FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- Approximately 100 Command and General Staff College international military students, family members, and friends representing 65 countries exercised together at Fort Leavenworth's Harney Gym Friday, April 6 in an attempt to set a world record for most countries participating in a CrossFit event.
According to Canadian Major Joe O'Donnell, lead planner for the event, "The benefit of this is to come together as an international class and accomplish something together before we part in a few months." He said, "When we started this course back in June we were together for a good amount of time and forged friendships. Since then we've been split and into our separate classes so I think it will be good to do something fun together and unique like setting a world record."
He said the idea came about after a new Command and General Staff Officer Course policy increased the amount of group physical training. "I was discussing with another international student that it would be fun to do PT as an international group, that discussion lead to the thought that we'd probably set a world record if we did. From there, we decided to make it happen and I applied to Guinness to set the record," he said.
German Lt. Col. Dominik Schellenberger, a participant in the event, said that although fitness is of the utmost importance for military leaders to make good decisions, perhaps more important is the social aspect of the event. "We represent 119 officers from 91 nations and for us it's just so important to get together to develop those strong bonds between each other so that we will be capable of working with each other in the future," he said.
That's the great benefit I get from the course," said classmate Maj. Rashedul Alam from Bangladesh. "What I'm learning here is not exactly what they teach me, it's actually networking. You have access to 91 different countries."
O'Donnell said, "I'm hoping that even those people who do not train CrossFit, come out and have fun doing some physical activity together. I'd like to show them that CrossFit workouts are completely scalable to one's abilities and anyone can employ this training methodology to improve their health." The event was planned on the eve of the 70th anniversary of World Health Day to promote global health and well-being. "Hopefully people walk away knowing that CrossFit is a good way or at least a good start to fight chronic disease and live longer, fuller lives," said O'Donnell.
The event consisted of 10 teams performing events that included: pushups, kettlebell swings, dumb bell snatch, air squats, calorie row, sit-ups, dumb bell shoulder to overhead, medicine ball ground to overhead, and burpees. O'Donnell has filed the preliminary paper to get the record certified with Guinness World Record officials and will follow-up with more detailed information to finalize the group's claim.
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