A year is a long time in sport. In 2024, Jennifer Muir reached the CrossFit Open semi-finals for the second time and was finding her feet as a full-time athlete, ticking off a dream she’s long harboured.
January 2025 hasn’t even finished and she’s already crossed off another and will, this weekend, fulfil another ambition when she travels to Miami, Florida to compete at Wodapalooza, widely recognised as one of the biggest CrossFit competitions in the world after the Games themselves.
Though it is Muir’s first time competing at the ‘world’s premier functional fitness festival’, where the Scot, from Kirkintilloch, will be competing both as an individual and as part of a team alongside Lucy Campbell, a 2022 Games athlete with two event wins under her belt, and Tayla Howe who competed at the Rogue Invitational in Aberdeen last November, she shows no signs of fear of the workload this weekend, despite nursing a shoulder injury since New Years Day.
‘It’s a big deal in the season to qualify for Wodapalooza,’ says Muir. ‘The Rogue Invitational and Wodapalooza were always the two that I wanted to go for outside of the Games.
‘It’s a bonus that it’s in Miami. Obviously, with semi-finals (for the Games) it’s exclusive to Europe, so at Wodapalooza I’ll get to on the floor with athletes I’ve never competed with, so the Americans and Australians, things like that.
‘Sadly, my preparation hasn’t been the way we wanted to. I woke up on New Years Day with a really bad shoulder injury so the last two weeks have just been about rehabbing that, to be honest. I’ve still been doing lower body conditioning on the C2 bike and the echo bike. I’ve not been able to ski or anything like that, just reintroduced gymnastics last week and all I did were so toes to bar. And I’ve only now just started to do rope climbs again.
Muir is in Miami this weekend at Wodapalooza having reached the CrossFit Games semi-finals last summer
The Scot has not had the easiest preparation, nursing a shoulder injury these last few weeks
‘So it’s not been the fun prep I’ve been looking forward to but my coach has just been his socks off to make sure I’m healthy enough to compete. It’s just about managing the loads so my shoulder doesn’t flare up before then.
‘Even with the injury, I think I’ll manage it all fine. We’ve worked to manage load and the rehab is the perfect amount. So, it’ll be 12 events I do over the weekend, so maybe by the end of that my shoulder might not be the best health but we should be able to get through and tick off each event as it comes.’
Though last year did not go entirely to plan for Muir, losing her title as the Fittest Woman in the UK and falling just short of an invitation to the Games finals at the last hurdle for the second year in a row, more dreams came true for the 24-year-old.
Having taken the gamble to go full-time as an athlete, Muir spent as much time as possible competing and trying to grow her own brand, while looking for sponsors to help further her career. It paid off and, in December, she was invited to the Adidas UK Athlete Summit.
‘Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be an athlete. I just didn’t know which sport would be my calling. I did swimming, triathlon, a bit of powerlifting, then when I came into CrossFit, brands like Adidas weren’t actually involved in the sport, so you weren’t sure that you’d ever get the opportunity to be an Adidas athlete.
‘When I did powerlifting and ran track, all my shoes were Adidas, so it’s really cool to now be representing a brand like that.
‘Having all my sponsors helps massively. Frog Grips and ESN have helped with competition support. ESN have funded my entire trip to Wodapalooza, so without them I wouldn’t be able to do it and Frog Grips have some opportunities in Australia. Getting to travel and see the world and get these opportunities is thanks to them and a massive help.’
Muir’s fitness will be put to the test across a variety of different events
Not only has Muir also seen her ability as a competitor increase, she has also worked alongside other CrossFit athletes to provide seminars to introduce women to CrossFit and weightlifting in general.
Having seen more than their fair share of competitions in the UK over her young career, Muir admits that having something tailored for the Scottish CrossFit – and fitness – community appealed to her, while also helping to empower women in the gym.
‘The seminars with Ali (Crawford) came about off the back of Proving Grounds,’ she reveals. ‘We just loved how much the community was there in Scotland. When you go to the other competitions, around the UK, there’s not as many Scottish people there, so we wanted to do a female-only training day, where we got everyone together again.
‘With competing, you don’t really get much time to chat to people, you’re just kind of running in between events and don’t get much time to talk to people.
‘We wanted it to be female only because of the stereotypical view. Sadly, it can still be a bit daunting for women to lift weights, it’s still got that male stigmatism around it so myself and Ali lift lots of weights, we’re muscley and maybe role models so can show how good it is for you, how fun it is for females specifically.
The former Fittest Woman in the UK will compete as an individual and as part of a team this weekend
‘Hopefully it took any of that embarrassment away for any beginners in particular as we opened it up to everyone of any level so we thought that might be a better environment to start their first training day or introduction to it.
‘Then myself and Ella (Wilkinson) did one and she’s an Adidas athlete as well so it was great to do one alongside her and represent the brand there.’
