Army Reserve spouse earns top spot in world competition

Photo By Master Sgt. Jessica Espinosa | Lindsay Megill jumps performs a thruster during the Friday Night Lights CrossFit Open competitive event at the Cottontown CrossFit box in Columbia, South Carolina Oct. 11. Jana Slyder, an 81st Readiness Division spouse, acted as a judge for the event. Slyder coaches at Cottontown when not working out herself.  

COLUMBIA, SC, UNITED STATES

10.11.2019

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Jessica Espinosa 

81st Readiness Division

COLUMBIA, S.C. – For the second time in two years, Jana Slyder was pitted against an international crowd of elite athletes. The difference this year was she knew she would take home the gold.
“I fell short last year, so when I decided I was going to do this again for another year, I committed to myself that I wasn’t just going to just compete – I was going to win,” she said.
Slyder, 50, an Army Reserve spouse and mother of four, took the top spot in the 2019 CrossFit Games women’s master category (age 50-54) Aug. 5 after the four-day event in Wisconsin.
Being named the world’s fittest woman in her division came with sacrifice.
A holistic approach toward fitness, nutrition and mental toughness was what she lived and breathed. Competing in the top one percent of the one percent takes years of training and daily dedication.
For Slyder, that meant a full five years to build the strength and capacity once she began her CrossFit journey in 2013, then another two years after qualifying for the Games to realize her goal.
During the Games is when she really had to dig deep, she said. At the end of day two, her body reached exhaustion with medics having to rush her into an ice bath. She said she had to “ranger up” to make it through the last two days of the Games.
“My body was in shock and my mental fortitude was definitely put to the test. That was the defining moment in the competition where I had reached my threshold, but I had to force myself to move beyond my comfort zone,” she said.
Slyder said she experienced three realizations of elite-level-performance during the Games. 1. Based on the caliber of fitness, the physically fittest person wins; 2. Based off physical exertion, the person who recovers the fastest wins; 3. Based off the mental toll, the most resilient person wins. Slyder realized all three in herself.
Slyder is no stranger to fitness, having been an athlete most of her life.
“My Dad (J.D. Green) saw athletic potential in me at a very young age,” she said. From about the age of 10, the two went on 4-mile runs at 5 a.m., followed by hill sprints and endurance training. Eventually she was beating him up the hills and training with the boys by middle school, since she was so far ahead athletically.
“He turned our living room into a weight room so I could also work on my strength,” said the three-sport athlete - volleyball, basketball, and track.
As an adult she maintained fitness, being awarded a scholarship for track during college and running in the Chicago Marathon three times. Then, “life happened,” she said, but luckily she found CrossFit in 2013 and got her groove back.
While training for the Games, she said she worked out multiple times a day for hours, watched what she ate, and would be in bed by 9 p.m. to ensure her body got enough rest.
Beyond that, everyone on her “team” needed to commit to her vision.
“As a woman, wife, mother, I had to make this commitment to a very rigid lifestyle. My family had to be onboard, while at the same time I had to deal with the stigma of not being this typical version of those roles,” she said. There were plenty of missed family events, she said, but her “rock” moved in to fill the gaps.
Maj. Matt Slyder, a fulltime engineer plans officer with the Army Reserve’s 81st Readiness Division on Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and CrossFit aficionado as well, stepped in to support her both at home and in “the box.”
The couple used teamwork to maintain their blended family throughout her training. Her eldest son, a 22-year-old U.S. Marine Osprey aircrew member, is out of the house, but she also has two teenage daughters, a 14-year-old and 13-year old; plus, her husband has a 9-year-old son.
“It’s really kind of an understatement to say I’m proud of her,” Maj. Slyder said. “I love the empowerment this brings to women, especially women in sports.”
He acknowledged that not many people get the opportunity to realize their life’s dream.
“I love that I got to be a part of her journey, watch how she can empower women to conquer their goals and achievements. She could have done this on her own, even as a single mother… but being able to be there to support her as a significant other was really something special,” Maj. Slyder said, who acted as her coach during the Games.
The admiration is mutual, she said.
“He packed my gym bag, down to the hair tie, every single night before my next day of competition, so I would have everything I needed to just show up and compete,” Slyder said, adding that he also coordinated schedules for link ups, kept social media updated for family and friends, and waited in long lines carrying her essentials. “He did all of this in the background for zero glory. I walked away with a gold medal and worldwide recognition, all he received was an orange plastic wristband to the event.”
Slyder said she regards her husband as the true “rock star of the family,” explaining how she admired him for choosing a career path greater than himself.
Plus, he was able to give her the motivation she needed to reach the gold in the end, she said.
“In a very critical moment, my husband said straight-forward: ‘You need to ranger up and win this… That edict drove me and I did both.”

• Date Taken: 10.11.2019
• Date Posted: 11.07.2019 15:03
• Story ID: 350408
• Location: COLUMBIA, SC, US
• Hometown: CHICAGO, IL, US
• Hometown: ROGERSVILLE, MO, US