The 2013 Fittest Woman in the World to Make Appearance at Soul Open

By: Lauryn Lax

New Soul Open Athlete to Watch: Samantha Briggs

 

When you train and compete for a living, you are always “in season” and ready to bring your A-game.

 

Samantha Briggs, the 2013 Fittest Woman in the World, is a living testament to this—she has been training and competing non-stop ever since last year’s Europe CrossFit Regional upset left her out of a podium spot to compete at the 2014 CrossFit Games.

 

Briggs’ “fight”, not flight, mentality, however, has propelled her this past year to continue to reach new heights in her training and competing in order to be back in Carson in 2015.

 

This upcoming weekend, she is preparing to compete in her first Soul Open weightlifting meet in South Miami, Florida.  

 

The sport and competitive weightlifting scene is relatively new to this seasoned CrossFit champ.

 

“I’ve been working on my Olympic weightlifting. In fact, the reason I signed up for this is the first place is I was coming out to work on my Olympic weightlifting with Danny Lopez (the host) and the dates coincided with the Soul Open,” Briggs said.

 

While this will be her first Soul Open, Briggs has participated in a couple of lifting competitions in the UK to date, including the Northern Open and the English Championships.

 

“My best total so far has been 150kg (65kg/85kg) so I'm hoping to exceed that this weekend!” Briggs said.

 

She is already a step closer.

 

“I finally managed to Clean & Jerk 100kg last week during my training session,” Briggs said.

 

Aside from working on her weightlifting, Briggs said she’s primarily been focused on “Lots of CrossFit!”

 

“I'm working with Laura Sweatt for Power Lifting, Sean Lind for gymnastics, and Danny Lopez for Olympic Lifting, then sprinkling metcons and conditioning on top,” she said.

 

Briggs was also seen on the competition floor at the Mid American Championships, the Granite Games, and the CrossFit Team Series, as well as the CrossFit Invitational coming up in two weeks.

 

“I love pushing myself against others. Just recently I was training with Margaux Alverez and Jen Smith in Ohio. After the Team Series I was with Julie Foucher, Camille and Lauren Fisher in Columbus. When I was still in California, I trained with Becca Voigt and Kris Clever. And, next week, Talyana is driving up to throw down with me too! You always push yourself harder when you're going against someone else!” Briggs said. 

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