In only five years, CrossFit has grown from a local ranch in Northern California to a worldwide phenomenon. It has evolved from only 70 local athletes, to more than 26,000 athletes competing worldwide for a spot at the CrossFit games in July 2012.

The CrossFit Games have now become somewhat the Olympics for these athletes and with a major endorsement deal by Reebok and coverage by ESPN, CrossFit has become bigger than expected. The sports apparel giant, Reebok has created the slogan, “The Sport of Fitness,” which has now put CrossFit in a sports category of its own.

Locally, Arizona has also become a base for the sport, with CrossFit gyms located in the Phoenix, Tucson, Prescott, Flagstaff, Yuma, Kingman, and Safford.

Tucson alone has three men who have qualified for the Southwest regionals in individual competition for the CrossFit Games this July.

Chris Gartrell, trainer and athlete at CrossFit Works in Tucson, is one of the three and has gone full-time into becoming a professional CrossFit athlete. He is in the top 30 athletes in the Southwest region, which consist of five other states.

Gartrell is just 25 years old and he has no plans of stopping anytime soon. Come April he will put it all on the line, to pursue his dream of becoming the fittest on earth.