CrossFit Games 2019: Who is Hunter McIntyre, the wild-card obstacle course champion, and can he challenge Mat Fraser?
- The American OCR champion talks a big game and says the other athletes are scared as he has the ‘capacity’ and ‘tenacity’ to compete at the top
- His journey to professional sport was not easy, as he was addicted to drugs and had frequent trips to rehabilitation
Hunter McIntyre received a wild-card invitation to the CrossFit Games starting on August 1 in Madison, Wisconsin. Most fans of the sport will be unfamiliar with the athlete, who’s made a name for himself in obstacle course racing (OCR). So who is this athlete who’s been thrown into the arena, a sacrificial lamb or a lion among men, claiming he has the other athletes running scared?
The American grew up on his country’s East Coast, developing his fitness on the trails and climbing trees. He was a champion cross-country runner and wrestler in high school. At 30 years old, he is a similar age to the other top competitors, like three time champion Mat Fraser, 29, and podium finisher Patrick Vellner, 29.
McIntyre, at 6-foot, 2 inches (1.87 metres), is the six times OCR world champion and four times national champion. OCR are long-distance races that require athletes to clear a series of obstacles, be it monkey bars, vaulting fences, lifting huge atlas stones or crawling under wire.
The range of fitness and strength needed in OCR sets McIntyre up well for the CrossFit Games, where athletes have no clue what the event will be until only a couple of days before. Competitors may have to run 10km, perform heavy weight lifts or deal with complete left field surprises, such as firing rifles after a run.
The transferable skills were not lost on McIntyre who launched a petition – “Get Hunter to the Games”— when he learned about the wild-cards. He received 2,700 signatures of his target 5,000.