Highland Park Sophomore Ashley Gimbel Ranks 8th in the World at 2016 Crossfit Open

HIGHLAND PARK, IL (APRIL 2016) — Ashley Gimbel, Highland Park High School sophomore, ranked first in the North Central region in the recent CrossFit games open in the scaled division for 16-17 year old girls. Gimbel placed an outstanding 4th in the United States and 8th in the world in her division.

CrossFit is a newer strength and conditioning program that incorporates elements of Olympic weight lifting, gymnastics, high-intensity interval training and other exercises. There are approximately 13,000 affiliated CrossFit gyms, referred to as Boxes, across the world, approximately half of which are in the United States. The CrossFit Games were established in 2007 where men and women compete for the title “Fittest Man or Woman on Earth”. The program was expanded to include an online based CrossFit Open in 2011 where individuals compete in a five week program from their local Box and publish their scores online.

Gimbel, who enjoyed participating in a variety of sports activities and teams since she was very young, discovered CrossFit the summer before her freshman year of high school. She joined The Box: CrossFit Autonomy in 2014 and fell in love with the sport immediately. “I loved the sense of community at The Box and the fact that I was responsible for pushing myself to reach goals I set with the help of the coaching staff,” said Gimbel.

Gimbel actually took a hiatus from CrossFit that fall to represent Highland Park High School on the girls volleyball, basketball and softball teams but could not stay away from The Box for long. She began working out at The Box with more intensity in the summer of 2015. This time when school resumed, she did not want lose all the progress she achieved over the summer. So now, in addition to participating on a high school sports each season, she is working out at 6 a.m. before school and on weekends at The Box.

That fall she did not yet have her driver’s license so Gimbel rode her bike to the gym at 5:30 a.m. each morning to workout, while wearing her heavy school backpack on her back and volleyball bag in front. “When we turned the clocks back in October, the mornings got so dark I had to start wearing a headlamp to see the road while I was riding to the gym,” said Gimbel, “I was really happy to have a mid-November birthday so I could get my license before there was snow on the ground!”

Gimbel was excited to try the 2016 CrossFit Open to determine where she stood compared to similar athletes. Much to her surprise, after the first week of a five-week competition, she ranked number nine in the world out of over 750 girls in her age and division.

Kevin Houston, owner and head coach at The Box: CrossFit Autonomy says “Ashley is one of my favorite athletes. She is the answer to the question: What happens when hard work and gifted talent are combined? The sky is the limit for this kid…and I look forward to coaching her at the next level in years to come.”

Gimbel is looking forward to the end of the school year when she plans to work at a summer camp and do “two-a day” workouts in order to move up to the higher “prescribed” division for the 2017 CrossFit Open.

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