Saturday, 7:21pm: “You can be the greatest of all time.”

Saturday, 7:21pm: CrossFit competition has concluded for the day, but P&J Live is still packed with fans on Saturday night, eagerly waiting for the finale of the Strongman competition. The remaining fans, mostly CrossFitters, have the privilege of watching @inez_prostrongwoman 🇵🇷 become the inaugural Rogue Invitational Strongwoman champion, for which she receives $121,938, the largest payout ever in the history of the sport. As in CrossFit, it’s the same amount awarded to the male champion.

Elevated on the podium, Inez looks otherworldly, as separate from the fans as though they were a different species. Strongman competitors are capable of such extraordinary things, it’s easy to assume they’ve always been able to do them; that they just came out this way. But it’s not true — four years ago, Inez Carrasquillo was just a local powerlifter. It was her coach, Alex Jose, who pushed her to try Strongman. “I told her, ‘You can be a powerlifter or you can be the greatest of all time, you choose.’ And she chose.”

No wonder Inez looks different on the podium. Once you’ve done something like that, you’re no longer like other people, content with the status quo, respectful of how things are or have been. Reality seems more malleable than it did before. That is precisely why the Rogue Invitational exists: Competition provides the obstacles necessary to experience who we truly are. And a mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

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#RogueInvitational

✍🏽: @christinedca

📷: @emomphoto