Eric Cohen Earns a Bronze Medal at NOBULL CrossFit Games

Eric Cohen said his goal at the 17th annual NOBULL CrossFit Games was to reach the podium. And that’s exactly what he did.

Cohen, competing in the 60-64 age group at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, from August 1-6, returned home on Sunday with a bronze medal after finishing third in the world. The 60-year-old Sag Harbor resident reached the CrossFit Games, the world championships of the sport, after placing fifth at the CrossFit Games Semifinals in June.

Cohen’s finish is all the more impressive when you take into account that he tore a biceps tendon about a week before competition, working out with a barbell. This was after having surgery, nearly a year earlier, to repair a torn rotator cuff, biceps tendon and labrum. Nervous about going into competition with such an injury, Cohen met with his orthopedic surgeon, who assured him that, other than maybe being a little weaker in the affected arm, he should be fine to compete.

“So going into it, my only sort of expectation was to just be in the mix, be in the conversation, push people and not finish toward the back of the pack,” he said on Monday. “As things went on, and I was consistently finishing in second and third, I was able to stay there. Across most of the events, I finished consistently in the middle and that was one of the things that helped me.”

Cohen said the pain associated with a biceps tendon tear is pretty low — he marked it as a 2 out of 10 — with most events not bringing much pain. One event that required him to walk on his hands proved to be the most difficult, but other than that he was fine. In fact, Cohen said it may have been a blessing in disguise.

“The orthopedist said it was probably one of those things where it was just the final straw, where it had just had enough after a long period of time of being stretched out,” he said. “I guess it’s probably better that it happened a week before. Had it happened there at the Games, I may not have understood that I could compete with an injury like that and maybe would have pulled myself out.”

Even with the injury, Cohen won an event that included three rope climbs of 18 feet, 10 deadlifts of about 275 pounds, then drag a sled that was about 200 pounds 42 feet three times before finally pushing the sled all the way back to the start/finish line.

“Not to toot my own horn too much, but I blew everyone away on that,” he said. “I didn’t expect that, but I just kept going farther and farther. My wife was at the finish line getting photos, and it’s just me and nobody else around. That was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed that.”

Cohen said that his future with CrossFit remains up in the air at the moment. He’s going to get an MRI on his bicep. If it’s just a tendon tear, there isn’t much to be done about it. But if the MRI shows any additional tearing, he may need to get surgery. Either way, he plans on taking a break from it all for the time being, but he wouldn’t count out a return in the future.

“I leave the door open to change my mind, but I’m probably not competing for a while,” he said. “Physically, I’d like to recover a little. Maybe the latest injury is my body telling me something, and this is sort of a good way to go out. The age groups change over every five years, so maybe at 65 I’ll go back to it?

“One of the things that would really encourage me to go back is the group of guys who compete,” Cohen added. “It’s really fun hanging out and sharing the whole experience with everybody. They’re all very supportive and encouraging, but of course once they say, ‘Three, two, one, go!’ we’re going as hard as we can, in general and in my age group in particular.”