On March 13, 2024, Andrea Nisler gave birth to her daughter, Riley. Around five and a half months later, she was standing on top of the podium as the winner of the 35-39 age division at the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games.

The former individual and team Games athlete focused most of her training on the Masters championship this past season. After having her baby girl, she listened to her body and got back into fitness on her own time. 

Nisler told us that one benefit of training as an individual rather than a team member is being able to follow her own schedule. 

“It was kind of nice to take more of a step back, knowing I was just an individual and kind of doing what my body felt like that day. Or if I wanted to just hang with my daughter instead, I could do that and skip a metcon and no one was going to depend on me,” Nisler says. 

Nisler’s trip to Birmingham, AL, for the Legends Games was the longest she’d been away from her daughter since she was born. It turns out that the effort was well worth it.

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Andrea Nisler’s Road to the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games

In the months following Riley’s birth, Nisler has had to be smarter with her time while training, jumping into class at her gym, Timberwolf Fitness, and being more “choosy” about where she puts her efforts.

“I wasn’t burnt out. I went into this competition feeling super ready, honestly,” she says. “So it was really nice. I mean, strength still isn’t there, so following a strength program was still super important.” 

Nisler took home first place in the youngest age division at the Legends Masters Games, besting the second-place athlete by 54 points. 

Her favorite event was an interval-style workout that required athletes to push past their limits on the Rogue Echo Bike. She says that she hasn’t felt like she pushed that hard since the Semifinals in 2023. 

“Well after the workout was done, I had to go sit against the wall. I thought I was going to throw up,” Nisler says. “But in a weird way, now that the pain is gone, it was so great to tap into that again.”

Overall, she won three events and had eight top-three finishes. 

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A notable moment from the weekend came during workout 24.5, which started and ended with 75 wall balls and a substantial amount of work sandwiched between. 

Nisler went unbroken on her last set of 75 wall balls, clinching an event win.  

This was the first time the Masters division was separated from the elite Individual and Teams divisions at the CrossFit Games. The move by CrossFit HQ was announced early in the season that Masters, Teens, and Adaptive end-of-season events would be held as standalone championships. 

“I personally really did like the workouts. Maybe another machine would have been nice. We just had one Echo Bike. But overall, I think they tested our capacity pretty well given how much they had to juggle,” Nisler says. 

The Legends Championship event took over the Masters Games, expanding the field to the top 40 athletes in each age division, adding a new age division, and having a team division totaling upwards of 700 athletes. 

What’s Next?

Despite her success as an individual, Nisler didn’t rule out a return to the team division. 

“I wouldn’t ever say no to a team just because I really love competing alongside other people,” she says. “But at the same time, this Master’s competition was really fun, so I wouldn’t say no to doing that next year either.” 

The CrossFit community is at a bit of a crossroads as HQ and the community continue to navigate the death of Lazar Đukić. 

The Teens and Masters proceeded to have their end-of-season events following the tragedy, and the Adaptive athletes will have their event in the coming weeks. However, the changes likely to be made for the 2025 season are still very much unknown. 

“I think we’re all just playing it by ear to see what’s really going to happen and then how the Games will kind of shift and transform with that. But I’m there for it in some capacity,” she says. 

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Featured image: @thelegendschampionship, @focus.501 / Instagram

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