Over Labor Day weekend, qualifiers traveled to Birmingham, AL to vie for the CrossFit world title, and the second-place finisher in her category was none other than Tucker resident Tiiu Maavere.
Maavere, 57, was one of 30 women culled down from thousands of entrants in her age group who were invited to Birmingham, according to friend Joe Winterscheidt, a member of the so-called “Maavere’s Mafia” group of supporters.
“After four long days and eight exhaustive tests, [Decatur] Move Functional Fitness member Tiiu Maavere proudly stood second on the winner’s podium,” said Winterscheidt, who trains with Maavere at the same gym.
The Masters CrossFit Games is an annual worldwide event that gathers people from all over the world to compete in the sport of CrossFit, a fitness program consisting of constantly-varied, high-intensity, functional movements.
Maavere, who is a teacher at Gwinnett’s GIVE Center East, is a lifelong athlete who discovered CrossFit through her chiropractor 14 years ago. She started her journey to competing at a higher level in 2017, and last December entered and placed fifth in the Legends Masters competition held in Tempe, Ariz.
This January, she also took fifth at Wodapalooza, the annual CrossFit event in Miami.
In February, Maavere decided to face the first phase on the arduous road to the Games, the CrossFit Open. Over three weeks of the open qualifying events, she finished first in the United States and second in the world out of more than 9,000 women in her age group.
A few more significant benchmarks qualified her to move on to the CrossFit Games in Birmingham, and she hired a coach and accelerated her training to twice-a-day vigorous workouts in preparation for the Labor Day competition.
“One important aspect of CrossFit competitions is that competitors never know what’s coming,” Winterscheidt said. “Athletes headed for the CrossFit Games have to endurance-train like a marathon runner, strength-train like a powerlifter and improve body control like an Olympic gymnast.“
On the third day of competition, a group representing the Maavere Mafia headed to Birmingham from Atlanta to see their friend have another solid day.
After eight grueling events, Maavere finished in second place in the 55-59 age group, behind Joyanne Cooper from Ontario. While she was thrilled to finish second, her goal next year is to stand on the top of the podium.
“While I was happy, of course, I wanted to win,” she said. “There’s more to go for next year.”
After the competition, Maavere and mafia mates had a measured celebration at Seasons 52.
“You can’t go too far off the rails when you’ve been eating a certain way for a long time,” she said.
Maavere has now headed back to the gym with her eye on qualifying for Birmingham again. Maavere’s Mafia has been an essential key to sustaining her momentum, along with listening to her body and knowing when to push and when to rest.
“As I get older, I realize that when your body tells you to slow down, you should do it.”
