Did you know that the 17-year-old athlete Samanta Castro is a world champion in the sports discipline of Functional Fitness? That’s right, the young native of San Carlos, Florencia in the province of Alajuela, won the gold medal in the 17/18 years old category in Vancouver, Canada.
The athlete from San Carlos was demonstrating her skills with strength, cardiovascular endurance, body weight, power, focus, and motivation before 170 fellow athletes from 22 countries.
The World Functional Fitness World Competition brings together, and tests what are the physical abilities and skills of an athlete through what is functional training that additionally helps to strengthen mobility, flexibility, and performance.
It is important to note that Costa Rica was also represented by 18 more athletes who qualified for the Functional Fitness World Championship.
You may say that it is not a common discipline, or that you have not heard of it, however, the Sports Association of Functional Fitness (ADEFF) has maintained its main objective, which is to promote this sport in Costa Rica and seek support from both the Costa Rican Institute of Sport and Recreation (ICODER) and private companies, so that athletes have a successful fulfillment of their sporting goals.
Roots of an athlete
As we mentioned, Samanta Castro was born in San Carlos, Costa Rica, for her this Costa Rican area has always been the place where she has grown and developed as a person, “leaving me very special friends” she added.
Her parents are that pillar and engine in her life, who have taught her to be an honest person, grateful to others, and, very importantly, to always give the maximum.
In addition, they were the ones who took her to the sports world, when she was very young practicing gymnastics for 9 years with the support of her coach she also got to know the functional fitness world, where she has been giving the best of herself for two years.
Currently, Samanta is in her last year of high school and already has in mind what she will study in college: Architecture.
In her opinion, she lives in a beautiful country, with people of great heart, “what Costa Rica inspires me the most, is to be forced to achieve what I set out to do”.
The sport, the training routine, and the teacher
Samanta’s coach, Luis Diego Dobles Rigionni, is undoubtedly an important person for Samanta’s sports career, helping her to “bring out her best version”.
Regarding her training, she usually trains twice a day: in the early morning and the afternoon. What she enjoys most about her discipline and Functional Fitness is her strength.
Sports achievements, goals, and experiences
Castro has won two gold medals in the functional fitness world championships; a qualifier for the semifinals of the CrossFit games in national competitions he has won two first places in the teen’s category and a third place in the RX category.
Two of his main goals are: to win an RX competition and to qualify for the CrossFit games.
In case you didn’t know, RX is a type of competitive CrossFit or exercises performed with competitive weights and variables. Specialists in the sports area say that, if an athlete is lacking in fitness level the RX category is not the right one, because it is designed so that teams with more experienced athletes can measure themselves one on one. These athletes have to be able to perform all the usual CrossFit movements, as well as be prepared for the unknown.
The Functional Fitness discipline for Samanta, is different from the others because it is very complete, “it covers all areas from strength to the athlete’s performance and it is always a sport that requires us to give more of ourselves,” she said.
The experience of the Functional Fitness World Cup was incredible for the Costa Rican athlete: “Canada is a beautiful place and the facilities were great. The competition was very tough, with ups and downs, but always giving 100%. First place was always my goal, but I wanted to leave everything in God’s hands and let him decide my final position, luckily it went as expected, the truth was a very mental challenge, because when I realized that for the final I had to be first to be able to leave the first place, it was very hard because my body could not take it anymore, but I tried to get the most strength to achieve it and so it was” he explained.
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Speaking of experiences, human beings, and in every scenario of our lives we have good days and not-so-good days, and of course, Samanta does not escape from that. She has had her successes as an athlete and very hard moments that she shared with our TCRN team: “In a competition to qualify for the Crossfit Game (the most important of Crossfit), I had an anxiety attack which made me be in a low position and I could not qualify, that result threw me down, even the expectations I had for the sport. It was a very hard mental stage to face, but with support, I was able to overcome that difficulty”.
Samanta, usually participates in national competitions, several a year, and has an international competition which is the World Functional Fitness World Cup, which is held once a year and always changes the country where it takes place. She has participated in virtual competitions, to qualify for the finals that are held in other countries.
Soon he will have a competition called Wodfest and it will be on December 1, 2, and 3. For the next year, there are several coming up, in which we wish you the best of success.
Essence of a world champion
The Costa Rican from Alajuela considers herself a super perfectionist and competitive person; she likes to keep an order of everything and, despite that, she is extroverted and likes to meet people.
Something negative that she wants to change about her is that she is indecisive.
Among the people she admires nationally and internationally is: Yokadta Valle, “for me she is a very complete athlete and what strikes me most about her is the courage with which she competes and the mental strength she has”. The international favorite athlete is Mal O’Brien, “I identified with her a lot because of the approach she has and what she has achieved being so young, so I admire her a lot”.
Samanta’s beloved hobby is dancing, so she says that if she does not practice CrossFit, she will dedicate herself to dancing.
And finally, the young tica, world champion shared a message to close our pleasant conversation: “Never give up, do what you are passionate about and, to achieve the goals you have, always give the maximum of you”.
If you want to know more about the athlete Samanta Castro, don’t hesitate for a second to follow her on her Instagram account: @samy_ch_24. Pura Vida!
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