Three months ago, Peter CPW caught up with Zack George and his team, Team Training BFG, as Zack George was preparing for one last run at qualifying for the CrossFit Games. Those plans, however, have changed and Zack has shared that he and his team will not be competing at the European Semifinals the first weekend of June.
The reason?
Zack will be joining the British TV show, Gladiator, as ‘Steel’ and due to conflicts between filming for the revamped Gladiator show and competing at Semifinals, he has withdrawn his team from Semifinals because the team (Nicole Crouch, Will Kane and Janie Garratt) was unable to field a qualified reserve athlete.
On having to withdraw from Semifinals, Zack said, “It was a heart-breaking decision to make and I am incredibly sad to not be competing with my team at the Semifinals after we’ve been working so hard together. However, being on Gladiators is a once in a lifetime opportunity that offers so much exposure to CrossFit as a sport via one of the biggest broadcast platforms in the world. I hope to use my position to show others what CrossFit can do for people from all walks of life, on a mental as well as physical level – which is something I see on a daily basis as a CrossFit affiliate owner.”
As for Zack on Gladiators, he hopes to share how CrossFit has helped him turn his life around and to inspire others to try CrossFit for the first time. “Hearing the news that I had been selected as a Gladiator was a dream come true. I loved watching the show when I was younger and never thought to imagine myself ever getting to a physical position of health and fitness to be considered as a ‘superhuman’. With my health and fitness journey, I hope to inspire viewers who may similarly want to turn around their life like I did, and prove to them that anything is possible,” added Zack.
Zack qualified for his first CrossFit Regionals in 2018, followed by finishing 1st in the UK during the 2020 CrossFit Open. After suffering a hip injury in 2021, Zack returned to the competition floor in 2022 where he placed 13th at the CrossFit Strength in Depth Semifinal. This year, his team, CrossFit BFG Training, qualified for the Europe Semifinal following a 10th place finish in Quarterfinals.
