The triumph of a slender athlete at Thailand Throwdown.

Attending Thailand Throwdown 2023, Thailand’s oldest CrossFit competition, early this year, Pham Thanh Tuyen, a.k.a. Chelsea Pham, 26, won the Women Novice prize for beginners to the surprise of her opponents because of her slim build. A lover of physical activities, Pham says she used to work out at a gym for a long time to improve her slender body when she was a schoolgirl. Aware of CrossFit in 2019, she began to practice this type of fitness in end-2021. CrossFit is a kind of fitness that incorporates many other sports like weightlifting, gymnastics, running, skiing, cycling, rowing, and so on. Practitioners can also combine such daily movements as holding and carrying heavy objects to improve their health. Pham has thus become a CrossFit athlete and will work as a trainer in the near future. A few months after practicing CrossFit, Pham competed at some weightlifting and CrossFit contests held in the country and won some prizes. Seeing her aptitude, her trainer set targets for her to compete at overseas contests. Thanks to her long time of physical workout, Pham got used to CrossFit lessons easily. As this fitness requires endurance and several techniques, practitioners should practice it regularly, and those who want to be a competitor should do it with much greater effort, she says. Pham and her teammates were proud to go to Thailand to attend the international competition. She still remembers the surprise of other competitors when they saw her, a young lady who was 1.64 meters tall and weighed 60 kilograms. “Fairly tall and thin,” they remarked. Spending nine months training in preparation for Thailand Throwdown 2023, Pham experienced different feelings during the two days competing at the event. Her results improved day after day, and she burst into tears when she defeated 28 other rivals to win the Women Novice prize for beginners. There were 123 athletes attending this international event. Long-term commitment to CrossFit Talking about the triumph at Thailand Throwdown 2023, Pham says she balanced her strength equally to compete all the CrossFit sports at the contest. Most of her opponents focused on their own strong sports, and they achieved high results in such sports. Pham’s proper tactics helped her win the highest prize. “I practice all the CrossFit sports equally instead of focusing on some and ignoring others,” she says. “I love weightlifting and this is my strong point, but I am not so good at pull-up exercise. So, I try my best to compete all sports.” Pham was moved when she waved the national flag to take pictures with the runners-up. This success paved the way for her to determine a future career orientation. Accordingly, she has plans to practice as hard as she can to become a good athlete. Later, she will learn to become a CrossFit trainer. Pham has also thought of obstacles on her long way to be a trainer. Many believe that the lifespan of an athlete is short, especially female athletes after they get married and have children. Despite such prejudice, Pham is confident that she can be active in CrossFit for a long time, since quite a few middle-aged people have fared well with this fitness in other countries. New challenges will always be there for those with passion to overcome, she says. Coming back home after Tet (Lunar New Year, as Thailand Throwdown was held during Tet), Pham and her family welcomed the holiday belatedly to celebrate her triumph. “My parents were proud of me,” she says. “This will enable me to continue my path ahead, and I will encourage new CrossFit practitioners to thrive.”