GEORGE NEWS - A young CrossFitter from George, Kaiden Steyn (17), is lifting with the big dogs. Steyn placed 11th in the men's elite senior division of the Rebel Renegade Games, which serve as the official semi-final in Africa for the 2024 CrossFit Games.
Despite his young age Steyn, who still competes in the 16-17 year age group, managed to make the senior men sweat by almost placing in the top 10 of the Africa CrossFit semi-finals held in Vanderbijlpark at the end of May.
His coach, Jan Fourie, said his performance was really something special.
"Normally when someone this young starts to compete with senior men it takes them a couple of years to be competitive. But Kaiden was able to keep up and even placed second in one of the weight-lifting events," said Fourie.
Steyn's performance secured him a spot to compete in the Teenage CrossFit games taking place in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the United States at the end of August.
Steyn is currently ranked 1st in both South Africa and Africa in the boys 16-17 age group. In the senior men's division he is ranked 71st in South Africa, and 92nd in Africa.
He discovered CrossFit at the age of 12 in 2018 after watching a documentary about the sport by Rich Froning. Soon after, he started training at the Wings Elite Fitness box with coach Fourie.
"When I started training, I was very skinny, which helped with the body weight movements, but I tried to improve with weight training," says Steyn.
"What helped was coach Jan's focus on developing proper technique. I really owe that to him because the foundation gives me an advantage over other competitors. Proper technique and efficiency of movements."
In 2022 he started competing in the 14-15 age group. During the online qualification process Steyn, to his surprise, qualified for the quarters, semis and then the finals hosted in Madison, Wisconsin in the United States where he finished fourth overall.
In 2023 he struggled when moving on to the 16-17 age group and didn't qualify for anything.
Kaiden Steyn (17) competing in the Rebel Renegade games semi-finals with the elite senior men, where he impressively finished 11th.
But in 2024, he more than made up for that, placing 11th among the senior men in the Rebel Renegade Games semi-final and qualifying for the Teenage CrossFit games in August.
"Until then I'll be focused on training and trying to peak at the right time. I'm aiming for a podium finish," he said. Steyn does home-school and worked hard to finish his matric curriculum ahead of schedule so that he can focus on training. In 2025 he will start studying international business online.
‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’
