15-year-old from Saskatoon competing to be among fittest teens worldwide

A Saskatoon girl is competing for the title of fittest 15-year-old in the world.

Brynn Delainey just wrapped up her competition submissions for the CrossFit Games semifinals.

She has made her way into the top 30 fittest girls her age across the world, in the top 10 per cent of all girls who entered her category. The top one per cent of all entered in the competition — 10 girls — will advance to the finals, which will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, at the end of July.

“The nerves are there every so often,” Delainey said, adding that without the support of her coaches, teammates and family, she’d probably be much more nervous about the competition.

But the teen is filled with excitement too, and said she knows she’ll be proud of herself in the end, regardless of her finishing rank.

Delainey started with CrossFit when she was around 11 as a form of conditioning for rhythmic gymnastics and volleyball, the two other sports she competes in at a high level.

Drawn to CrossFit for its friendly and competitive environment, Delainey and her mom decided to work with coach Jason Cain, who owns CrossFit 306 in Saskatoon.

Cain said it was Delainey’s desire to train more often that led him to develop the high-performance competitive team she’s now part of. The team has been training together for about a year.

“I kept going and I kept pushing because I found this companionship, and it was really fun to compete just within the group,” Delainey said. “There’s rivalry, but there’s also friendship at the same time.”

Brynn Delainey after one of her competition workouts at Crossfit 306 in Saskatoon on May 27, 2022. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

Delainey’s mom, Kelly Mahood, said any parent of an athlete will understand the dedication.

“It’s life,” Mahood explained. “You’re the nutritionist, the limousine, the alarm clock (and) the emotional support.”

While she didn’t grow up knowing about CrossFit as a sport, Mahood said she was the one to recognize how much passion her daughter had for it, and helped her incorporate it more seriously into their lives.

“Moms of athletes move mountains,” she said.

Mahood teared up watching her daughter warm up to film one of her competition workouts.

“She kicks ass,” she said. “She’s a very strong, confident kid, and this sport of CrossFit and the community and the team program and her coaches and her interactions with the other athletes has developed her as a person. She’s confident, she’s bright (and) she’s quick.”

The 15-year-old is particularly proud of her jerk, and just hit a new personal record a few weeks ago at 195 pounds.

The semifinal competition involves six workouts that Delainey and her coaches had to film her completing.

“It’s unreal. I can’t comprehend that I am top 30 in the world currently,” Delainey said.

The workouts involve things like repeated snatches over a period of time, hand-walking 80 metres at a time, and repeated extended situps, bench presses and jerks.

Her favourite workouts are the ones that are more in line with her gymnastic background — she said she finds them enjoyable “100 per cent of the time.”

“Brynn has been an absolute little star since she came over,” Cain said. “She had the desire to really see what she could do with the sport, and we realized in order to take her to the next level, we’d have to build a whole different program around it.”

Brynn Delainey snatches during one of her competitions involving weightlifting at CrossFit 306 in Saskatoon on May 27, 2022. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

Cain himself has been competing in CrossFit since 2008, around the time the sport was starting to become better recognized. He has competed in several world championships during his career, and said the variety of workouts available to athletes is part of the “beauty of CrossFit” for athletes.

Delainey is currently tied for 27th overall in the competition, putting her firmly in the top 30 but a ways out of the top 10.

“She has an outside shot,” Cain said.

The growth Delainey has shown in just the past year, however, is exciting to her coach.

“Every year we’re seeing her development,” Cain said, noting Delainey didn’t advance past the quarterfinals in last year’s competition.

Delainey said she plans to keep pushing and growing. She doesn’t want to stop the sport anytime soon, and thrives on the constant competition.

“I’ll be doing CrossFit as long as I can. I really enjoy it,” she said, calling it a “release” and her “happy place.”