Strength in Versatility. Denmark’s Frederik Aegidius “Doesn’t Suck”

“I’m a very well-rounded athlete,” Frederik Aegidius told Crossfit.com in June 2012. “I don’t excel at anything, but I don’t suck at anything either.” That’s putting it rather modestly. The 25-year-old American-style football player from Denmark finished first in the 2012 European CrossFit Regionals, earning a spot in the Games on only his second try.

A student of biotechnology at the Danish Technological University, Aegidius discovered CrossFit in 2008 when his team, the Copenhagen Towers, attended a 10-week pre-season training regimen at CrossFit Butcher’s Lab. He chose to WOD on when the program ended, though it was another two years before he fully committed to the sport.

Like most seduced by CrossFit sirens the likes of Angie, Cindy and Helen, Aegidius loves a personal challenge. “I can push myself as far as I possibly can,” he said in pre-games interview. “I can’t blame anybody if I’m not good enough. I can only yell at myself and go back to the gym and train even harder.”

This was his focus in 2011, when he took time off from football to train daily with his coach, Jami Tikkanen, and his girlfriend, Annie Thorisdottir, two-time CrossFit champion and the Fittest Woman in the World. From time to time, other top CrossFit athletes would drop in as well, including Rich Froning, Spencer Hendel and Austin Malleolo.

“Annie and I have been training together every day from the beginning of October [2011] through February this year [2012],” Aegidius told a Crossfit.com reporter in May. “Training with athletes at that level is hard on the ego,” he continued, “but it gives you something more than what you would normally get out of a workout. Pushing through hard days is easier when you have somebody to share them with.”

Tikkanen had the power couple on a training regimen of reasonable volume combined with significant skill work. Aegidius spent hours holding plank and other core exercises as well as improving his technique and condition. It certainly paid off. He took first place at the 2012 European Regionals after finishing fifth the year before. “[This year] I was confident that if I played my game right, I could get a ticket to Carson,” he said.

Pre Games, he claimed, “I want to make it into the top 20. Within a year, I’m going to make it into the top 10.” While his goal position eluded him, he still finished a respectable twenty-ninth. “I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped for,” he said. “But overall, I can’t be unhappy with being the twenty-ninth fittest man on earth. Of course, I wanted to do more, but that keeps you hungry for next year.”

What makes Aegidius such a determined and formidable athlete? He believes it’s his versatility. “In CrossFit you need to find a balance between all aspects of fitness—cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy,” he said in an interview on the blog Fit as F*CK in 2011.

It’s a balance Aegidius seems to have found—in spades. Though a herniated disk in his lower back forced a withdrawal just five days before the Team USA versus Team Europe CrossFit Invitational at London’s ExCel Exhibit Center, we’re confident the injury won’t keep him out of the game for long. You’re going to see more of this tenacious athlete in 2013—so keep an eye on the top of the leaderboard.