EXCLUSIVE | 'The Titan Games' Season 2: Courtney Rosell says Haley Johnson is a heroic 'tough cookie'
Motivational speaker and fitness coach Courtney Rosell did her family proud when she steamrolled her way through 'The Titan Games', East Region, defeating reigning Titan Haley Johnson. Courtney maintained her smile, camaraderie and cheer throughout the episode, gaining love from all the fans.
Speaking about what motivated her to apply to the 'The Titan Games', she told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) in an exclusive interview, "There's 10,000 applicants that went out for the show and I'm one of the 36 contestants that were picked. I was so taken back that The Rock picked me to be there. The second reason was to represent New Jersey and to represent my family and put on the best performance possible, no matter what went out there, good or bad. I just want to make sure that my story was heard and that I had the best performance and I was representing my family, New Jersey and strong women to the best of my ability."
Courtney and Haley were neck-to-neck at Mount Olympus but Courtney managed to beat Haley, who had won twice at Mt Olympus, by a few seconds. Courtney said, "She's an amazing athlete and she's an amazing human. She's a tough, tough cookie. I mean, she's an army nurse. She's an every day, first responder life hero. So again, like winning against her, so amazing. I felt good also just winning against a really tough competitor. You know, it's not like an easy race. So for me to truly win with a tough race against her as an athlete and a competitor, I couldn't ask for anything more."
On how she trained for the show, she said, "I'm actually a CrossFit coach for a living. So I trained in the CrossFit arena. I compete in the sport as well. I've been to a couple of sanction events. So I didn't change my training. I do think cross is well rounded. It constantly merits varied movements in high intensity over a long period of time. And we move on objects. I moved 150 pounds stones to running three miles to moving barbells to walking on my hands during gymnastics. So it's a very varied sport. I just kept in my CrossFit training, hoping that that would pay off after the past seven years."
"We are trained to train for the unknown, so we're not supposed to adapt in anything in our sport. You know, if you ever watched the CrossFit games, they don't even know the workout until two minutes beforehand. That's how I go to cross the competition. So people ask me if I train the course and how it affected me, I was like, it just is my normal CrossFit training. I usually don't know the workout."
Speaking about her biggest lesson from the show, she said, "My biggest takeaway from all of this is that there are such amazing everyday superheroes that people don't know about. I always say surround yourself with stronger people, because it only makes you a strong human, don't ever surround yourself with someone that's less than you. These are straight, crazy, crazy beasts that we were going in with each other. Every single person was a crazy athlete."
Of course, it's always a pleasure to work with Dwayne Johnson, who hosts the show. Courtney said, "I mean, he's handsome. He's so handsome. He definitely set the presence, I can't believe Dwayne Johnson's right in front of me, but he's so humble. He's so authentic. He's really true. And to his values and the core of the show, he really does care about every athlete. He knows everybody's story. He knows you by name. He knows exactly everything about you. And it's just so crazy how he came from WWE and recreated himself to be Dwayne Johnson. He's not just the Rock. Dwayne Johnson, so it's pretty cool, but he's an amazing human and it's almost like I'm like a deer in headlights. When I first met him, I was like, oh my God. Yeah, he's handsome. He's so handsome."
'The Titan Games' airs on NBC on Mondays at 8 pm.