CrossFit: China’s Chen Aichan is on a quest to be the best in Asia and become the first from mainland at the Games
- The 33-year-old two-time China defending champion has her heart set on a CrossFit Games appearance
- Chen, who also goes by ‘Bobo’, says being the defending champion brings a lot of pressure to perform
China’s Bobo Chen Aichan finds herself on the precipice of being the first mainland athlete to compete at the CrossFit Games, but she knows the road is going to be tough.
The 33-year-old was in contention after she finished 14th at the Asia CrossFit Championship semi-finals, which was pushed online due to Covid-19, after coming first in China in the 2021 CrossFit Open, which put her fifth in all of Asia.
Chen said the whole season has been gruelling, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“2021 is the longest season in the CrossFit events I’ve been in since 2018,” she told the Post. “Since the game has transformed back to a regional competition system, the pressure has doubled, and I’ve been in a tight state of combat the whole six months. From the Open in March, and the April quarter-finals, to the mid-June semi-finals – the battle has been very long.”
The former national weightlifter – who left that sport in 2017 – won her first national title in 2020, the year after CrossFit did away with direct tickets to the games for country champions. China’s growth in the sport (which also includes Hong Kong and Taiwan), has been pegged by CrossFit’s new CEO Eric Roza as a vast untapped market.
