Mackay’s Christee Hollard to compete at CrossFit Games in US

A Mackay woman has gone through seven years of dedicated training and gruelling workouts with one single focus – to make it to the CrossFit Games. She reveals her motivation, strengths and what it takes to be among the best.

Sweat drips from her brow, chest heaving as she works to regain composure and slow her heart rate.

She’s pushed herself into a dark place, body hurting but through grit, determination and her training she continues to move.

Burpees, bar muscle ups, handstand push ups, thrusters, legless rope climbs.

These are gruelling workouts to be completed within harsh time caps – and every second, every tenth of a second matters.

It can be a difficult task for the average fit athlete.

But Mackay’s Christee Hollard is no average athlete and for the past seven years she has had one focus – to make it to the Crossfit Games.

Mackay crossfitter Christee Hollard competing at the semi finals in Brisbane in May. She has won a place at the CrossFit Games in the teams division.

And this year she, along with three others who form team CrossFit EXF have secured that golden ticket after placing third at the semi finals in Brisbane in May and will head to Madison, Wisconsin to compete against the best in the world.

“It was actually a big sigh of relief,” the 30 year old said, adding their team went into the final event needing to win to lock in a place at the games.

“It was so nerve wracking.”

Only five points separated Hollard’s team and fourth place and only the top three qualify for the games.

“I knew the stakes going into that event,” she said.

Hollard is first Mackay CrossFit athlete to earn a spot at the games and only one of a small number from the country – only the top three men, women and teams from Australia compete at Madison.

“It’s like the past seven years of hard work has paid off,” she said.

And it’s not the first time she has qualified for the games. In 2020 she also finished in the top three in the teams division, but devastatingly Covid dashed her chances of competing.

“It hurt. I train this hard to try and get to the games. And then you make it but it’s bittersweet because you don’t even get to go,” she said.

In 2021 Hollard took a shot at competing as an individual, but sadly was not in the top three.

The loss hit hard because of the effort she had put in that year, even taking long service leave to completely focus on her training.

“I really put all my eggs in that basket. It just wasn’t my weekend, I fell short,” she said, adding she had placed ninth out of 30 women at the semi finals, which had been whittled down from 13,000 people across Australia.

Mackay's Christee Hollard (middle right) and her teammates Moses Petelo (far left), Henry Carlile and Briony Challis from CrossFit EXF have won a place to compete at the CrossFit Games in the US in August.

This year Hollard formed a team – with Briony Challis, Henry Carlile and Moses Petelo (who owns their CrossFit namesake) – and had to relocate to Brisbane, away from her husband, family and friends, to live and train as part of the competition requirements.

Her CrossFit journey began less than a decade ago when her sister in law introduced her to the sport at age 22.

“I tried it and I was hooked from the first … class,” Hollard said.

“Then I just started coming six days a week.

“That’s all I’ve known since then.”

Like so many others, it appealed to her because every day was different from weightlifting to gymnastics to cardio.

“I found it challenging, but challenging enough that you were still able to attain certain goals – so it wasn’t out of reach,” she said.

Hollard, who turns 31 in July, has an athletic background representing Australia in under 17s hockey.

Hollard has spent seven years training – usually on her own at CrossFit 4740 – to compete at the CrossFit Games in the US. Picture: Janessa Ekert

When she finished school love kept her in the sugar city where she met her now husband Kieran Hollard and as a result did not pursue her hockey career.

But her introduction to the multifunction sport reignited a fire and within six months Hollard had signed up for local competition Fittest in the Coalfields at Moranbah, bolstered by others in the CrossFit community.

“It doesn’t take me much convincing to do something,” she said with a laugh.

“I loved it.”

So at age 25 Hollard signed up for an individual state competition held in Brisbane where she placed “middle of the pack”.

“I finished that competition and I thought, I want to be good at this sport,” she said.

So Hollard engaged a coach to help her become an elite CrossFit athlete.

“At that competition I wasn’t as good as those top level females and I wanted to be that good,” she said.

Hollard cheering on her teammates at the semi finals in Brisbane in May where they qualified for a place at the CrossFit Games.

It was around this time Hollard also learned about the CrossFit Games and the qualification process, which involved an open level workout, quarterfinals and then semi finals.

For a number of years Hollard worked full time and competed, but in about 2018 she transitioned into part-time to focus on her athletic career.

Her gruelling training regime involved working out for about five to six hours per day over two sessions.

“At this level, everyone is fit, everyone is strong … but what differs is people’s mental strength,” she said.

“When I’m in the pain cave … I try and think the pain is temporary, I’ve trained for this.

“I know that my body can keep up, it’s whether the mind can.”

Hollard will head to the US in about five week ahead of the CrossFit Games in August.

Some skills, she said, like the complicated ring muscles ups had taken hours of practise over years to master.

“When I’m hurting in a workout that’s when I know I’m getting fitter and I’m getting stronger, so I try and use that as much as I can to hold on,” she said.

Hollard sang praises for the supportive and welcoming community that has helped push her over the years.

“I think that’s probably the main part that keeps me here,” she said.

“(It) is really important because there’s a lot of sacrifice that goes into it.

“When I’m not at the gym, it’s about recovery, it’s about nutrition, it’s about sleeping.

“24 hours a day you’re thinking how can I optimise myself as an athlete in and out of the gym so I perform well.”

In fact 60 people from Hollard’s CrossFit 4740 family in Mackay travelled to Brisbane and were cheering her on at the semi final competition, and many many others watched the action via livestream.

The Mackay crew who went to Brisbane to watch the semi finals and support Christee Hollard and her teammates.

“I think it was as emotional for them as it was for me because they’ve been there for the journey … for the whole seven years,” she said.

“They’ve seen the hours and hours of hard work training by myself.

“They’ve seen the failures where I haven’t made it to the games.”

And among her crowd was her biggest supporter, husband Kieran.

“I wouldn’t be able to do this without having the support I’ve had from him and it just wouldn’t be worth it,” she said.

“I’m so lucky that he actually believes in me … as much as I sacrifice things, I actually think the partners of athletes sacrifice more.”

Now she will ramp up training for the games before heading over to the US in about six weeks to acclimatise before the competition in August.

And it’s a costly dream. Hollard said she hoped to secure more sponsorship before she flew out and welcomed anyone interested to get in touch.

Hollard thanked her current sponsors Lmp Project Services, ABC Engineering, Explore Property Mackay, BH Building Pty Ltd, AJ Sammut Electrical and CQ Laser Engraving.

Mackay crossfitter Christee Hollard has spent seven years training to compete at the CrossFit Games in the US. In May she qualified in the teams division of the comp after placing third at the semi finals held in Brisbane. Picture: Janessa Ekert

Normalise women ‘looking strong and fit and athletic’

As Christee Hollard’s strength and skill as a CrossFit Athlete grew her body changed so she could meet each new challenge within the sport.

“To be honest I didn’t really notice it,” the Mackay nurse said.

“I noticed though when people started commenting on my muscles, and they still do.

“I feel like I just look normal, but I don’t. I’m obviously a very muscular female.”

Her ripped, toned physique is the product of the years of hard work dedicated to becoming an elite athlete within the sport in her journey to make it to the CrossFit Games.

“I love the way that I look,” she said.

“I haven’t worked hard to look a certain way for aesthetics … I’ve always trained for performance.

“I ended up looking like this because I need my body to be able to do what it needs to do.”

Hollard said she was a proponent for normalising women “looking strong and fit and athletic”.

“Body image can be a massive thing for females, especially with social media,” she said.

“Not all females want to look like me, but if we can make the appearance of looking strong as a female normal I think that would be a good thing.”

Originally published as Mackay’s Christee Hollard to compete at CrossFit Games in US