Congratulations to Mariceliz Ortiz! She has been voted by the coaches as this month’s Athlete of the Month! Mariceliz came into CrossFit with an extensive athletic background and set her expectations high. As you can read in her story below, she did her research before starting and searched for the gym with the right fit for her. You’ll never see her get down about something that may give her trouble, instead she will keep her head up and push harder. For that reason and many more, she is certainly deserving of the title “Athlete of the Month.”
Name: Mariceliz Ortiz
Favorite WOD: All Wednesday Endurance WOD’s
Least WOD: Anything with BURPEES
Favorite Lift: Dead Lift / Power Clean
Least Lift: Over Head Squat
Story:
My name is Mariceliz Ortiz, born and raised in Corozal, Puerto Rico. I began my journey with exercise at the age of 8 years when my father took me to the track and field. I began training with my dad, after a few years when I began to get stronger and faster in the field I was trained by Angel L. Perez who helped me improve my times and helped me achieve athletics records in track and field. In 1990 and at the age of 17 I was selected to attend Junior Olympics at Cuba. I practiced Cross Country for 17 years, being national champion for 14 years, established 13 records at Cross Country. Living surrounded by coached and seeing their sacrifices I said to myself that was what I wanted to do with my life. It was for that reason that at the age of 18 I was accepted at the Inter American University in Puerto Rico with a track and field scholarship. Graduated from college in 1996 with a Bachelor Degree in Physical Education.
Because sports are my passion I have served as: Cross Country Coach, Volleyball Coach where I was in charge of updating the games statics at a national level, Powerlifting Assistant Coach. I got married at age 23 with an ex-boxer Miguel Ortiz, which is continually backing me up in all my sporting adventures. I am the mother of 3 adolescents a 19 year old girl and two boys 15-16 years old. Looking to expand my horizons I moved to San Antonio, TX in 2007. I began to work with and got caught up with so many responsibilities that I put one of my loves to the side that was exercising. It was for that reason that I started to gain weight and it was difficult for me to find the right place to work out. I tried many places, but none of them was meeting my expectations, I began to read about CrossFit and all the information that I read was making me feel really interested about it. Finally on March 2015, I decided to give it a try and I went to Mission CrossFit and I felt that was the place that I was looking for. Since I have a strong background with sports and very demanding of what I do I expect to receive same back to me from a gym. Mission CrossFit and the Coaches has meet all my expectation and is for that reason that I will 100% recommend it.
