Eric Cohen Returning To NOBULL CrossFit Games This August

Eric Cohen is no stranger to qualifying for the NOBULL CrossFit Games, having done so as recently as 2021, but surgery last August made qualifying for this year’s games at 60 years old far from a guarantee.

Considering it his so-called “fun tax,” from a lifetime of sports such as skiing, tennis and now CrossFit, Cohen, a Sag Harbor resident, needed surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, biceps tendon and labrum. What was scheduled to be a two-hour surgery turned into three and a half hours, he said, so the recovery took some time.

Eventually, though, he came back better than ever.

Cohen is indeed heading to the 17th annual NOBULL CrossFit Games, which will be held at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, from August 1-6, after finishing fifth in the world in what is a brand new age group for him, 60-64, at the CrossFit Games Semifinals earlier this month.

Cohen’s quest started with the CrossFit Open, which ran from February 16 through March 6 when thousands of people from all over the world compete virtually; with CrossFit Warrior Legion in Hampton Bays as his home base, that’s where Cohen does the majority of his workouts. There were 2,500 men or so who competed with Cohen in the 60-64 age group alone, and he advanced to the quarterfinals easily by placing fourth overall.

Cohen competed in the quarterfinals from March 16 to April 2, when he needed to finish in the top 10 percent of his age group, which now featured 250 competitors. He was able to advance by placing 13th overall. In the semifinals, which were April 28 to June 4, Cohen competed against 28 others and needed to finish in the top 10 in order to punch his ticket to the CrossFit Games. He did so by placing fifth.

Cohen thanked CrossFit Warrior Legion for allowing him to use the space and helping him get to Madison.

“I need the whole gym to shut down to do these, and there were a couple of other local athletes who were competing with me early on,” he said. “We were able to have friends and family cheering us on. During the semifinals, they gave me the gym for three hours at a time over the weekend. I just enjoy going there. It’s a great representation of the CrossFit community. They’re super supportive.”

Cohen, who along with his wife, Joyce Shulman, co-founded Jetti Fitness and 99 Walks, also said he’s really enjoyed making friends with fellow CrossFit athletes over the years.

“I’ve gotten to know a number of guys and it’s really good camaraderie,” he said. “I was at the games in 2021, and I went to a big competition in Miami where I met a lot of the guys in person and we got to know each other and keep up in social media. Everybody’s pretty supportive while also being competitive at the same time.”

CrossFit competitions are known for bringing out some funky workouts, and Cohen said he certainly had to do his fair share of them. One workout he really enjoyed consisted of rowing on a rowing machine, shuttle runs of 25 foot lengths back and forth, over and over again, followed by double-unders with a jump rope, spinning the rope twice under his feet in each jump.

Then, in the semifinals, Cohen said in one of his final events he had three minutes to perform as many snatches, a weightlifting move where the weight is from ground to overhead, as many times as he could. He did 14 in the allotted time, leading to his first-ever CrossFit victory, doing more than any other competitor.

Cohen is preparing for the Games in August but there’s only so much he can do since he doesn’t know what the workouts will be, which is really the whole point of CrossFit, which is widely known for preparing athletes “for the unknown and unknowable.” As Cohen pointed out, CrossFit has a new person setting up all of the tests and events who has shown a penchant to setting up new and unexpected challenges, so he’s definitely expecting at least one or two curveballs to be thrown at him.

Of course, winning his age group and being able to be called “the Fittest on Earth,” is certainly a goal, Cohen said, but that’s not the end-all, be-all.

“I’ve sort of set the goal of getting on the podium, which would be top three. Whether that happens or not, we’ll see, but if I go out there and perform up to my capabilities, as well as have fun, I’m not getting paid for this, so that will be a win. But I’m going to be shooting for top three.”