On Tuesday December 14, one of VCI’s physical education classes was virtually visited by CrossFit superstar, Cole Sager.

Sager spoke to the class about such things as leadership, commitment, and the importance of betting on yourself and believing in yourself. As a young man in high school, Cole explained to students how his dream of playing collegiate football was so big that one day he signed himself out of his afternoon classes and drove to the University of Washington to meet the football coach, just to tell him how interested he was in playing there and to pitch to him why he deserved a shot. The equivalent of an “elevator pitch”, he said that this turned out to be a good move that later translated into a football scholarship.

He spoke to the students about the importance of having dreams and that it’s okay for those dreams to change. His dream of playing football changed after offers from NFL teams were nowhere to be found.

Sager was introduced to CrossFit shortly after university by a friend, who shared a video of Ben Smith and Rich Froning Jr. He said that the video was not even about CrossFit, it was about having this platform where you could inspire people and make their lives a little better. Sager was sold on the idea and was now going to use CrossFit as his platform to convey that same message and to share his ideas and values.

His journey to success was filled with doubters and naysayers. From people in his life, to guidance counsellors at his high school. He quickly learned to ignore some of those people and to really believe in himself.

“There were definitely a few more believers and strong people around, but not everyone has the ability to tune out the negative people,” Sager told the class.

The CrossFit veteran continues to believe in himself in his pursuit to become the fittest man on Earth. In 2017, Sager was awarded the Spirit of the Games Award, something that he values more than his Top 5 finish from 2016.

“To be recognized as a good person by fellow competitors, and someone people look up to and enjoy being around is such a great award to receive,” he said.

Along with success came tough decisions and sacrifices. Sager spoke to students about the commitments he had to make so that he could make CrossFit his career. He decided to quit his job and focus on CrossFit alone, as he wanted to become one of the best in the world instead of being “sort of good” at CrossFit and “sort of good” at selling mortgages (his job after university).

Fortunately, the road led this small-town boy to CrossFit fame and gave him the platform to share his core values of being nice to one another and, helping each other out on a daily basis, with the rest of the community.