Truelove to take on world’s best at CrossFit Games

She excelled in gymnastics. And then diving. Now, Lacey Truelove is a CrossFitter, and she’s about to compete at the sport’s highest level.

(Photo submitted).

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As a 2-year-old, Lacey Truelove couldn’t keep her eyes from drifting away from her Irish dance class and focusing instead on the gymnasts practicing next door. After her rehearsals ended, she sat in the gym doorway, watching, studying, dreaming of joining them.

Mom couldn’t help but notice and soon enrolled her daughter.

“Even from an early age, I was so bought in to the idea of being the best.”

Today, those dreams of being the best are closer than ever, as Truelove prepares to take on the world’s best at the Masters CrossFit Games.

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There were other sports as Truelove grew up – hockey, in particular – but they only occupied her body, while gymnastics captivated her mind. So, with her mom’s blessing, she tumbled headfirst into the sport full-time as a 6-year-old.

“If I was going to do it, then I was going to do it all the way. Right then, I decided to go to the Olympics. Of course, every little kid has the goal to go to the Olympics without fully understanding the scope of what that means to get there.”

At 15, Truelove found out – she understood that Olympic gymnastics was not in her future, but by then she’d discovered a new path or, as the case was, platform for her talents.

“Being the best. That was always the goal. The goal was the goal regardless of sport. So, I transitioned out of gymnastics into diving – it’s the same sport with the only difference being you land on your head in the water versus landing on your feet,” she laughed.

Diving became her second life – one she excelled in almost immediately. A provincial title was followed by nationals and worlds appearances, then a DI scholarship to The States. If she was going to dive in the Olympics, then she knew she needed to train with the best.

That brought her to Jane Figueiredo at the University of Houston – and what a choice that proved to be.

A 1987 Houston graduate, Figueiredo is a legend. A five-time All-American, she led Houston divers from 1990-2014, being named Conference Coach of the Year for 12 consecutive seasons and NCAA Diving Coach of the Year four times. She recruited and coached world-class talent, producing 14 divers who collectively earned 51 All-America honours and eight NCAA titles. A competitor at the 1984 Olympics for Portugal, Figueiredo has also coached at the Olympics since 1996.

“She became my second mother. She was a phenomenal coach. I had the goal of winning and Jane was the woman to get us there,” Truelove said.

The Canadian diving community is tight, and so leaving the country is frowned upon. Her decision did not win her any friends back home. But the draw south of the border was strong. She needed a challenge and a change.

“I had to go and experience it for myself. I went on the recruiting trip to Houston. The school, the campus, the landscape, everything was so different, so beautiful. It was a fresh start, something completely foreign to me,” she said.

“The way they treated athletes was like you were something to be worshiped in The States. In Canada, it's a completely different thing.”

She thrived in the Lone Star State, and although she fell short of making Team Canada at two Olympic trials (2008 in 2012), she planned to stay in the United States, moving into coaching at her now alma mater.

“Coaching was going to be my dream job. But with my transition out of competing, I still needed to find something to occupy my time and keep me active. A friend of mine was doing CrossFit, and she thought it would be a great sport for me to try even as just a way to stay in shape. So, I went to that gym.”

From her initial on-ramp at CrossFit EaDo in Houston, she knew it was going to be her next obsession.

“It was a different kind of challenge. Coming from a background of explosive sports, really quick technical sports, this was a fit. There were elements of weightlifting and gymnastics that directly transitioned, but then there were things like running that was, well, let’s just say I wasn’t a cardio person – at all.”

Truelove wasn’t the first athlete to face this moment. There are no simple pathways forward to transition a still-young, lifelong athlete, especially one competing at the highest levels, into ‘what's next.’

“It’s a huge question lifelong athletes face: Who am I now that I’m done with my sport?” Truelove explained. “We just say, ‘Here’s the world. Enjoy!’ But you have no exposure to the world. You spent a lifetime living only in your sport.”

She continued, “I had to cling on to something very, very quickly after I was done diving. CrossFit is the perfect sport for any athlete who has lived that life and then hits a transition point. CrossFit provides the competition, but there is also a much-needed community, a social side, a support system that comes with it.”

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You’ve heard the name, but maybe you don’t fully understand what it is.

CrossFit – often described as a ‘sport of fitness’ – is a high-intensity workout program that combines elements of weightlifting, gymnastics, running, rowing, and more. Think of it as a constantly varied mix of functional movements performed at high intensity.

Instead of specializing in one area, CrossFit athletes aim to develop well-rounded fitness across 10 recognized domains: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. Workouts, known as WODs (Workout of the Day), are typically short, intense, and scalable to different fitness levels.

“CrossFit is about expecting the unexpected,” Truelove said. “Anything could be thrown at you, so you prepare for anything. You have bits and pieces of all different kinds of sports that could pop up. You really must be proficient in all different training styles.”

In 2013, Truelove returned to London where she found a vibrant community of CrossFit gyms. Here, she started to see the high-level competitive landscape the sport offered – “and after my first competition, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m in.’”

Many people participate in CrossFit simply to improve their overall health and fitness, but for the elite among them, competitive CrossFit has been growing for the last two decades or more. The CrossFit Games are the pinnacle of competition – the Olympics of the sport, if you will – where the Fittest on Earth™ are crowned. (Yes, that is an actual trademarked term owned by CrossFit Inc.)

The Masters CrossFit Games is specifically for ‘older’ athletes who compete in their respective age groups. Truelove will compete in the youngest Master level (35-39 years). She is one of only 40 competitors from around the world.

Athletes need to qualify for the CrossFit Games through a series of competitions: Worldwide online competition featuring 100,000 women; Online quarterfinals competition for top performers from the open; In-person semifinals competition for 200 top performers.

The Masters CrossFIt Games will be held Aug. 29-Sept. 1, in Birmingham, Ala.

“It's so crazy to say it because I feel like this is a lifelong journey to get to this point. The CrossFit games is like the Olympics. It’s so strange to say because I had trained for the actual Olympics. I have been to Olympic trials; I have missed out on that opportunity by a couple of points. I know what it’s like to train and the tragedy of barely missing out. So, to be 35 years old, and a mom of two and to do it at this level, it’s just strange to say it out loud.”

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Gymnastics. Diving. Now CrossFit. Truelove has been building athletic balance her whole life.

“It feels like the stars have aligned,” she said.

When it comes to CrossFit, the mental side is about moving forward, not looking back, or even living in the moment.

“It’s pushing through the pain. CrossFit is highly metabolic. The lactate threshold, physically, can feel like your body is going to just shut down,” Truelove explained. “The key to the mental side is respecting your training and knowing that your body is capable of overcoming that pain in the moment and the fear associated with it.”

CrossFit’s demands extend beyond the gym, often requiring athletes to rethink their lifestyles. Even a former D1 diver, for instance, had to relearn how to eat.

“The diet is far different than any sport I have been in,” Truelove said. “I had to learn how to eat more.  When you're training so much, you want your body to feel a certain way.”

She’s now a creature of habit when it comes to food, not always easy with kids, and the snacks they eat or the leftovers they ignore. Fortunately, the dog can help end that temptation quickly. She uses products from Grindstone Blends, a sponsor and provider of clean carbs and creative meals. She has a macro coach, plus an app that helps track proteins, carbs, and fats.

“There’s nothing overly exciting. Not a lot of variety, but it works and if it works and if it's getting me closer towards my goal, it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice. It feels like it’s just a part of the training.”

As for now being a Master, it’s an exciting challenge that she’s raring to attack.

“People are afraid of aging, especially in sport. But for this sport, aging is unlocking a new category. It’s a benefit getting older in this sport. I don’t feel 35. As they say, you’re as old as you think you are.”

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As you read this, you would most likely find Truelove training, working, or simply thinking about what’s next for TEAMLDN CrossFit, the team organized by her and her coach and business partner, Billy Gooding.

Based in the TEAMLDN Hybrid Training Centre on Oxford Street, the team is designed to be a focal point for elite athletes within the city.

“We want to be the foundation for all athletes – the program, the facility, the elite coaching, highly technical, highly passionate. Our goal is to have all teams within London come under umbrella of TEAMLDN,” Truelove explained.

“You don’t have to be in the top 1% to be celebrated and respected. You don’t have to be elite to go as far as you can go. If you want to be the best athlete you can be, you are a TEAMLDN athlete. If you've told yourself that you want to be the best of the best, then we will get you there.”

Next month, she heads into a competition that feels like she has been preparing for her entire life. She does so without nerves, but with a mind and body in a good place – confident and grateful – and with a team fully behind her.

“I started this competitive journey with him (Gooding). I appreciate him and respect him and cannot thank him enough for having that belief in me. He always said that I was going to do it. He always knew it was going to be me to do it. As my coach, he’s facilitated a lot of this success with me. We’ve built this business together. We’ve trained together. Now, he’s pushing me farther.”

She continued, “This has been a really beautiful process to get here. Sports can have its challenges, its ups and downs. It can impact physical and mental health. But this has been a beautiful process – as an athlete, as a coach and as a business owner.”