Dubai CrossFit Championship: American Callerina Natori doubles up with tactical games and marksmanship experience
- As an expert marksman, Natori has a unique skillset outside of competing
When it comes to badass CrossFit athletes, there are a lot to choose from, but one might take the cake.
American Callerina Natori has another passion outside of CrossFit – tactical games events in which athletes complete obstacle courses and do physical fitness challenges similar to CrossFit, but then also shoot weapons in between to score points.
Natori, 29, was raised in the southern United States outside of Birmingham, Alabama and said she’s always been around guns and had proper training on how to use them and safety measures since a child.
“I grew up in the South where we grow up hunting and shooting guns, and shooting was just something that I was raised to respect and understand,” said Callerina, who currently sits tied for eighth after the first event at the Dubai CrossFit Championship, which started on Wednesday and runs for three more days in the United Arab Emirates city. The first event took place at the beach by the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah and featured swimming and sandbags.
She picked it up last year and is the only competitive CrossFit athlete mixed in with tactical games opponents who all have either a military background or are professional shooters. She said having an elite level of fitness gives her a leg up in one regard of tactical competitions as she fine-tunes her shooting skills.
