The Warrior Has Returned and Her Name is Akinwale

Elisabeth Akinwale is a walking paradox. She’s got a smile that can light up a room one minute and morph into a focused grimace the next. She’s strong as an ox and flexible as an acrobat. She’s a devoted mom, blogger, and CrossFit competitor, and she excels at all three. She’s come from nowhere on a bullet train into the CrossFit spotlight.

Introduced to CrossFit in December 2010 by her sister Busola, Akinwale not only qualified for the 2011 Games, she placed 13th among the women that year. In 2012 she set a personal goal that some must have found audacious: to be on the podium, maybe even looking down from Fittest Woman Annie Thorisdottir’s top spot. And although she didn’t get quite that high, she did vault herself to an impressive 7th place. And in the process, she gave Games fans a few moments in the Home Depot stadium that continued to inspire thousands of CrossFitters months later. She and Lindsey Valenzuela were the only two women who completed the Clean Ladder event, which maxed at a whopping 235 pounds. In a show-stopping performance, Akinwale added three deadlifts to Valenzuela’s two to take the event, and in the brutal Double Banger, she looked like a superhero straight from the pages of Marvel Comics, swinging a mean sledgehammer to slam another first-place finish. She tied for second in the Ball Toss and placed in the Top 10 for both the Obstacle Course and Isabel workouts (7th and 9th place, respectively). True to her surname, which means “the warrior has returned,” Akinwale is fast becoming a household name in the CrossFit world.

Mind you, she wasn’t exactly a 98-pound weakling before CrossFit: she played sports in college, had been a distance runner, and had experience with weightlifting. But she credits CrossFit (and especially Rudy Nielsen) with helping her refine her form and structure her workouts. Akinwale trains at CrossFit Construct in Chicago. Powered by Nielsen’s training regimen, a strict Paleo diet, and a dedicated observance of rest days, she’s well poised to see how high her star can rise.

“In [the 2011 Games] I literally felt like a deer in the headlights. It was a fairly surreal experience, and frankly, I was just flying by the seat of my pants that season. In some ways that was really fun. I just went out there and did my best in the moment and there was no pressure, no over-thinking. In 2012 I had far greater expectations for myself and I let things get pretty heavy . . . Even the events I won, it wasn’t a joyful experience. What I took away from the 2012 experience is the importance of living in the moment and enjoying the process.”

That being said, Akinwale does have a plan to ensure her star doesn’t burn out before its time. “This is the first off season/season that I’ll have a solid year of training. The off season for me has been a great opportunity to get strong, work on skills, and improve movement efficiency. I’m trying to learn what 100% effort feels like, when to take myself there, and how to pace and approach this sport with the strategy and thoughtfulness it requires. I’ve picked up a couple of training partners this year, a female Games athlete and a male Games hopeful, and I feel working with them will be integral to my improvement. I’ll compete in a few competitions this off season as well.”

Looking forward to the 2013 Games, Akinwale says she’ll address some movement and skill issues and work at pacing herself. “My coach likes to joke that I’m the fastest in the world for 30 seconds—[I] go out too hard and die. My goal is to maintain the qualities about my performance that have served me well (power and explosiveness) but also be the controlled, methodical athlete you see in Rich Froning or Julie Foucher, for example. Mental game is going to be huge in my moving up in the ranks at the CrossFit Games. The last two years at the Games and Regionals have afforded me many [insights] into how I respond mentally to different situations. I believe growth in this area is going to pay off immensely for me this season.”

In spite of her meteoric ascent in the kingdom of CrossFit, and Rudy Nielsen’s dubbing her “the baddest bitch on the planet,” Akinwale doesn’t see herself as anyone special. She regularly makes time to chat with fans and is inevitably described as humble and down to earth by those who meet her. But just in case the spotlight threatens to shake her bearings, the number one man in her life (her 5-year-old son, lovingly referred to as “The Boy”) is nearly always nearby to remind her of what’s really important. It’s not unusual to see him at fundraisers and competitions, and Akinwale says she misses him terribly when he’s not able to accompany her.

What does CrossFit signify to the young child who watches his mom participate? Akinwale’s thought a lot about that question. “On the surface level I think my participation in CrossFit is helping my son develop, because he’s accustomed to being surrounded by physically healthy and strong people,” she suggests. “He is consistently exposed to the way [people in] the CrossFit community support one another . . . and it helps knock down some of the stereotypical views of women for him. It means he has a mother who is a fulfilled and happy person, not a shell who defines herself only as a ‘mother.’ On a deeper level, my participation is helping shape his development because I’m not just preaching but demonstrating the values I want him to internalize. I’m following my dreams, living passionately, working hard toward goals—he sees this on a daily basis, and I want to know it’s completely normal and preferable to set goals and work for them, even if you go off the beaten path.”

Akinwale’s doing double duty to break down the stereotypes. The “brains versus brawn” myth is shattered by her eloquence (and the fact that she attended graduate school at a top U.S. university—on a full fellowship, no less). Judging by the comments on her blog (www.elisabethakinwale.com), fans are as impressed with her writing as they are with her physical feats. The blog is a place where toddler-toting mommies can feel as comfortable as the “surly and burly” crowd. (Name another blog that links to both Rudy Nielsen’s “Outlaw Way” and the “Ask Dr. Sears” parenting column and includes quotes from Charlotte’s Web alongside wisdom from ancient Latin brainiac Publilius Syrus!) “I don’t have a good sense of exactly who my audience is,” Akinwale says, “but I’ve had a good response to the blog and it’s a really fun way to interact with people.” Among the inspiring quotes that grace some of the posts, one in particular from Eleanor Roosevelt cuts to the heart of what makes Akinwale tick: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

And the dreams have been a long time coming. Shortly before she found CrossFit, Akinwale recalls that her evening routine consisted of “putting my son to bed before curling up with some ice cream (preferably strawberry cheesecake flavour) and watching a couple episodes of Golden Girls. I’m not kidding. I am a life-long athlete, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my own hills and valleys. One night I sat and wrote a list of five goals, one of which was to compete in something. I had no idea what that ‘something’ would be, but I knew I’d be a better person if I could develop the courage to stand up and give my best in a competitive environment.”

So Eleanor Roosevelt was on to something. When you believe in the beauty of a dream that was once just a vision in your head, you start to work at it, and pretty soon other people begin to see the beauty, too. It’s safe to say that by Roosevelt’s or any else’s definition, the future looks bright for Akinwale.