“Brandon and I have been friends for seven years, if I get married he’d have to buy a dress and be a bridesmaid,” Alexis Johnson (half) joked. “If I’m going to compete, I want to have fun, what could be better than doing it with a friend? I trust him as an athlete, he’s one of the fittest guys I know. When he competes, he shows up!”
Brandon Luckett first qualified for the Games in 2018, still in graduate school. His fourth year making it to Regionals, twice on team and twice solo, left him with a 3rd place finish and a ticket to Madison. A long time goal was realized, but it coincided with a busy period away from CrossFit. Luckett studied Medical Physics and had made the decision that CrossFit would always come second to school.
During his prep for the Games he was also getting ready for a couple of big exams and his finals that all landed within two weeks of his rookie appearance. “Over a two month period or preparing to compete I became spread really thin, all these other stresses piled high and I ended up being really unhappy with my performance at the Games and failed half of my board exam,” Luckett commented.
Brandon decided to pick himself up and go again in 2019, do himself justice and walk away from the season proud of his performance this time, but it soon became clear he was destined to repeat the mistakes of 2018 when his thesis, exams and interviews for residency started to increase pressure. This time he decided not to try to do it all and stepped away from competing for the year.
Having sat out the season, things started to become more rigid and predictable during his residency in the fall so when he got a text from Alexis Johnson, his interest was peaked and a team was formed. But then 2020 turned out to be an ill-fated year for team competition as the season was scrapped. Luckett, however, was primed and feeling fit so he continued as an individual making it to Stage One of the CrossFit Games that year and wound up testing workouts for Dave Castro at the Ranch leading up to Stage Two. The following year Brandon made it back to Madison through West Coast Classic before deciding to take some more time away from competing to focus on his new job with his father.
“CrossFit was going to have to take a backseat once again. I was okay with being done competing and shifting my focus to the career,” commented Luckett.
Personally, I like Brandon Luckett a lot, but the reality is, if he had finished competing there would be very little reason for me to write about someone working in medical something or other. So, what changed post retirement in 2021?
“Alexis Johnson asked me to go team again, so here we are…training to compete for one more year,” he explained.
The most common formation formula for teams is a natural coming together of a group; a coach seeking out individuals that will work together and gel with time or a team with a missing piece that they manage to find. Brandon wasn’t as interested in the minutia of the details. “I told her [Alexis] that I wasn’t going to help decide who the rest of the team would be and that if she put the team together, I would gladly compete this year. She did put an awesome team together and I am really excited for the season.”
The team in question is Alexis, Brandon, Logan Collins and Shaylin Laure. Logan has four Regionals, two Semifinal and four individual Games appearances to his name. His best finish was 11th in 2017.
Shaylin is an Occupational Games champ two years running and was destined for the CrossFit Games last year before a teammate on her CrossFit Shoofly team failed a drug test.
Alexis finished 5th on the Mayhem Independence team last year in Madison and 6th in 2019 on Don’t Stop along with two individual appearances before that. There’s no arguing against the teams credentials and Brandon is ready to give his all. “The pressure comes from a desire not to let my team down. I’ll die for the team.”
It’s pretty stiff competition out there this year, but Brandon and CrossFit Franco’s Misfits are not shying away from the challenge. “I don’t really call my shots or set expectations for a result, but we would love to stand on the podium at the Games”.
