Orillia CrossFit athlete Heather Bourne currently ranks No. 1 in Canada and 15th in the world for the 45-49 age category after the first of three CrossFit Open events. The Opens are held on consecutive weekends.
The 46-year-old Toronto native has been a CrossFit coach in Orillia for four years and has been participating in CrossFit for over eight years.
“A lot of consistent hard work has gone into it. I show up every day and have fun with it,” Bourne said.
Bourne, who is also a nutrition coach at CrossFit Orillia, says a big part of her journey to the top ranking relates to nutrition.
“It’s really where it starts. It’s what you are fuelling your body with, and then you can build up your fitness, build up your muscle mass, lean out and get stronger based on eating healthy food,” she said.
Another big part of Bourne’s success has been her consistent hard work at the gym.
“I’m always working on getting stronger, working on my weaknesses, and I don’t apply too much pressure, I just do it for fun. And every year when the Open comes around it adds that element of competition which I also thrive on,” she said.
“I do like to push myself, and I do like to be an inspiration and a good role model for other women, especially.”
In 2019, Bourne finished the Open ranking at 271st in the world for her age group, and with the top 200 being invited to move on to the quarterfinals, Bourne was left sidelined from her chance to be crowned the fittest woman in the world.
Bourne has used that near miss as motivation to reach her goal of making the CrossFit Games later this summer.
“I did not get that invite last time, so it’s a goal of mine to make that top 200,” she said.
When Bourne saw her world ranking of 15th after the first Open competition, she was shocked.
“I was definitely surprised because the workout included a lot of movements and things we haven’t practised much before. I didn’t know how it would go, but I did my best,” she said.
To keep her top 20 ranking, or to move into the top 10, Bourne needs to score high numbers in the final two weeks of the competition.
“I’m going to try to not feel pressured. I’m just going to go into it with a good attitude, and have fun with it,” she said.
The positive energy that Bourne brings to the gym comes easy with the sport of CrossFit, which is what Bourne enjoys the most about it.
“I like the mixed movements that we do, it’s constantly varied, and each day you show up to the gym you do a different workout, so there is no way to get bored,” she said.
“It just works. It’s proven that it makes you fit with the high intensity, and the mixture of using a barbell as well as mixing in a lot of cardio activities as well.”
What drives Bourne to be successful is knowing that she is as healthy as she possibly can be.
“It’s our responsibility to look after our bodies and take care of them and I really believe that it is something that we need to do, and I just love it,” she said.
“It’s also just really amazing to inspire other athletes and other women to be healthier and stronger.”
Bourne feels that some of her success can be attributed to the community that she trains with at CrossFit Orillia.
“It’s where I’ve found my community, we laugh together, we sweat together, it’s where I’ve found a lot of my friends, and those friends feel like family now,” she said.
