University of Georgia Athletics
Emily Bridgers: Former Gymdog Now A Crossfit Champion
March 27, 2015 | Gymnastics
By Anne Noland, UGA Sports Communications
When Emily Bridgers retired from gymnastics, doctors thought she might never run again.
It was the summer of 2006 and the Lilburn, Ga., native had just completed her freshman year, during which the Gymdogs went undefeated and won their seventh national championship.
Yet with every victory that season, Bridgers' longstanding back injury worsened. She was forced to make a decision between her future health and the sport she loved.
After one season as a Gymdog, Bridgers' gymnastics career was suddenly over. She faced a new reality -- one that promised any athletic competition would only be found as memories in the rearview mirror of her young life.
"I was pretty upset at the time about being done with gymnastics because that's all I had done since I was three," she said.
Nine years later, Bridgers is not only running again. She is competing at the highest level in her sport. Her gymnastics career is indeed over, but she has discovered a new endeavor that strengthened her back as well as her competitive drive. That is the sport of Crossfit.
Bridgers is currently ranked as the No. 3 female Crossfit competitor in the world. She is the reigning champion of the Crossfit Southeast Region and finished in sixth place at the 2014 Crossfit Games.
In addition to her accomplishments as a competitor, Bridgers is also a coach. In August 2013, she and her coach Ben Benson opened a gym in Atlanta called Crossfit Terminus. She continues to train for the Crossfit Games each year, all while helping her clients become stronger every day.
Although Bridgers may find herself in a different kind of gym than the one in which she spent the first 20 years of her life, she continues to embody the pillars of Georgia Gymnastics: togetherness, enthusiasm, attitude and mental toughness.
Because of her accomplishments in Crossfit, in addition to her commitment in helping others live a strong and healthy life, Bridgers was recently named the Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the Georgia Gymnastics program.
Bridgers is the fourth-ever recipient of the award, which is voted on annually by the Gymdog alumni. Previous winners include Leah Brown, Jenni Beathard and Kathy Dwyer.
"It's really special and a huge honor," Bridgers said. "When I first stepped away from gymnastics, I wondered if I was ever really considered a Gymdog because my time on the team was so short. But this is something that's always a part of you. It's cool to see that (the alumni) recognize that I've put in a lot of work to continue to be an athlete. They all admire me for still doing something like this."
Bridgers graduated from UGA in 2009 with a degree in exercise science. After she medically retired from the sport, she worked in the gymnastics office and was a member of the radio broadcast crew that called the meets. Upon her December 2009 graduation, she was planning to attend physical therapy school and coach gymnastics on the side.
But in 2010, she discovered Crossfit, and the trajectory of her career path, her love life and her health all changed at once.
Bridgers began her Crossfit journey as a way to stay healthy and strengthen her back. She joined forces with Benson as her coach on day one. Within months, she was pain-free and discovering that she had a natural gift for the sport. Bridgers also became certified as a coach and found herself either teaching or training all day, every day, within a year of starting the workouts.
About two years later, she and Benson began dating and opened Crossfit Terminus one year after that. In December 2014, the two were engaged and are currently planning a wedding set for this November.
But before Bridgers walks down the aisle, she has some goals to reach. She is currently competing in the Crossfit Open for a spot in the 2015 Southeast Regional, which she hopes to win for the second-consecutive year. If she places in the top-five, she will again travel to the Crossfit Games in California this July.
"I want to win, or at least finish on the podium," she says.
Bridgers is living a life she never imagined, especially during the days she had to wear a brace, rehab a back fracture and come to terms with a likely future that involved no running or lifting weights.
At that time, standing on a Crossfit podium was more of an impossibility than an unlikely goal. It was not even a dream of Bridgers. But she credits her teammates and former head coach Suzanne Yoculan for encouraging her to face her new life with the attitude, the enthusiasm and the mental toughness that define a Gymdog.
"I never thought I would be a competitor again, but I think Suzanne played a big part," Bridgers said. "She told me, `You've been a leader on this team and you're going to do a lot with your future.' She kept me involved and gave me the confidence to know that I could step aside from gymnastics and do something with my life after that."
