FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 3, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 25
FDNY and NYPD vie for bragging rights in LIC CrossFit competition
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Competing for bragging rights, the
FDNY Barbell Club and NYPD CrossFit
kicked off the opening day of the 2022
NOBULL CrossFit Open at CrossFit
Gantry Gym in Long Island City on Feb.
24, 2022.
While the FDNY and NYPD have had
other friendly sporting competitions, it
was the fi rst time New York’s bravest and
fi nest duked it out in the world’s
largest CrossFit-specifi c competition
presented by Northwell
Health.
NYPD Captain Ronald Perez
and FDNY Barbell Club president
and fi refi ghter Ricardo Roman
emphasized that the event was not
about competition but to highlight
the brotherhood between
the two departments.
“Th is has been a really hard
year for both departments,”
Perez said. “We’re going to
compete for bragging rights
but there’s a lot of unity going
on here and a lot of people
don’t see that. And I think
that it’s important that people
need to see that.”
Ricardo Roman added that
the fi erce workout prepared
them for the intense work situations
fi refi ghters and cops
face daily.
“We don’t know what’s
coming at work. So this is a
way to stay prepared,” Roman
said. “It’s a moment for
both departments to come
together in unity.”
First up, eight top athletes from the
FDNY Barbell Club and the NYPD
CrossFit Team — with NYPD in dark
shirts and FDNY in white shirts — went
head to head. Th e athletes compared
their stamina and strength, completing
as many rounds as possible of three wall
walks, 12 dumbbell snatches and 15 box
jump-overs within 15 minutes.
Jay Hachadoorian, the owner of
CrossFit Gantry, was excited to donate
his space and time for the event featuring
fi rst responders.
“As a New Yorker, I feel really honored
to be able to do something for both
NYPD and FDNY,” Hachadoorian said.
“Especially with, you know, so much of
what we see is sad, and this is a really
amazing thing.”
Psychologist Dr. Steven Well touched
on the mental health aspect of CrossFit.
Well, who works with city, state and federal
law enforcement, explained that the
most signifi cant part of CrossFit was the
camaraderie and the sense of belonging,
which helps with depression, anxiety and
suicide prevention.
“In law enforcement, when somebody is
suicidal, we’ll
either ignore it or we’ll
leave it to someone else
to handle,” Dr. Well
said. “In CrossFit,
it’s picked up right
away. ‘Something’s
up. What’s going
on?’ So, they don’t
just look and say,
‘Oh, you know, he’s
depressed.’ They
know this person
as the whole
person.”
Th e main event
featured FDNY
Firefighter Chris
Torres and NYPD
Detective Paul
Delanoy. Both are
high-level athletes and Torres placed 35th
in the worldwide occupational open in
2021.
Cheered on by the crowd, both fi rst
responders showed off their fi tness level
to spectators during a seemingly grueling
15 minutes.
While the FDNY Barbell Club came out
on top, it was a close race with 288 total
repetitions for the FDNY Barbell Club to
284 for NYPD CrossFit.
Th e CrossFit Open is the world’s largest
participatory sporting event, where hundreds
of thousands of athletes worldwide
compete against one another from their
local gyms in a three-week competition.
Each week, new tests are announced to
challenge athletes in areas like weightlift ing,
gymnastics and metabolic conditioning.
Top fi nishers from the Open advance to
virtual quarterfi nals, then live semifi nal
events in 10 countries across the globe,
and fi nally the NOBULL CrossFit Games
in Madison, Wisconsin, from Aug. 3-7,
where the top athletes compete for the
title of Fittest on Earth.
Learn more about the CrossFit Games
at games.crossfi t.com.
FDNY
Firefi ghter
Chris Torres and NYPD
Det. Paul Deloney show
there is no bad blood
after the competition.
health
Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
The FDNY Barbell Club participates in the NOBULL CrossFit Open.
NYPD Det. Paul Deloney
performs dumbbell snatches
during the NOBULL CrossFit
Open at Gantry CrossFit in
Long Island City.
A member of the FDNY
Barbell Club performs
dumbbell snatches during
the event.
FDNY Firefi ghter Chris Torres and NYPD Detective Paul Deloney perform box jump-overs as part of
the competition.
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