CrossFit’s first sanctioned event of the 2019 season will kick off without one of its veterans. Annie Thorisdottir announced her withdrawal from the Dubai CrossFit Championship yesterday in an Instagram post. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BrDiSRBnhpR/)
“It breaks my heart but unfortunately I won’t be able to compete this year. I got the opportunity to have the surgery/threading done for my heart arrhythmia and felt like I had to go for it for a more successful season. It was supposed to be one week but unfortunately it’s now been 10 days and it is just taking a little longer to heal up.
Thorisdottir first mentioned her heart arrhythmia, an abnormal heartbeat rhythm, during the 2018 Games after the Chaos event. She announced she had a testing procedure done at the end of November for the condition, but was unsure about proceeding with surgery to fix the issue.
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Heart arrhythmias can often be fixed through a procedure known as an ablation where doctors thread electrode catheters through a blood vessel in the groin to the heart. They then use electrical impulses to kill the abnormal heart tissue causing the arrhythmia. Patients typically can resume normal activity the next day – but most patients are likely not elite CrossFit athletes.
Thorisdottir, who won the 2017 Dubai Fitness Championship, stressed that she would still be coming to Dubai – just on the sidelines this time.
We’re sad to see the CrossFit veteran miss out on the first sanctioned event of the season, but wish her all the best in regards to her health.
Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.
