughter who has Down syndrome.

She found a home for the program inside All Level CrossFit and the rest, as they say, is history.

“She really just enjoys the coaches and the relationships that are being built,” Seguin said of her daughter. “She doesn't come in for the physical activity part of it but she is gaining strength and I think confidence.”

“I feel super strong and confident,” Fase says. “It makes me feel strong and gives me core strength.”

“It makes me feel happy,” Ellwood added. “I like being at the CrossFit workout.”

The three athletes now have four days to read over, practice, videotape and submit four new challenges in order to continue on the competition.

They were training Thursday alongside other CrossFit athletes of all ages and genders.

“They're setting the tone in here that they can compete, that they want to compete and that they are capable of achieving podium finishing spots,” Seguin said. “No matter who we are, we should have access and opportunity to competitive sports.”