Sam Briggs - Start Your Engines

Samantha Briggs is a CrossFit athlete, formerly crowned the fittest woman in the world on winning the 2013 Games. Despite a catalogue of injuries, Sam has continued to compete at the very highest levels of the sport, and in 2019 was given the prestigious Spirit of the Games Award, honouring her extraordinary character, resilience and courage.

Prior to CrossFit, Sam was a firefighter and footballer. She now lives in Manchester, when not travelling the world for competitions, where she runs her own CrossFit gyms.

For my mum for putting up with me and always encouraging me to follow my dreams

All images from authors private collection, except for the following:

Rogue Fitness,

Rogue Fitness,

Progenex;

Rogue Fitness;

Antony Tom Photography, courtesy of Loud & Live Sports,

Mark McDermott/@fitness.shots.

For any other images, not the authors own, every effort has been made to credit the copyright owners, and any omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions if notified.

Whenever the CrossFit Games come to an end, I always get a bit emotional. Its like the end of a really good holiday, except instead of going with your family or some friends theres a group of about 25,000 of you. It might sound a bit schmaltzy, I suppose, but thats exactly how it feels. CrossFit is all about community and this is our communitys biggest holiday.

This year I was even more emotional as, unlike other years, something important happened right at the end. Not the podium bit. I didnt quite make it this year. No, this is something else that happens at the end of the CrossFit Games.

One of the most important elements of CrossFit is surprise. Okay, boys and girls, theyll say. In one hours time wed like you to flip a huge tyre twenty times, swim 500 metres and then do fifty burpees over a giant hay bale while carrying a 70lb sandbag. Ive just made that event up, by the way, but I wouldnt bet against it happening one day.

And, boy, was I going to get a huge surprise when I attended the final ceremony this year. Every year the Spirit of the Games Award is given to somebody who has represented the sport well normally over a number of years. Its the supporting act to the podium presentations really but, because it transcends just one event and is indicative of the sport, it tends to bring everyone together one last time. After that, the winners take to the podium and then we all go home, safe in the knowledge that regardless of how we fare in the coming year, either at the gym or in a competition, well always have, and be part of, our community.

The award is always announced by Nicole Carroll from CrossFit and, boy, does she have a way with words; she starts the announcement with a speech about the person whos going to receive it before revealing their name. Although its easier to make a log cry than me, she always manages to make me well up a bit. As I said, though, this is the part that brings everyone together one last time, and as I was listening to her speech I realised it was starting to sound a lot like me. As she said my name, I couldnt believe it. Walking up to receive the award I knew that being a recipient would eclipse everything thats come before. Every win. Every PB. Every podium. It also reminded me of what we put ourselves through in order to be part of this community. The sacrifice. The dedication. Its all for the greater good.

When the award was announced and my name was read out, the wave of support I felt from the CrossFit community was overwhelming. The award itself is a mounted gold gymnastics ring, which, when I look at it now, reminds me of muscle-ups and, subsequently, all the hard work you have to put in to achieve the elusive muscle-up. Years of hard work! Ill treasure it. Ill treasure it forever. My favourite part of the night was Nicoles speech. Ive never heard our sport described so succinctly before and once again she almost made me blub; its a good job Id already had a celebratory beer to calm me down! She reminded us that we as CrossFitters have a common purpose of spreading health, whether its creating the worlds fittest or helping those who are facing challenges. She also highlighted the fact that physical performance is only one piece of the equation; what we do transcends aesthetics or points on a leader board and should inspire us, when we face our own challenges, to overcome them with courage, grace and resiliency.

Despite having one name on the front, this book, as with the Spirit of the Games Award, represents and is about an entire community. Our community.

I hope you enjoy it.

Sam Briggs, December 2019

According to my mum, Karyn, Ive been competitive from day one, as I arrived in the world three weeks early and before shed even had time to decorate my bedroom. It obviously sounds like a joke but anybody who knows me will probably consider this to be true as Im known for having an obsession with coming first. All I can say is, had I been aware that I was on my way into the world surrounded by others also arriving early, Id have tried to make it four weeks.

Mum also says that I could speak, crawl and walk from a very early age and was inquisitive to the point where, if she left me unattended for more than a second, Id be out of the starting blocks and off. I was into anything and everything, and if I got frustrated it generally wasnt because I was hungry, tired or grumpy. It was because there werent enough hours in the day. Nothings really changed in that respect and, if I didnt have to sleep to survive, I probably wouldnt. Ive got far too much to do!

I was born on Sunday, 14 March 1982 in a place called Pudsey, which, if youre not from around these parts, is in the north of England. I arrived on Mothers Day and, because my handwriting was still a bit scruffy, my mums best friend sorted out a card for me, which was kind of her. Pudsey is situated midway between Leeds and Bradford city centres and has a population of about 22,000. When it comes to sportspeople, its famous for producing cricketers, the most well known being Sir Len Hutton, who was captain of Yorkshire and England; Ray Illingworth, who was too; and Matthew Hoggard, who played for both and was a fast bowler. My grandad used to take me sometimes as he was a fanatic, but it wasnt for me. More crucially, playing cricket relies on a lot of hand/eye coordination and thats something Ive always struggled with. Ask me to run somewhere or pick something up and Ill do it. Ask me to aim a ball at something or hit one with a bat and Im afraid youll be out of luck.

When I arrived on the scene, our family consisted of my mum, my dad, who is called John Paul but everyone calls him Paul, and a German Shepherd called Wolfie. My dad worked as a police officer and my mum was a nurse. When I was about one, we moved into my grandad and grandmas house on my mothers side. They were wanting to downsize and we wanted to upsize, so it was the perfect arrangement. Moving into that house is my earliest memory. It was a bungalow that had been extended upwards and I, shared later by my brother, had a room on the upper floor.