IF3 World Championships & The Raincity Community

Coach / Bossman Thor here - I didn’t want this to get lost in a newsletter, so I’m adding it to the website blog that many didn’t even know we had :D

In my 10+ years of owning Raincity Athletics there are many moments where you could say ‘proud coach’ but there are no bigger moments than what went down last weekend at the IF3 World’s Masters / Juniors world championships.

For those that don’t know - on top of owning Raincity Athletics and the Functional Fitness League, I am also the president of the BC Functional Fitness Sports Association; the non-profit governing body of the sport of Functional Fitness in BC which includes being on the board of the Canadian Functional Fitness Federation. For a full breakdown of how all the FFFFFs work and what that means, you can check-out a little video I posted a few weeks ago.

The Qualifiers

A few months ago we convinced a handful of athletes into spending their weekend doing the IF3 Candian online qualifiers. Aaron & Michelle have been doing these qualifiers for a couple of years now, and Michelle qualified last year and flew out to Aruba to compete at this same event in 2022! Since the championships were in BC this year we managed to convince a few others to join in. In the end 5 qualified, one of them being the Dentist who unfortunately has had to withdraw from competitive weightlifting and functional fitness due to injuries :( we miss him… more on the other athletes later.

The Call For Help

About 6-8 weeks prior to the IF3 World Championships coming to Vancouver (which I had intended to volunteer for, but wasn’t planning to have a major role in running) I got an email from the IF3 President Gretchen. There had been some personal issues for our Canadian President who was in charge of the event, and they were in need of quite a bit of help. At that point we had over 200 athletes registered, and only about 15 volunteers - I knew we were in trouble.

Raincity SHOWS UP

This is where the proud coach moment comes in. Not only because of our epic athletes that threw down that weekend but also the 30+ of our members/community who SHOWED UP to volunteer. Who went above and beyond to help ensure this event not only happened, but was an amazing time for the 300+ international athletes that flew in from all over the world for it. This doesn’t even include the dozens who reached out to let me know they were sorry they couldn't help <3

This is the type of community that makes me proud.

Being fit and winning competitions will come and go, but being a community that is willing to step up to support the greater good (in this case the FF community) when called upon is a trait that sticks around. I couldn’t be more proud that we’ve attracted so many of those people to Raincity Athletics.

The RAthletes

Although I never like to prioritize ‘winning’ events - for those that don’t know…

The Raincity Rules of Competition;
Make friends
Look good
Have fun
Don’t lose

And in terms of that last rule, as long as you hit the first 3 then whatever place you end up in is irrelevant…

Honarary RAthlete Theron

Thank you for being the (sometimes too) calm collected mind and providing guidance for Dillan in his first competition. It’s always awesome to have an athlete with so much experience to help guide the newer groups. However when it comes to Theron; please do what he says not what he does ;)

OUR FF PRO MICHELLE

This was her second time competing at this event (after flying out to Aruba last year) and I couldn’t be more proud to have her represent Raincity & Canada both at home and internationally. Michelle embodies everything I want to see in a Raincity Athlete on the workout floor. Always has a smiling face whether she’s winning or losing. If she’s not winning, it’s only because she’s too busy admiring her fellow competitors and being inspired by them :D

COACH KATIE

When coach Katie casually mentioned she might take part in the qualifier, we got pretty excited. Katie is one of those elite athletes not because she tries to win, but because she loves the process. If you ever want to be elite in this sport - that’s the only way. So I appreciate what it means for Katie to step off the training floor and onto the competition floor. She even managed to take first place in an event (in a pretty stacked division of athletes) while simultaneously making sure our whole crew was taken care of and had what they needed both weeks prior and all weekend. Thank you for being coach as well as athlete in a time when I could not <3

THE REAL ATHLETE DILLAN

I have to say this is the guy I’m most proud of. On a whim (and with some force from me) he was convinced to join in on the qualfiier weekend and have some fun. Next thing he knew he was registered for his first-ever competition which happened to be on an international stage with hundreds of athletes from all over the world. That is NOT an easy first comp… and although Dillan’s nerves were on display leading up to the event, it was the final week where we could see them really started to take a toll… but in the end, I think we can easily say Dillan had the most fun of any athlete out there! Thank you, Dillan for blindly trusting me when I threw you into the deep end and promised you it would be ‘fun’ - even when you didn’t understand how that would be possible - you showed up and crushed the Raincity rules of competition #somanynewfriends.

Thank you

Again, there are no words for how proud I am of our community, and how much gratitude I have for everyone who stepped up and helped us make sure this event was a huge success, and it was. I want to give one extra special shout-out to my right-hand Assistant Head TO who helped me manage multiple competition floors all weekend; Donal.

When I decided to go all in on this event I knew what I was getting myself into, I have run many competitions in the past, and volunteered at short handed ones too. Donal stepped up early and offered his experience as a head judge from prior CF events, and was rewarded (ha) with an assistant head TO position. In the end this meant he was on the floor with me for upwards of 10 hours a day with very short breaks (as there was only 1 of each of us). I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty impressed with how many hats I was able to productively wear throughout this weekend, I made some magical sh*t happen - but the ONLY reason I was able to do that was because Donal gave me 100% confidence in his ability to manage and communicate with me the needs of our judges & floor at all times.

SO MANY Familiar Faces

Again, THANK YOU to all of you (whether you were able to help or not) for embracing and encouraging a community that gives back <3

If you’re interested in getting involved in Functional Fitness as an athlete, board member, or anything in between, make sure to follow BCFFSA & IF3 online and don’t hesitate to reach out :)

Simon Damborg aka Thor
Owner; rncty.ca & league.fit
President: bcffsa.org