Brooke Ence Latest to Withdraw from 2017 CrossFit Games Season

Brooke Ence is the latest CrossFit Games veteran to announce that she will be taking a year off from competing due to an injury. This morning Ence shared an Instagram post with her fans giving a reason why she wasn’t on the leaderboard.

Ence said, “I’m beyond devastated to say this but I will not be able to compete this Crossfit Games Open.” She continued, “While everyone was watching the 17.1 announcement I was driving myself to get an MRI. Results: SEVERELY HERNIATED C6,C7.”

First off, i am so sorry that I have waited til now to announce this. I’m beyond devastated to say this but I will not be able to compete this Crossfit Games Open. After two months of seeing my Chiro and physio almost daily, my symptoms just weren’t getting better, in fact they were getting worse. {Intense constant nerve pain, loss of strength in my right tricep and my right hand. I loved to describe it as though I were the patient in the game Operation and whoever was playing the game TOTALLY sucked. } While everyone was watching the 17.1 announcement I was driving myself to get an MRI. Results: SEVERELY HERNIATED C6,C7 Craziest part is that I literally just woke up one day in a lot of pain while I was home for Christmas. I didn’t have a clue that something like that was going on, nothing had happened, no missed lifts, I didn’t fall on my head. Nothing. So to say I’m frustrated is a bit of an understatement, my heart is broken. It has been such a rough week and I’m sure there will be a few more moments through out this season where my emotions get the best of me, however I AM going to get through this and I WILL be back next year. I love a challenge. And how bad could I actually look in a neck brace ? 😉 Good luck to to all my competitors, give it hell for me. #itmakesence #illbeback Photo credit : @heber_cannon

A post shared by brookeence (@brookeence) on Mar 2, 2017 at 6:45am PST

Ence won the California regional in 2015 and finished 14th at the CrossFit Games. Last year Ence narrowly missed out qualifying for her second appearance to the Games after taking 6th.

With the announcement, Ence joins Chandler Smith, Jacob Heppner and Will Moorad, all of whom are out this season with an injury. In addition, Marcus Filly is sitting out after the birth of his daughter last week. Let’s hope all of the injuries are done with and we can focus on 17.2 (check some predictions) coming up tonight!