Azadeh Bouramond: Dominated South Central Region

Azadeh Bouramond - picture from Crossfit.com

Azadeh Boroumand. You likely didn't know of this name before the first weekend of CrossFit Regional competition, and even if you did, it's probably because you're related to her, work out with her, or somehow remembered her from a few CrossFit.com videos she was in. That's actually how I recognized the name, but I won't act all high and mighty and tell you I knew all of her stats. Here's some background that I found on the interwebs.

Boroumand is not a stranger to competition with her background in volleyball. She went to U. of Pittsburgh for it, but after college, wasn't sure where she was headed. She ended up at Get Lifted, a gym in El Paso, TX run by Paul Smith (who incidentally placed 4th in the men's division at the South Central Regionals) Boroumand was on the team for the Affiliate Cup at the 2010 Games and then placed 6th as an individual during the 2011 South Central Regionals. This year, she placed 45th in the world during the Open, but it was her performance at Regionals that really convinced people of her dominance.

One of the regions to kick off the season this past weekend was South Central where Azadeh Boroumand (first name pronounced AH-zah-deh) absolutely crushed the competition. She placed 2nd in the first event ("Diane") and didn't look back after that, placing 1st in every other event. Where else did we see this extremely rare occurrance? You got it, Iceland Annie's regional performance last year. And oh yeah, Annie went on to win the 2011 CrossFit Games.

At 26 years of age, Boroumand stands at 5ft. 10in. and 155lbs. and is a great example that you can be a lean, feminine woman and STILL be a badass that is strong/agile/fast/etc.  At the South Central region she blazed through the row/pistol/hang clean workout in just over 12 minutes, (beating her competition by over a minute and a half) and then proceeded to snatch 170#. What?! She even elected to not go on to the 175# bar since she already clinched first place for that workout. Going into the 6th and final event, she literally could have come in last and still would have maintained 1st place and gone to the Games. Staying consistent though, Azadeh came in 1st for that workout, securing her spot in the 2012 CrossFit Games. (note: both men and women had to complete the first mini-workout of Event 6 which included muscle ups and heavy deads in order to go to the Games) Out of the 6 workouts she did, she currently holds 4 of the best times/results out of the three regions that competed (South Central, South East, Canada West)

If you hop on the Boroumand Bandwagon, I don't blame you. She'll be a force at the Games, and clearly has the tools necessary to stand up to past winners Kristan Clever and Annie Thorisdottir.

picture from Get Lifted