Mallory O'Brien is a

CrossFit CrossFit is a branded fitness regimen that involves constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. The method was developed by Greg Glassman, who founded CrossFit with Lauren Jenai in 2000, with CrossFit its registered trad ...

athlete. In 2022, at the age of 18, she came in second at the

2022 CrossFit Games The 2022 CrossFit Games is the 16th iteration of the annual competition in the sport of CrossFit held from August 3 to August 7, 2022, in Madison, Wisconsin. Both Justin Medeiros and Tia-Clair Toomey repeated their 2021 win in their respective me ...

, becoming the youngest ever person to podium. Earlier in the year, she was the youngest ever person to win the Crossfit Open, and in 2021 was named CrossFit's Rookie of the Year.

Early life

Mallory O'Brien was born to Joe and Nicole O'Brien. She has been athletic from a young age, and was a competitive gymnast since the age of 3, reaching level 6. She became involved in CrossFit at the age of 10 when her mother took her to a CrossFit gym in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

. She started to compete at the age of 12 by participating in online qualifiers for competitions such as

Wodapalooza Wodapalooza Fitness Festival (WZA) is an annual four-day functional fitness festival held in Miami centered on a CrossFit competition. The event was first established in 2012 and has since developed into one of the largest fitness festival in th ...

. She initially trained under former Games athlete Elijah Muhammad for a number of years before moving to train under James Townsend in late 2019. In 2020, Mal was diagnosed with

Lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of ''Borrelia'' bacteria, Disease vector, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. It is the most common disease spread by ticks in th ...

. She joined HWPO in January 2022 to be trained by the former champion Mat Fraser.

Career

O'Brien started competing in the teen division of the CrossFit Games at the age of 14 starting in 2018 and finished 4th in the 14–15 age group in her debut season. She also qualified for the 2019 CrossFit Games and finished 5th in her age group. She did not compete in 2020 to recover from a number of health issues. She was diagnosed with Lyme disease in early 2020. At the

2021 CrossFit Games The 2021 CrossFit Games was the 15th edition of the CrossFit Games held from July 27 to August 1, 2021. Justin Medeiros won the men's competition, Tia-Clair Toomey the women's, and CrossFit Mayhem the team's. The qualification process for the Ga ...

, O'Brien competed in the elite women division for the first time. She won Individual Event 4, and became the youngest-ever competitor to win an event at the Games. She eventually finished 7th overall and was named Rookie of the Year, thereby becoming the first athlete to win the accolade while still eligible for the teen divisions. In 2022, O'Brien became the youngest person to win the CrossFit Open. At the

, O'Brien finished in second-place after six-time winner

Tia-Clair Toomey Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr (née Toomey; born 22 July 1993) is an Australian weightlifter and CrossFit Games athlete. After winning her seventh title at the 2024 CrossFit Games, Toomey has more title wins than any other athlete in the history of the ...

, which made her the youngest-ever person to reach the podium at the CrossFit Games.

CrossFit Games results

References

External links

Mal O'Brien
at CrossFit {{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Mal 2003 births CrossFit athletes Living people Sportspeople from Iowa 21st-century American sportswomen