Banksville's Tunnicliffe not only Olympic champ but also CrossFit standout

Music bellowed through the open garage door that once led to a mechanic's shop but now serves as the entrance to CrossFit Mt. Lebanon.

Inside, Anna Tunnicliffe prepared to, as she put it, “quickly bang out a workout.”

A former Olympic sailor who won gold in 2008 in Beijing, Tunnicliffe is an elite athlete in the world of CrossFit, the relatively new but popular training regimen that combines elements of weightlifting, gymnastics, endurance and cardiovascular strength. The timed workouts are designed to be short and performed at high intensity.

Tunnicliffe started the clock.

She began with 21 deep squats holding a 75-pound barbell overhead. Immediately upon finishing, she dropped the bar, turned, jumped up and performed 15 pull-ups. She kept hold of the bar and curled her body upward, touching her toes to the bar nine times.

She repeated the set two more times without resting.

Four minutes and 23 seconds later, her workout was complete.

Tunnicliffe dropped to her knees and slumped forward, her forehead touching the ground and sweat pouring off her chiseled body.

Several minutes later, still out of breath, Tunnicliffe explained she's come a long way since she started training in CrossFit in earnest in 2012.

“(Coach Brad Tobias) said when I came into the gym the first time I was scrawny,” said Tunnicliffe, 32, of Banksville. “He still says I'm somewhat scrawny but not as scrawny as I was.”

Tunnicliffe is anything but that in the eyes of most people.

Beginning Tuesday, Tunnicliffe will make her third consecutive appearance in the CrossFit Games, an international competition held in Carson, Calif., that aims to determine the fittest man and woman in the world. The process begins in January with the Open competition and whittles the field until the top 40 men and 40 women remain. This year's competition started with 257,000 hopefuls.

Forging a place among the world's best, however, is nothing new for Tunnicliffe.

From the rings to the box

Tunnicliffe was born in England but moved to Perrysburg, Ohio, with her family when she was 12. By then, she was showing promise in the family pastime of sailing, and she continued to develop her skills on Lake Erie. At age 17, she started sailing the Laser Radial, a one-person sailboat, and, despite being a strong track athlete in high school, opted to attend Old Dominion to continue her sailing pursuit.

After graduation, Tunnicliffe began training with the U.S. national team and won Olympic gold in Laser Radial in Beijing.

Four years later, in 2012, Tunnicliffe returned to the Olympics, this time helming a crew with two other women in the Elliott 6m class. Although favored to medal, they were knocked out in the quarterfinals and finished in fifth place.

“One Olympics was really exciting because I won the gold medal, then the other Olympics was really heartbreaking, so I got both the highs and lows of the Olympic experience,” she said. “But being there and sailing for the USA instead of under a sail with a number was a pretty cool experience.”

Even in 2012, Tunnicliffe was incredibly fit, earning a spot in ESPN Magazine's Body issue.

She discovered CrossFit that year when a friend invited her to a workout. All it took was one class, she said, for her to be hooked.

“Then I found out you could compete in it, and they have these Games, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing,' ” she said. “So I set the goal that after the 2012 Olympics I was going to try to qualify for the CrossFit Games in 2013.”

Tunnicliffe began training with Tobias at a CrossFit gym — or box, as it is called in CrossFit vernacular — in Coral Gables, Fla., and her road to Pittsburgh began.

Tunnicliffe's parents moved to Pittsburgh while their daughter was in college. A member at the gym in Coral Gables, Pittsburgh native Kevin Beaman, was preparing to move back home with his wife. He and Tobias planned to open a CrossFit gym in Mt. Lebanon, and Tunnicliffe signed on to join them. They relocated to the region in summer 2013 and opened CrossFit Mt. Lebanon shortly thereafter.

Tunnicliffe qualified for the CrossFit Games that summer, finishing ninth overall.

She returned to the Games last year and was leading for a short time before she tore the plantar fascia almost completely off her right foot in a sprint to the finish during the third event, called the Triple 3s (3,000-meter row, followed by 300 double-unders with a jump rope, followed by a 3-mile run). She stayed in the competition, however, and finished 22nd overall.

“In what is an enormous testament to her mental toughness, she finished the weekend despite sustaining the injury early on,” CrossFit Games host Rory McKernan said.

“Anna is elite for the fact that she has qualified for the CrossFit Games for three consecutive years — an honor that less than 20 athletes can claim in the nine-year history of the sport. She is always in the conversation when discussing elite women, but the field for the women this year is stronger than ever. To improve on her ninth-place finish (in 2013) would be amazing.”

Making it a three-peat

Tunnicliffe was ranked third at the conclusion of the Atlantic Regional, held last month in Atlanta. One spot ahead was 2013 CrossFit Games winner Samatha Briggs.

Being at the Games, Tunnicliffe said, is “surreal.” What she loves about competing is also what she loves about CrossFit.

“It's all-around fitness,” she said. “We're not going to run the fastest marathon, and we're not going to clean-and-jerk the heaviest weight, although some of the girls are pretty (darn) strong at that. But we can run a decent pace and lift weight and do some gymnastics.

“And everyone's so nice. Of all the sports I've been in, people in CrossFit and the community are unlike any other community you've ever seen. Even at the Games, you can be competing with the girl next to you for the title, and you'll be cheering for her and wanting her to do well. I don't know what it is about the sport. Maybe it's because you realize how much pain everyone else is going through at the same time.”

Tobias said Tunnicliffe's history as an elite athlete, her work ethic and ability to push through pain better than most people have helped her succeed. But while Tunnicliffe may be a star in the CrossFit world, Tobias said she's just another athlete at the gym working toward her goals.

“I think a lot of people look up to her because of how hard she works, but she can get everything done and still be down to earth,” he said. “She works with a lot of the athletes around here to help them progress and get better.”

Karen Price is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach her at kprice@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KarenPrice_Trib.