Rapid Fire with Deanna Swedish

This week we caught up with two-time CrossFit Games team athlete, Deanna Swedish. You can catch Deanna any given day either training, coaching, or hanging with her pup, Callie, and husband/teammate, Ben! Get to know more about her here...

Wags: How did you get started with fitness? Tell us about your athletic background
Deanna: I have always been involved in fitness. At a young age I got into soccer and track. As I got older I kept trying out different sports. It wasn’t until junior high that I found cheerleading. This became the foundation of all my fitness, competitiveness and relentlessness. I was a competitive cheerleader on a nationally ranked team through most of my teenage years. After college I bopped around from globo gym to gym. It wasn’t until April of 2014 that my path lead me into a CrossFit gym. 
 
Wags: How/when did you find CrossFit? Why did you decide to compete?
Deanna: Well it was April 2014. I had bought my husband an intro month to our local gym.  He invited me to watch his last day of foundations which also happened to be 14.5, that years last open workout. Our gym was hosting bunch of local athletes to throw down in the workout. I thought it was crazy, and loud, and overwhelming, and intimidating and I knew I wanted to be apart of it. I did my first competition that summer, it was a local event called Subway Series. After that it was a spiral of competition after the next. From my cheerleading background I loved performing in front of a crowd, and in CrossFit I got to push my limits in front of one. 
 
Wags: What's the most rewarding part of being a coach?
Deanna: I get to watch my athletes grow right before my eyes. The little things that sometimes they don’t notice and take for granted, those are my favorite things. Like recently I had an athlete who was upset about not getting her kipping toes to bar down perfect. I had to remind her how much she had progressed in the month since she had started. When she first showed up she couldn’t jump to the bar and hold on, now here she was trying to master an advanced gymnastics skill requiring her to be hanging from the bar for :10+ seconds at a time. When she left that day she told me I made her day for helping her remember where she’s grown. 
 
Wags:  What was the best part about competing at the CrossFit Games?
Deanna: Everything? I think as I begin competing at a higher level, I always hear from Veteran athletes to “Live in the moment, soak it all up.” For the past 2 years I have been lucky enough to compete at the CrossFit Games and I have to say walking out on that competition floor, I never forget it. That’s the best part. That atmosphere and that moment. It’s a one time moment. I like to think I take that veteran advice and live in that moment. 
Wags: What are your future goals in the sport/CrossFit space?
Deanna: I would like to make it back to the CrossFit Games, because if I didn’t say that it would be a lie. Also I would like to qualify for some bigger events as an individual athlete. 
 

Wags: Tell us a little bit about your pup. What do you enjoy doing together?
Deanna: Callie is a rescue. She’s a Jack Russel Pitbull Mix. We’re a lot a like. Callie loves attention, and wants to be the center of it all. As I write this she has smacked my phone out of my hand 3 times. She likes to be held, hugged and kissed. We love going to visit dad at the gym! Callie knows where 3 places are... home, the dog park and the gym. But always at the end of the day, she loves to snuggle up along her dad and I and sleep till the next morning. 
  
Wags: Favorite cheat meal?
Deanna: Donuts. Specifically Dough donuts. 
 
Wags: If you could have a never ending supply of ONE thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Deanna:  Seltzer water. I’m obsessed. 
Wags: One piece of advice for any athletes on their own fitness journey..
Deanna: Embrace and trust the process. We all experience hard times while striving for a goal, it’s how we adapt and overcome that make us the athletes we are. 

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