A South Surrey CrossFit gym finished tops in Canada in an annual competition that challenges athletes around the world to test their fitness and connect with other CrossFit enthusiasts.
Semiahmoo Athletic Club members participated in the 2025 CrossFit Open from Feb. 27-March 17, tackling a new workout each week to earn a place on a global leaderboard – and a shot at a spot in the CrossFit Games.
"The shared suffering reminds us we are part of something much bigger than our individual efforts," an overview of the Open at games.crossfit.com reads.
"Perhaps that’s the beauty of the Open – independent of fitness level, the Open brings us together to pursue something that would not hold the same meaning or possibilities if we were just working out on our own."
CrossFit is defined as "a high-intensity fitness program incorporating elements from several sports and types of exercise."
It's "a combination of a lot of things," said Semiahmoo Athletics co-owner Joe Scali, who has been doing CrossFit for 15 years and opened SAC with his wife, Sharan, 11 years ago.
"You have to be able to walk on your hands, you have to be very strong… very conditioned. There's a lot of complexities to the sport.
"It's a pretty big accomplishment to be the fittest Canadian gym."
The Open, launched in 2011, invites athletes to complete specific weekly workouts at their gym – or in the comfort of their own home, or even in a park or on the beach – and submit their scores online.
There are age- and gender-based divisions, along with three varieties of the workout, based on fitness level. There are also adaptive divisions.
Forty-nine Semiahmoo Athletic Club members participated, with the final rankings determined by the scores of each gym's top two male and female athletes.
Those athletes are now training for the next stage, to be held April 23-26, for which the SAC team – comprised (including subs) of Scali, Austin Marron, Jake Fletcher, Freddie Payn, Gracie Strachan and Steph Martins – will complete and submit five taped and judged workouts. A top-20 finish will earn them a place at the world games, set for Aug. 1-3 in New York.
Scali said Tuesday (April 8) that he has personally qualified for the games previously, both individually and with a team, and that it's always been a goal to have the gym he and his wife opened – which welcomes "everyone" – grow into something competitive.
Club member and former triathlete Jackie Davidson credited the club's supportive environment and leadership for the success. A member for just one year, she finished the Open in the 81st percentile worldwide.
Davidson described the club's number-one national finish as "a big deal… a little David and Goliath story."
"We're small but mighty," she said. "We might not have thousands of people that belong to the gym, but we have a good family group."
