Legendary Athlete Kristine Andali Returns to Competition After Severe Injury
April 26, 2019 will bring new hope to returning athlete Kristine Andali as she competes for her place in the CrossFit Games at the Italian Showdown in Milan, Italy, after a terrible injury pulled her from competition for the last 3 years.
It is said that in times of great challenge, an athlete does not “rise to the occasion;” instead, they fall back upon what they already know. Since Andali has spent a lifetime training, strengthening, building endurance, and increasing stamina, her solidified foundation of athleticism should set her apart from other athletes, making the Showdown on Friday a well deserved celebration of victory over her injury.
A professionally trained elite gymnast, Andali was always drawn to physical movement. In high school, a trip to the gym with her sister changed her life forever when she discovered CrossFit, and it was during her second workout session when she really fell in love.
Andali recalls, “It was during a workout called ‘Angie’ and it had 100 kipping pull-ups in it. My coach at the time started to explain the workout, and show me how to do it. I jumped up on the bar and was like ‘Oh, like this?’ and could bang them out no problem. This is a movement that takes beginners awhile to master. He was in shock,” she laughs.
A few years into training, it became apparent that Andali belonged in CrossFit competitions. Coming in first in the Element Team Challenge in 2011 and then first in the 2012 CompWOD CrossFit Best of the Best Canada, Andali was dominating the competition just about everywhere she went. In fact, at the 2014 CrossFit Games Regional she placed 3rd in Canada East, and 9th Worldwide. It was evident that Andali was rapidly righting her way to the top when a tragic injury almost pulled the rug from beneath her in 2016.
While competing at the CrossFit Regional Games in California, Andali started strong during the first event: the snatch ladder. The challenge involved ascending weights and descending reps, and she was making her way through the ladder when tragedy struck.
“I was on my very last rep at the last weight, which was 175lbs,” Andali remembers. “I had to do two reps at this weight and then I was done. I hit my first one, and got it. I went for my second one, and [the weight] fell behind my back. I heard was a bunch of popping and ripping in my shoulders, but I was out on the floor and my adrenaline was high and I wasn’t about to let this get away from me. I went for another one, and it happened again. Time ran out, and it was over. I was in complete shock, and in a lot of pain,” Andalli explains.
She attempted to continue with the competition, but the immobility in her arms forced her to withdraw during the second round of the competition. An MRI showed labrum tears and an injury to the rotator cuff, and after five months of physical therapy and alternate solutions, surgery became inevitable for Andali. Her first surgery was in October 2016 and her second was the very next month, November of 2016, and she thought her recovery could finally truly begin. However, after four months into the recovery process, Andali felt still something was not right, and went in for another scan. “ When I got the results back from my MRI, I was sickened,” Andali said. “I had full rotator cuff tears on both shoulders that were missed in the surgeries prior. When I went to see the doctor, he told me that if I wanted function in my shoulders when I was older, then I would have to get these surgeries done. And so that’s what I did.”
This is where things took a turn for Andali. Mentally, she faced a tremendous battle. “I felt like I started to lose the love I had for the sport. It was a really really hard time. But, I continued to just keep showing up — showing up for myself, and showing up to the gym. Regardless of how I felt, I would go in and do something,” Andali confesses. A determined and unstoppable athlete, she quickly began rebuilding herself from the beginning, piece by piece. Though she did not know whether or not she’d ever get to where she was ever again, she put everything she had into trying.
And now, after the pain and turmoil and healing and training, Andali is back, appearing at the Italian Showdown in Milan, Italy, in April 2019. Alongside superstar athletes Alessandra Pichelli and Steph Chung, Andali will compete with the best of the best, hoping to earn a spot in the CrossFit Games.
When countless other athletes would give up and let their love for the sport burn out, Andali chose to keep going. And she wants to help others along with their healing process, as well. She explains, “I know a lot of people go through injury and they feel like it’s the end of what they are doing. I want people to know that it’s not — that if I can get through what I did, so can they. I want them to know that they are allowed to feel all the things they are feeling — the anger, sadness — all of it. This is normal, and these feelings will come up more than once. Allow yourself to feel them, to write them down, and to express them, and then decide what you want to do with them,” Andali suggests, and it is almost impossible for the reader not to feel a bit of the hope and optimism she’s emitting.
“It all comes down to a choice,” Andali muses. “Be gentle with yourself through this process and understand that as hard as it may be to see the light at the end, know that it’s there, and that struggle breeds greatness. Without it, there is no growth. Keep Going.”
