Meet Adaptive Athlete: Omar Iglesias

Omar was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and raised from birth by his uncle and uncle’s husband - his fathers. When he was young, they moved to New Jersey, where Omar started school, but in 1996, their house burnt down and his family lost everything. With not many other options, they relocated back to Puerto Rico when Omar was 11, living in a small house without windows or electricity. He would walk a couple miles to school and through that his love for fitness blossomed. He began doing running sports, while working in the fields to afford food and uniforms for school. In 10th grade, he tested into a high-level competitive swimming school, which he did for a year before returning home and graduating early at the age of 16.

Omar continued on to university in the Dominican Republic, but decided to change direction a few years later, joining the Navy shortly after in September of 2004 in hopes that he could create a better future for himself while serving the country. Omar was first stationed on the USS Ronald Reagan in San Diego, where he worked as an Undesignated Airman, refueling jets and filtering water out of jet fuel for two and a half years.

At that point, he was looking to advance his skill and started studying to increase his rank while deployed in the Middle East. During that time, he had issues with his left leg, mainly his knee, which required a six month recovery before he was moved to another ship. Not shortly after, Omar’s speciality was requested in Iraq and he volunteered to deploy after getting the medic training needed.

In October of 2009, while traveling to another base in Iraq, his vehicle was met with fire from incoming mortar and rocket. The blasts caused his vehicle to swerve and hit something, but the crew was able to continue on and finish the deployment.

After returning to the states in 2009, Omar realized his leg and body weren’t healthy following that incident. From 2010 to ‘14 he worked a desk job for the Navy. During that time he was able to focus on fitness, while getting his undergrad degree and continuing on to get his Masters in Business from USC. Omar also earned Petty Officer Second Class status. Not too long after, Omar learned from his dad that he grew up with congenital club foot, but because his dads didn’t treat him differently, he didn’t realize it.

In 2014, he retired from the military and moved to New York City. After a quick job in retail, he got into finance and has been working for PwC as a management consultant ever since. Omar started competing in adaptive crossfit, para-rowing, and para-bobsledding. In 2017, he took third in the WheelWOD crossfit games, along with 5th place in 2018.

Now, Omar is ramping up for the 2021 games, using the nine weeks to help prep himself to reach the benchmarks and be in top shape before the Crossfit games in June. He hopes to better himself in both weight lifting and crossfit training. After the class, he’ll be traveling to France in May to compete in crossfit there before the Asbury Games and Crossfit Games in June.

Beyond the training, Omar wants to share the message that despite physical impairments, you can be in the best shape of your life - as long as you build patterns to succeed. He wants to continue to use his platform to share with kids and veterans that no matter your disability, you can still be an athlete.