2025 Empower Awards Gala Recap

Every year we gather to celebrate our amazing community members.  Before CrossFit, fitness was a vain, solitary pursuit.  You’d go to the gym, put in your ear pods and park yourself in front of a mirror for an hour.

Not only does CrossFit provide a more effective training methodology, the community aspect of CrossFit transforms fitness into a journey we travel together.  The friends we make at Empower help us through hard workouts in the gym and hard times in our lives outside the gym fortifying our souls with meaningful relationships that will last a lifetime.

These relationships are what make Empower special and make our community worth celebrating.  Saturday was our opportunity to thank you for being the amazing people that you are!

The sun was shining, the turnout was fantastic and everyone looked sharp dressed in their celebratory best.

Shades, our events coordinator did an amazing job as always with some help from Silk and Timberwolf (and as always, budget and organisation in the background courtesy of Auto).  KMT single handedly put together a delicious spread!

After a brief greeting, we dove right into the awards starting with the attendance awards.

Members who surpassed 500+ classes in the past year:
Sable, Rico, Dizzy, Maui, Hurricane, Adagio, Whisper, New Girl, Mustang, Savitar, Maxim, Brawler, Lotus, Pebbles

Members who surpassed 100+ classes in the past year:
The Assassin, Hawkeye, Radar, Iron Dam, Badger

And members who exceeded Zen Planner’s ability to count by surpassing 2000+ classes:
Crusher & Magnum

We then moved on to recognizing our Empower class of 2019, members who have completed 5 years in our community:
Pepper, Ironman, Rico, Spice & Klassy

We inducted 7 more members, our class of 2015 to our Empower Legend’s Wall:
Dauntless, F-Bomb, Smash, Auto, Sass, Hammer & Crusher

We celebrated our 5th and final year of the Unstoppable Challenge by recognizing winners:
KMT, Smash, HHH and Triple Crown winner: The Assassin

Moving on to the 2025 Intramural Team Competition
We thanked the team responsible for organizing and executing both the 3 weeks of Friday Night Lights and the Intramural Team competition:
Shades, Motor, HHH, Salsa, Rockstar, Auto

We also recognized team captains Fuego, Spice & Hurricane for all the work they did organizing their teams.

Shades crowned the 2025 Intramural Team Champions:
Snatch Me if You Can
This was Spice’s 3rd consecutive win as a team captain and she remains undefeated making history as Empower’s winningest team captain ever!

Spirit of the Open
This is Empower’s most prestigious award voted on by you, the members, to celebrate the community member who made the biggest positive impact in your experience of the Open.

We began by calling up previous Spirit of the Open winners:
Motor, Dangers, Steel, PomPom, HHH, Silk, Sprite, Fierce, DT, Shades, Doc Disc, Enigma, Viper

We then invited up 2025’s nominees.  This year we had 4 or 5 members tied for runner up, our winner receiving just one vote more.  Here are the nominees along with some words about them submitted by members:

1. She took on the leadership role like a champ. She designed our incredible WOD busters poster, and even on the down low helped a rival team make their poster as well. She dashed out of the Legion during our song planning night, to go back to her place to get pens and paper for the group to record our masterpiece. She kept our WhatApp group informed and on task. She did all of these things while nursing a busted knee and managing a concussion. She supported the whole team with her humour and her kindness. She is an absolute beacon of loveliness and I believe embodies the Spirit of the Open! - Go Fuego!

2. She and Savitar were the brains behind the Kettlebellands finale Wicked show.  completed 25.3 directly before — an experience that left her depleted and nearly inconsolable with tears of frustration.
But what did she do? She took a moment, dusted herself off — and proceeded to sing and dance and delight us all.  A real champ.

She played an integral role as a KettleBellend in all three challenges! She created our team photo, came up with the idea for the Week 2 Prediction Challenge, and helped choreograph the Week 3 performance. I don't think anyone embraced the "spirit" of the Open as much as she did, and I think she would be a very worthy recipient of this year's award!

Valiente

3. Purchasing and bringing food to FNL each week. His attention to detail was fabulous, and his help was beyond invaluable!

And for his unwavering spirit in registering for the Open, stepping into the ring, taking on each workout, and challenging himself. He achieved his first jumping pull-up and tackled the wall walk version for his age group, which was an incredibly tough feat and so inspiring to witness.

You are amazing! Thank you for all your assistance, attention, and care with this year's Open and for striving to make Empower a better place to be each day!

Auto

4. In recognition of her unwavering enthusiasm, support, and also vision in helping decorate the gym. She not only came up with a fantastic idea for decorations that lasted the full three weeks, but her messaging truly captured the heart of the Open.

Beyond her creative contributions, she showed up each week to cheer on and support athletes, even after completing the workout herself in the morning. Her uplifting spirit and genuine care made a real impact on the community. Despite the Open marking a personally challenging time in her life, she still brought energy, encouragement, and positivity to every event.

I’m a huge fan and love watching her high-level technique in most of the movements. Having her beside me, supporting and cheering me on, was truly inspiring. I also love seeing her and Smash training together - it always fills my heart with happiness to see them pushing each other to work harder.

Quite simply, it wouldn’t be the Open without HHH.

5. She was definitely responsible for most of my skill development, especially in the hardest movements. At times, I felt like she was my personal coach - without charging me extra for it! Her knowledge and incredible positive energy pushed me to work harder and harder. I remember the 2025.1 workout when I was about to give up on the final burpees. The only thing I could hear was her voice saying, "YOU GOT THIS!" That gave me an extra boost of energy to push myself just a bit more.

Motor

6. Her costume and working through a thumb injury to complete every workout was inspiring.

Savitar

7. She had plenty of legitimate reasons to bow out or not be there but she committed every week like a champ. Her dedication and consistency is inspiring to me. I hope I am still here years from now showing up and getting the work done just like her

Irondam

8. Has been "team captain" of many CrossFit Open Teams in the past.  This year recognized the importance of empowering a new generation of captains.  Her presence, guidance,coaching and sharing her experiences made our "WODBUSTERS" a fun and successful competitor.

DT

9.  Always around where needed,wanted, requested and her presence was desired.  Her cheering and judging for all CrossFit Open Teams stood out.  courage to show up for herself and her team made her a reliable and awesome teammate.

Dauntless

10. Cheered for every competitor, no matter their team.  was ready to judge anyone who needed it, even when they (ahem, I) may have realized they needed a judge at the last possible minute.   knew the specifics of the workouts and was ready to support other athletes as they collected the equipment needed for their workout, helping others to do their best open workouts.  lift our Empower community up with her support and positivity.  also fueled her own open workouts with the spirit of the empower community, setting a PR by channeling the Spirit of the Open into her first kipping pull ups.  brings heart, hoorays, and heroic efforts to every WOD she, and those around her, take on.

Jedi

11. She was a fantastic teammate but also my greatest supporter, especially when needing a confidence boost.

Viper

And our 2025 Spirit of the Open winner:

Her first Open. She went into the open not knowing what to expect, and she brought her A game! Completed all three workouts during Friday Night Lights. She enthusiastically cheered on other athletes and contributed an unforgettable performance as part of the Kettlebellends song and dance. Not only is she an incredible athlete, she is a supportive community member. She helps to make Empower a better place!

She came with high energy to every workout and showed so much determination. She flew during the Kettlebellends performance.

Was there to cheer everyone on and always had a smile throughout

Demonstrated amazing athletic skill in her first CF competition

Roxy

It was another amazing year.  We had a guest from another former CrossFit gym there with us and he had never seen anything like it because no other gyms have an awards gala like ours to celebrate our outstanding membership. It was our 10th annual awards gala and an especially sweet one for me for personal reasons.  Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen:)

Monday
We may not have enough bikes to go around so, rowers will be an option, especially if you are NOT doing the legless climb.

Warm Up
3 Rounds:
Group A
1 min airbike/row
Group B
Round 1: 1 min Ring Rows
Round 2: 1 min Alt Single Arm Ring Rows
Round 3: 1 min Rope Climb from ground to standing

Tech
Rope Climb

WOD
10 Rounds
7/10 cal Bike/Row
1 Legless Climb

Finisher:
KB TGU EMOM
1 TGU Left, 1 TGU right every minute