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Kelly Baker Discusses Fertility, Elite CrossFit Training, and the 2024 Season

March 12th, 2024

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • In an exclusive interview, Games veteran Kelly Baker opens up about her fertility struggle and elite CrossFit training

  • It’s clear that Mertens’ 24.1 performance was epic, but just how epic was it?

  • CrossFit community rallies to support longtime coach Danny Lesslie and wife, Raffi

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Our sport makes it so hard to walk away. Especially when you feel like you're still at your best. I always felt like my exit from CrossFit would be because I was injured, was no longer good enough, or was pregnant.” - Kelly Baker on her coming to her decision for the 2024 CrossFit Games season.

HEALTH AND LONGEVITY

Credit: Kelly Baker

Kelly Baker on Fertility and Her CrossFit Journey

According to the World Health Organization, roughly one in six people globally experience infertility. That means that approximately 17% of people have problems conceiving. In the United States, one in five married women up to the age of 49 with no prior births are unable to get pregnant after a year of trying, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is an issue for all women, including professional athletes, who often spend the prime baby-making years of their lives competing at the highest level possible.

It begs the question of whether a female athlete should take a step back from competing to help her chance of conceiving. CrossFit Games athlete Kelly Baker had to make this decision this season.

In a recent Instagram post, Baker was brutally honest, telling her followers she would not be competing in the 2024 CrossFit Games season. 

In the middle of her fertility journey, Baker chose to step away from the sport she loved, at least momentarily. From the post:

  • “I know how much stress our body goes under competing professionally in this sport- which is the one thing doctors tell me to try to reduce in order to help our chances of getting pregnant. So, it was either I backed off of training and still competed, or I took every measure to get my body ready to be a mom. The choice was obvious. My purpose right now – in my heart – is to create the best home for a baby, and all I want is to be a mom.”

Several high-level CrossFit athletes have left their competitive lives for some time to start families. Some have returned to competition; some have not. Names include Cassidy Lance-Mcwherter, Kara Saunders, Annie Thorisdottir, and, most recently, Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr. 

But every woman’s fertility journey is different, and Baker was eager to share hers with the Morning Chalk Up as she hopes to be a resource for other women dealing with the same issues.

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SPEED READS

👟👟 Shelby Neal x INOV8: 2023 CrossFit Games rookie, Shelby Neal is the newest member of Team INOV8 for the 2024 season.

🎥 🍿 Tim Paulson Doc: “IDENTITY: A Live Free Film,” a documentary film following CrossFitter Tim Paulson during his final competitive season is out! Catch it on YouTube now.

🚨🏋️2024 Masters CrossFit Games Volunteer Registration: Ready to be a part of CrossFit Games? The Legends Championship is looking for volunteers for the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games in Birmingham, AL.

  • Volunteers who commit to three days of work will receive a free pass for a friend or family member, too!

  • There are only so many volunteer slots, so sign up soon!

💪🔥 Coaches Congress London x HWPO: The Coaches Congress, one of the largest, independent, educational events for gym owners and coaches in Europe within the CrossFit and functional fitness space, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2024 and announced that HWPO will be the title sponsor of its inaugural London event, October 5-6. Additional events will be held in Stockholm, Berlin, and Brisbane.

  • Coaches Congress CEO Henrik Almers: “I am thrilled to have HWPO as a partner of our upcoming London event. It is a great pleasure to welcome such highly talented, hardworking, and knowledgeable people.”

ICYMI: The 2024 Open Announcements continue to break viewership records.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: @j_tega_ / Instagram

How Did Colten Mertens’ 24.1 World Record Stack Up Against Past Epic CrossFit Open Performances?

Colten Mertens claimed the CrossFit Open 24.1 worldwide title, finishing all 180 reps of the dumbbell snatch/burpee over the dumbbell couplet in 5:19. 

CrossFit Open 24.1 was the first Open event win in Mertens’ career, however, he has finished in the top 5 in 4 previous Open events, including a 3rd place worldwide in 21.1.  

  • Like 24.1, CrossFit Open 21.1 was also a couplet of dumbbell snatches and burpees over something (a box in this case). 

COMMUNITY

Credit: Danny Lesslie

Longtime CrossFit Coach Danny Lesslie Faces $200,000 in Medical Bills for Wife’s Cancer Treatment

All Danny Lesslie can do right now is take it “day by day.”

For four years, he has watched his wife Raffi Dobles suffer. She has Stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma, a common type of skin cancer, but what makes Dobles’ diagnosis rare is that it was first found on her vulva, Lesslie explained.

And then it spread. It spread to her lymph nodes, and today she has multiple inoperable tumors that make it painful for her to even sit, let alone walk or work out like she used to.

  • “Riding in the car, she has to lay the seats all the way back. She can hardly walk. It’s horrible,” said Lesslie, a former CrossFit affiliate owner, who started his CrossFit journey at CrossFit Los Angeles in 2009 and has coached at multiple gyms through the years.  “At this point, I don’t think any doctor can really tell us [the prognosis, but] it’s serious…It’s stage four. You don’t come back to Stage 2.”

  • “There have been some really dark days. She has been in a lot of pain for a long time. There have been many nights where I thought it was going to break her, and we’re talking about a woman who has had two babies with no drugs…I’m praying to just try to get through the night,” said Lesslie, who has 7 and 8-year-old daughters with Dobles. 

The dark days only became more stressful when last September Lesslie was laid off from his job. Since then, he has been out of work and has been staying at home to look after Dobles and his two young children, all the while the medical bills are piling up.

And they’re about to pile even higher, as Lesslie and Dobles, and their two kids, are about to move to Scottsdale, AZ for 14 weeks so Dobles can undergo cancer treatment with a hefty price tag.

“We’re looking at at least $8,000 every Monday morning to get treated for that week,” Lesslie said, adding that they’re expecting to have to pay $200,000 in the next three months.

[Donate to Dobles’ cancer treatments here, or support her by purchasing Strong as a Mother apparel.]

THINGS TO…
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HIGHLIGHTS

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