Making it to Madison with crossfit athlete jake douglas
Jake Douglas is the Owner and Coach at Tamworth’s Snake Athletic – where elite and everyday athletes train side by side. He’s also Ellen’s husband, Frankie and Johnny’s dad, and sits in the top 0.02 per cent of male CrossFit athletes worldwide. Here’s how he made it to Madison, Wisconsin, to compete in the 2023 CrossFit Games.
Before August 2023, walking through the doors of Snake Athletic in Tamworth’s Taminda industrial estate, you’d have seen one of the more than 30 weekly classes in session – a mix of tradies and teachers, nurses and doctors, mums with prams in tow, retirees (our oldest member is Jack, who recently celebrated his 84th birthday), sports teams in the off-season, police officers and everyone in between going about their daily workout.
Or, you’d have seen Jake Douglas – owner, coach and CrossFit Games athlete – working through one of his multiple gruelling daily workouts alongside training partner and fellow coach, Georgia Pryer.
Starting Snake Athletic in 2012 in his garage, Jake spent years coaching every class, running the business and working on his own goals as an athlete. He even continued working as a plumber for a short time, coaching classes before and after work before making Snake his full-time business.
In 2022, Jake narrowly missed a ticket to the CrossFit Games, coming fifth in a field of 40 when he needed to place in the top three. It was then he decided to do whatever it took to qualify for the Games in 2023.
With his ever-supportive fiancé Ellen by his side, their two children Frankie and Johnny cheering him on, and a can-do team helping to run Snake, Jake threw everything he had at making the Games vision a reality. He became a full-time athlete whose only mission for the 2023 season was to eat, sleep, train and be the best man he could for his family.
Against all odds
The journey to Madison, Wisconsin, home of the CrossFit Games since 2017, was eight years in the making for Jake. One that involved nearly every possible excuse for not continuing to pursue elite fitness: multiple surgeries, becoming a father of two, running a business through COVID lockdowns, just missing out on qualifying, and finally making it to the Games as one of the oldest competitors in the field at 32.
Jake committed to his dream of qualifying for the CrossFit Games in 2015.
Competing in CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting for several years, Jake was on track to join the Commonwealth Games Weightlifting team in 2019 in the 96kg class before an elbow injury ruled him out of the qualifying event. Jake returned to playing rugby, only to suffer a ruptured ACL during a game, which led to months of rehabilitation after multiple surgeries.
While the odds of ever making it back to a CrossFit Games qualifying level of fitness seemed stacked against him, Jake predicted his comeback in a pre-surgery Instagram post he wrote while lying in a hospital bed:
“I plan on coming back hard and fast. I’ll be fitter, stronger and more resilient than ever. Just wait and see.”
With a fifth-place CrossFit regionals finish in 2022, Jake knew he was on the right track. In early 2023, he was invited to join Mat Fraser’s training camp, Hard Work Pays Off – Mat, having won the CrossFit Games and crowned The Fittest Man on Earth five years in a row, was good company.
Now, for context, before you dismiss the idea of being able to give someone the title of the fittest on earth – or before the inevitable “but what about Iron Man champions, Olympic sprinters, professional soccer players, or MMA fighters…”
Consider what it takes to find the fittest man and woman on earth.
The CrossFit Games are a gruelling test of fitness that athletes from around the world train for years to compete in. The competition spans all fitness domains, including cardiovascular, endurance, stamina, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy, training for the unknown and unknowable – making them a test of mental strength just as much physical.
The workouts are announced just before and during the Games and can include any combination of running, swimming, bike riding, Olympic weightlifting, and gymnastics.
The fittest man and woman on earth are crowned after completing 12-15 workouts over four days. To even qualify for the CrossFit Games, athletes must first participate in a three-week Open competition with over 322,000 competitors worldwide. Only the top 0.02 per cent of male CrossFit athletes worldwide qualify for the Games.
For Jake, the Torian Pro Qualifier event 2023 was a literal dream come true. His third-place finish placed him in that 0.02 per cent.
Take a scroll back through his Instagram to watch the moment he found out he’d qualified for the Games – Jake’s teary, clinging-to-daughter-Frankie’s-T-shirt-reaction says it all.
The Games
For those who love CrossFit, the Games are a surreal festival of all things fitness: a continual line-up of events to watch, a vendor village of every possible CrossFit-associated brand to explore, pop-up bars and food vendors to enjoy, as well as group workouts led by CrossFit HQ to join.
The week-long event attracts 50,000 people and hundreds of athletes across all divisions. It’s hot and loud and exciting and awe-inspiring.
Under the Wisconsin summer sun, Jake competed with everything he had and fought till the very last rep. While he placed far from where he hoped on the leaderboard, he inspired thousands with his effort and sportsmanship
Reflecting on his journey and whether his children are his ‘why’, Jake mused, “They’re everything, they drive me – they’re not ‘why’ I’m competing, I’m competing because I’m that way inclined, and I need to compete in something, I enjoy it.
“But I really appreciate the fact that I get to set an example for them in the way I compete, the way I continue to show up – the lessons of perseverance, dedication, resilience that I get to set by example, not by just talking to them about it.”
Which is exactly what he does for the community at Snake Athletic. He leads by example, proving for over a decade that no matter your goals, hard work pays off.
And despite all the attention he’s gained, the podcast interviews, the hundreds lining up for a photo, sponsorships and thousands of supportive comments flooding his Instagram posts – Jake remains the same humble, hard-working, hyper-active, storytelling, family man with the big heart that the Snake community has always known.
Post-CrossFit Games, you may find Jake coaching or simply training with a class – more concerned about making sure his members have the best hour of their day when they walk through the doors of Snake than talking about his achievements on the world stage. Although, we’re all hoping to see him back there in 2024.
Action stations!
See Jake and the Snake Athletic Team in action six days a week (because Sunday is rest day) at Tamworth’s Taminda industrial estate.
6/52 Barnes Street, Tamworth
snakeathletic.com.au
@snakeathletictamworth
@_jakedouglas_