ICELAND ANNIE

The twice-crowned “fittest woman in the world” tells how she got that way.

For those who don’t know, CrossFit is a branded fitness training concept that was founded in 2000. It entails a variety of activities, including swimming, running, rope-climbing, squatting, and weightlifting, with more being added each year. The annual CrossFit Games, started in 2007, were designed to showcase the stars of the training method, none more luminous than author Thorisdottir of Reykjavik, Iceland, the first woman—nay, the first person—to win two titles in a row (a male peer missed that honor by minutes at the 2012 games). Written with sports journalist Bald, the book takes us on Thorisdottir’s single-minded journey from 5-year-old daredevil facing down ice-cold waves on a volcanic beach to her third-place finish in the 2021 Games following the delivery of her first child and a period of severe post-partum depression. Along the way, Thorisdottir builds physical and mental toughness with the help of coaches, chiropractors, osteopaths, Marine drill instructors, and sports psychologists. Her physical health and sanity are threatened multiple times, as, for example, when she suffers an excruciating spinal cord injury in the gym a week after winning her second championship, and a sunstroke removes her from competition the year she attempts a return. The authors are adept at describing the varieties of pain a body can endure. You don’t have to be fluent in CrossFit culture or history to enjoy this sports memoir, but it probably helps. “Every year,” Thorisdottir says of CrossFitters, “we expand the accepted limits of human performance a little bit further. In a world that often seems to be moving backward, it feels like important work.”

Fitness enthusiasts will find much to be inspired by in this athlete’s memoir.