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Fitness

Para-Athlete Cleuton Nunes Attacks CrossFit Workout 13.2

Cleuton Nunes was determined to do CrossFit Open workout 13.2 as prescribed. Cleuton is also a double amputee, having lost his legs above the knees. Learn and watch how this man lets nothing stop him.

Hannah Caldas

Written by Hannah Caldas Last updated on March 19, 2013

Imagine you are 29 years old. Imagine you are the Taekwondo Pan American Champion. Imagine you are a happy dad, living life doing what you love. Now imagine you wake up and the world as you know it no longer exists. This is the story of an inspirational athlete, a story of strength and overcoming adversity. This is the story of Cleuton Nunes.

Cleuton was always into physical activity, involved in martial arts and earning title after title at home in Brazil and abroad. He was at the peak of his career, but on May 25, 2009, Cleuton’s life was about to be “interrupted,” as he put it. He woke up early and fed his daughter before leaving home for work on his bike. Another motorcycle ran a red light and the worst happened.

cleuton nunes, paralympics, amputee crossfit, paralympic crossfit gamesCleuton recounts it was 3:25pm on May 25, 2009, a Monday, when it all happened. The next thing he knew it was 32 days later. He woke from a coma, in a strange place, yet he felt a sense of awareness of what had happened. As he reached down he confirmed his gut feeling, both his legs had been amputated above the knee. A million thoughts immediately crossed his mind: “What am I going to do? How am I going to support my family? Why am I alive?” More than once he requested the nursing staff to euthanize him. He had no will to live. But this all changed when he saw the smiles of his wife and brother coming in the hospital room, happy he was out of his coma. It was at that very moment he got the answer to his earlier question of why he was alive.

Fast forward to today and you have the new Cleuton, a man dedicated to his family and his new found passion of paralympic canoeing. Living in Sao Paulo with no assistance from the Brazilian government, Cleuton attacks and overcomes diversity on a daily basis. One of Cleuton’s philosophies that impacted me the most was the concept that, “There are no limitations when you want to live.” One of Cleuton’s dreams is to be able to walk in the park with his daughter, and he is getting closer to his goal. He recently self-funded a new prosthetic attachment to his legs that enables him to stand, and for the first time since the accident he was able to hold his daughter up!

cleuton nunes, paralympics, amputee crossfit, paralympic crossfit gamesCleuton doesn’t stop at walking. Cleuton decided to start CrossFit four months ago. He walked into CrossFit SP in Sao Paulo where head coach Tiago Lopes immediately recognized him. He had been a dance teacher with Cleuton several years back. It was an emotional reunion, but Tiago was happy to welcome Cleuton to his group of athletes.

And Cleuton desires to be coached like one of the athletes, with no special treatment. While he started a little slower, learning what his new body was capable of handling, with the help of his coach Tiago, Cleuton has become very self-sufficient. He gathers his own equipment, and knows how to scale any exercise just by looking at the board where the workout is written.

CrossFit SP was recently recognized as the largest CrossFit affiliate in Latin America, with the most members signed up for the CrossFit Games Open. Not surprisingly, Cleuton is one of the registered athletes. And this is when I actually met Cleuton, as he showed up to CrossFit SP ready to take on workout 13.2. Cleuton had just arrived back to Brazil from Oklahoma, where he was fitted with new prosthetics. That day he was determined to complete 13.2 as prescribed, but unfortunately it did not happen. His new prosthetics were still too foreign to him and he wasn’t able to move as he wanted or to set up the deadlifts in a manner that allowed him to lift the weight off the ground.

cleuton nunes, paralympics, amputee crossfit, paralympic crossfit gamesNeither Cleuton nor Head Coach Tiago is one to give up, however, and Tiago asked Cleuton to return the next day. For the next 24 hours, Tiago and I brainstormed on a strategy to enable this truly inspirational athlete to perform 13.2. With some assistance from Strength Wraps’ Kelley Urbani a setup was devised to allow Cleuton to “destroy weakness” and tackle 13.2.

Armed with his old silicone wraps for prosthetics, Cleuton showed up the next day and Coach Tiago briefed him on what we had devised. For the shoulder-to-overhead Cleuton had to resort to a strict press. In order to allow him to deadlift, Cleuton’s barbell was loaded exclusively with smaller plates, which would keep the barbell closer to the ground and emable him to create space between the plate and the ground whenever he “stood up” to his full extension.

And the box jumps/step-ups? Let’s just say there is no better way to understand than witnessing the solution yourself:

BreakingMuscle.com: Cleuton Nunes Box Jumps - CrossFit Games Open Workout 13.2

Cleuton’s goal for the workout? To be able to perform three repetitions of shoulder-to-overhead at the prescribed male weight of 52kg. I am happy to report he exceeded his goal, finishing the workout with a score of 33 repetitions, which translates to one completed round plus three more shoulder-to-overhead. While for most people this workout provides a nice transition between upper and lower body work, for this amazing athlete the whole workout cleuton nunes, paralympics, amputee crossfit, paralympic crossfit gamesended up being upper body. As Cleuton himself said, “My arms, more often than not, double as legs in most situations. So I end up performing 100% upper body.”

I have never witness a more heartfelt performance than Cleuton’s 13.2. Not only that, I have never seen a gym come together the way it did to witness, support, and in any way be part of such an amazing display of courage, perseverance, strength, and focus. While at the end of the day the 33-repetition score reported for this amazing athlete ranked him 66,754 in the world and 1,721 in Latin America, it was, in my opinion, the first place performance for 13.2.

Watch this video to see Cleuton’s entire inspiring performance:

Cleuton Nunes - CrossFit SP - Brazil does WoD 13.2 Rx

Hannah Caldas

About Hannah Caldas

Since returning to swimming in 2010 after an 8 year retirement, Hannah Caldas has claimed FINA masters world records in 3 different relays and USMS National Records in the 50m Breaststroke and 50 and 100m Freestyle. She was awarded USMS 2010 and 2011 Pool All Star, earned All-American status in over 20 individual events, and was ranked as the fastest masters female swimmer in the world over 30 by FINA in the 50 and 100m Freestyle in 2011.

In 2012, Hannah was an Olympic hopeful for Portugal in the 50m Freestyle, but fell short of the qualifying time for London by 0.3s. She made a debut in Open Water Swimming in the Maui Channel Crossing Race, as a member of the Mixed Relay team in 2011.

Hannah started CrossFit in the summer of 2011, and in 2012 competed in the CrossFit Open and Southwest Regionals while simultaneously training and competing in swimming. She swims 4,000 meters per day, 2 hours per day, 6 days a week, and CrossFits 5 days a week, with one active rest and one full rest day.

In addition to her impressive athletic background, Hannah served as Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Wake Forest University from 2006 to 2010. Since leaving academia, Hannah has lived in Phoenix, AZ, where she devotes her time to being a full time athlete. More recently, she has started applying her knowledge of functional fitness to help other swimmers and triathletes.

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