Christmas Abbott, CrossFit, and Changing Tires

Christmas Abbott, CrossFit, and Changing Tires

On the official website for CrossFit, it describes its philosophy as “the aim…to forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness. We have sought to build a program that will best prepare trainees for any physical contingency — not only for the unknown, but for the unknowable.”

That inclusiveness has led to men and women competing in the intense CrossFit Games that have been conducted for several years now, including workouts with ocean swims, burden runs, and skillful demonstration of heavy Olympic lifts.

But CrossFit doesn’t just prepare people for its unknowable events in the Games, it also prides itself on preparing people for and strengthening their skills in other avenues of their lives. Specifically, CrossFit has aided in including women in areas typically dominated by men.

Eric Adelson, in his article, outlines the first woman’s break into a NASCAR pit crew. Adelson dramatic subtitle–“where few women have gone before”–indeed captures the impression of Christmas Abbott’s determination, which she claims is partly derived from her involvement with CrossFit, in the pit of NASCAR.

picture from Adelson’s article

Adelson details the physical strength needed within a pit crew: “the laws of physics explain why there aren’t any female members of a NASCAR pit crew: The average woman of 5-4 weighs around 130 pounds, and the average racing tire weighs between 55 and 70 pounds. So physics explains a woman of average size would have to lift and move half her weight – twice – and bolt two tires in 12 seconds or less to succeed in a NASCAR pit. Physics never met Christmas Abbott.” Or probably any other elite athlete from CrossFit. Her interest in changing tires for NASCAR was able to be conceivable from her training in CrossFit.

In a related article, Matt Fitzgerald describes how Abbott’s interest in NASCAR “strengthens female presence in racing.”

CrossFit’s potential in re-imagining gender is not focused solely within the fitness program itself, but also in its influences in other aspects of life. Because of the training and instruction she receives, not only is Abbott challenging typical gender norms, that women are not athletic (though expected to be somehow magically fit), she is applying herself to areas of work where women aren’t present. CrossFit is disrupting common notions of gender by challenging its members to achieve new but also applicable levels of fitness: women are then armed with the fitness and the instruction to aid their body in new and challenging ways, which can involve entering spheres of work that men dominate. Although Abbott made the team, she left a few months later. Reasons for why aren’t known yet, but the videos demonstrate her ability to be part of a pit crew team.