Interview with Emma Chapman, 3rd Worldwide After 17.1

Emma Chapman was just one of three women to go sub-10 on 17.1. Based out of Richmond, Kentucky, only Sara Armanius and Sam Briggs were able to better Chapman’s 9:59 time.

We caught up with Chapman over the weekend to find out a little more behind the rising athlete in the Central East.

The Barbell Spin: Tell us about yourself. How long have you been doing CrossFit? What was your athletic background before?

Emma: I have been doing Crossfit for 4 years now. Prior to Crossfit, I played Division I collegiate level soccer at Marshall University. I was recruited to place at Marshall from New Zealand. While in New Zealand, I was a member of the U20 women’s national team that qualified for the U20 Women’s World Cup in Russia.

The Barbell Spin: You made it to Regionals last year. What were your goals heading into the 2017 season?

Emma: I did make it to regionals last year. 2016 was the first year I completed the open in its entirety. I wasn’t even going to film my workouts but my coach suggested I do just incase. While at regionals, the first event exposed a huge weakness of mine – the snatch. I was disqualified after the first event (Snatch Ladder) after failing to hit the first weight. This was obviously not how I wanted my first experience at regionals to pan out and at the time I was extremely embarrassed. But I used this disappointed to fuel me to want to get back, thus my goal for heading into the 2017 season was to make it back to regionals. I approached training this year with a lot more confidence also.

The Barbell Spin: Who does your programming? How has training gone this off-season?

Emma: I follow Misfit Athletics programming and have been now for a little over two years. My husband also programs additional strength work and accessory for me as well. Training this off-season has been great so far. The people I train with have helped tremendously. It’s hard to do this alone. They push me on a daily basis. I train at Rich City CrossFit and I can’t thank the coaches enough for being accommodating. They allow us to do our own programming and on many occasion allow us to stay after opening hours to finish up.

This is my Monday face #struggling @misfitathletics @crossfit @crossfitgames @richcitycf #misfitathletics #misfitladies 😫🙈

A post shared by Emma Chapman (@emmaharry57) on Jan 23, 2017 at 8:10am PST

The Barbell Spin: Did you know 17.1 would be a great workout for you when it was announced Thursday night?

Emma: Like everyone else I was extremely anxious for the announcement of 17.1. After the workout was announced I knew it would be a good one for me because it was one you had to mentally hang in there and keep moving. It also helped that I really liked all three movements (including burpees).

The Barbell Spin: Are there any movements you are hoping we won’t see the remaining three weeks?

Emma: You just don’t know what’s it’s going to be. You have to be well rounded as we know and hope that the work you have put in will be enough. And with each year of training you hope to become more efficient at movements so there are less movements that you dread seeing in workouts. For me it’s trying to suck a little less each day at movements.

The Barbell Spin: What would you like to see for 17.3?

Emma: I would like to see a max lift of some sort (preferably deadlift) and some barbell cycling. I also really like double-unders so I would like to see those in 17.3 as well. If it were a repeat workout, I would like to see 16.4.