Rico Malone

I started CrossFit way back in 2007 at CrossFit Los Angeles. Since then, as I moved around the country, I've been a member of three other CrossFit gyms, eventually landing at Koda CrossFit Norman in 2015. As an athlete, I was on my gym's team at the 2009 CrossFit Games in Aromas, California. In 2010, I competed at the So Cal regional in Los Angeles with my team Paradiso CrossFit. Since 2013, I've been a CrossFit coach as well as a CrossFit journalist, having worked for CrossFit HQ Media from 2012-2014. At Koda Norman, I have coached numerous group classes and guided the athletic growth of over 30 individual athletes, for whom I programmed in accordance with their specific goals. Over the years, eight athletes have asked me to prepare them for the annual Koda First-Timers competition, which is held for CrossFitters who have not yet competed in the sport. In 2015, I fell in love with Olympic weightlifting, and a couple of years later I started coaching a weekend Olympic weightlifting class at Koda Norman; the class, on Sundays at noon, is still going strong.

In 2007, I was living in Los Angeles and working a dead-end corporate job when I found CrossFit. Feeling defeated and depressed, I was amazed by the transformation CrossFit brought to my life. Within a year, my body and mind were transformed. I felt empowered thanks to what I was accomplishing in the gym. I quit my job and went back to graduate school, which eventually led me to my current profession and a move to Norman, Oklahoma, where I teach writing at the University of Oklahoma.