- Burlington native 1st Lt. Erik Thomas will compete in the 2026 CrossFit Games after placing 13th in the Masters division in 2025.
- Thomas says the resilience and mental toughness developed through 18 years in the Kentucky Army National Guard have been critical to his success in CrossFit.
- He will compete as a member of the Army Warrior Fitness Team while continuing his role as Kentucky National Guard’s holistic health and fitness coordinator.
1st Lt. Erik Thomas of the Kentucky Army National Guard attributes his resilience to his military service, which he believes has prepared him to compete in the 2026 CrossFit Games.
After finishing 13th in the Masters division of the CrossFit Games in 2025, Thomas, a native of Burlington, is running it back at the 2026 competition as he looks to outdo his finish from the year prior.
“You’ve got to be in a good mental headspace,” Thomas told LINK nky. “You’ve got to be able to fight through some things, so the military obviously builds resilient soldiers and builds people that are strong mentally and physically. Being able to bottle that training that I received then, and then just apply that to my CrossFit training was very beneficial.”
Thomas picked up CrossFit after his first deployment to Iraq in 2012, encouraged by a fellow soldier to try the sport. Although financial constraints temporarily kept him out of CrossFit after his return home, he rejoined the sport in 2014, working out at CrossFit Northern Kentucky in Florence.
Thomas qualified for his first regional competition in 2018. Given CrossFit’s competitive nature, Thomas said he understood how difficult it could be to qualify for the sport’s national competition. Instead, he set a long-term goal to compete in the CrossFit Games’ Master’s division, which he qualified for upon turning 35 years old.
In 2020, Thomas relocated to Louisville and started training at CrossFit Covalence, where he has remained ever since.
Going into the competition, Thomas admitted that his preparation has been more challenging than last year’s, as he spent 28 days at a Joint Readiness Training Program in Fort Polk, Louisiana. While on base, Thomas said he had little opportunity to participate in structured workouts.
Normally, Thomas trains five days a week for two to three hours per session, in addition to mobility work, recovery and nutrition. Despite the disrupted schedule, Thomas remains grateful for the opportunity to compete on the national stage.
For the competition, Thomas will compete as part of the Army Warrior Fitness Team, a specialized group of active-duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers who represent the U.S. at high-level fitness events across the country. The team operates out of the Army’s Recruiting Command center in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Outside of CrossFit, Thomas serves as a holistic health and fitness coordinator for Kentucky’s National Guard Soldiers, a position where he focuses on optimizing soldiers’ physical and mental readiness for battle.
“We’ve always talked about our biggest asset being the soldier, because we can’t fight and win wars without ready and lethal soldiers. But we’re just now starting to make that culture shift on like, ‘hey, if we want our soldiers to be able to perform better, we need to start treating them like high-level athletes.’”
For Thomas, CrossFit has provided a competitive outlet beyond military service, helping him stay sharp outside his career.
“I’ve always been super competitive, and I needed to find something after my first two years of college, playing basketball,” Thomas said. “I needed something after that. It was my competition itch.”
Although Thomas is now based in Louisville, he credits his support system in Northern Kentucky for laying the foundation that has allowed him to flourish in the sport.
“My entire CrossFit journey started in Northern Kentucky,” he said. “I still have a whole lot of people that helped me along my journey for the five years that I was doing CrossFit in Northern Kentucky, and just providing that inspiration.”
