Simon Holland is arguably the fittest short-stature athlete in Britain. Here’s how he strengthened his body and mind with a lot of hard graft – and a bit of self-belief
HOW I BUILT MY BODY
He may not have been competing at CrossFit for long, but Simon Holland can already cut it with the world’s best. The 35-year-old, who calls himself ‘Britain’s first CrossFit dwarf ’, recently went head-to-head with fellow short-stature athlete, and current man to beat, Tim Murray, to see who could do the most burpees in six minutes. ‘It was the first time I beat him,’ says Holland, but concedes, ‘I think it’s cheating because I’m lower to the ground.’
Holland’s victory is a reminder of just how far he’s come. Go back a few years and his life looked very different. Holland was an athletic kid and was following a path that could have seen him swim for Team GB at the Paralympics, but a back injury at the age of 11 put paid to that. Subsequently, his sporting ambitions were put on hold. By 2021, at the age of 33, he was depressed and struggling with his mental health. It was CrossFit that saved him.
He remembers anxiously shuffling into his first class, before quickly realising that the workouts of the day (WODs) could be scaled and adapted for him. Within a few years, he was challenging himself in the CrossFit Open (three weeks of online workouts, which marks the beginning of the CrossFit season) before his now coach, Amanda Ainsworth, who also has a son with dwarfism, spotted him on Facebook and offered to train him. It was Ainsworth whointroduced Holland to shortstature competitions.
Last year began with an event called Adapt: All or Nothing and ended with Holland picking up the Spirit of The Games Award at WheelWOD, which
‘People weren’t staring at me because I’m adwarf, they were watching in admiration’ is to the CrossFit Games what the Paralympics is to the Olympics. He remembers coming off the floor at his first event and bursting into tears.
‘People were watching [me compete], but they weren’t staring at me because I’m a dwarf,’ says Holland. ‘They were watching in admiration and going
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