LOUIE McMaster’s journey to the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games has been one that he will certainly never forget.

 

It still hasn’t really “sunk in” about how big of an opportunity this is for the Lisnaksea athlete.

 

“Going to the Games, they say that 99.9999999 percent of people will never make the Games. That is how much of a deal that this is,” he laughs.

 

A keen fitness enthusiast, McMaster first started to take the sport seriously after joining up with Lisburn and Ireland athlete Emma McQuaid.

 

After six years of training, the Lisnaskea man had finally secured qualification for the CrossFit Games in the States but he was left wondering if he might ever be able to compete in the sport at a professional level again contracting Covid-19 and double pulmonary pneumonia.

 

Nine months later, Louie is still feeling some after-effects of contracting the virus.  

 

“If I was to jump into a workout without opening up my lungs well enough, my body would sort of flatline and I would struggle to get my breath in. 

 

“I don’t know whether if there has been damage done to the bottom of my lungs. It could be scar tissue possibly. I haven’t got a scan to see what shape my lungs are in. For about two or three months after recovering, they were rough. 

 

“After simply bending down to pick something up off the ground, I would have to sit down to recover. Covid was one of those things that I thought never would have applied to me. 

 

“I am fit and I thought it was only going to happen to vulnerable people, or people with lung conditions, or who would have smoked a lot. I thought I was going to be fine but it turns out that I wasn’t.”

 

The road to recovery was a slow one for Louie, but with the help of his coach he managed to get himself back into shape to qualify for the CrossFit Games.

 

“Emma sends me the programmes, and it is up to me to get it done. It has been a lot of stress development and cardio development since coming back from Covid so since I qualified then, these Games can throw anything at you. 

 

“There is running, strength work, gymnastic work and strongman stuff. You can do anything, so since I have qualified, she has been throwing lots of different stuff at me. You just don’t know what could be thrown at you.”