André Houdet: “a promise is a promise”
André Houdet is one of CrossFit’s fastest-rising stars, and is snapping at the heels of the best. He’s probably one of the most dedicated people you’ll ever meet, but his story isn’t one of a pure drive to win or one of the chase for fame and fortune — it has family at the very core.
“My younger sister, Céline, was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), it’s a disease that affects the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord — it means that you can’t walk and that you’re limited physically overall.”
Training to be strong was important from the moment I became an older brother. As a family, we decided that we were never going to let Céline’s physical limitations limit her, we would be her arms and legs when she needed us to be. We refused to have lifting machines in our house or in hers — who would want home to feel like a hospital? If she wanted to go to the toilet, go to bed, sit on the couch, we lifted her. I had to be strong, because I had to be there for her.
Céline is relentless and nothing gets in her way. She’s a legend in the ‘handicap world’, she got involved with everything when we were kids — hockey, dancing, skiing, parasailing — and now she is fully self-supported with 2 part-time jobs, living by herself (with helpers), studying the hardest education in Denmark, and is about to publish a book about her life. She has a bravery and fight like nobody I’ve ever known.
Although it sounds really heroic and like the character of a Blockbuster movie — there have been some real lows too. Her immune system is so weak, when she gets sick, there’s a risk of her dying every single time — something small like a cold can quickly escalate. We’ve spent weeks at a time in the hospital with her, and even celebrated Christmases in there.
It reminds me every day to be thankful for my health and life, and that there are no excuses for not going after your dreams.”
Spending his life training to be fit and strong for his family led André to excel in competitive sports in a lot of different fields from an early age, but the one that stuck was American Football. He played for Copenhagen Towers for 8 years and on the Danish national team where he was the speaking captain for his entire time there. At 16, he moved to the USA to train and follow his dream of the NFL.
“I attended camps in the US and was pouring my soul into NFL but, during our off-season training I had a go at CrossFit — I did one session and realised that CrossFit was the sport for me. I did one session and never looked back.
I love the fact that you need to be an all-round athlete, rather than a specialist in one domain. You don’t need to rely on 21 other players in the team to have the same commitment and hunger in CrossFit, you just need to push yourself to be the very best. CrossFit has everything for me: the finesse, the hard-work, the discipline needed to excel, variety of challenges, and the dream of being fit across all domains”
It only took a year of CrossFit until André competed in his first competition. His brother, Pierre, had always been a huge supporter of his sporting career — and was an elite-level swimmer himself — so of course he flew to see André compete.
“My first competition was in Manchester, UK. In the individual category 100 athletes qualified — so of course I finished #101! Luckily, someone couldn’t go to I got an invite!
Most of the top dogs were there — and I was really new, had no coach, but I was ready to give it my all. I ended up 77 out of 100, so I was pretty happy with my performance. Competing felt natural to me but this competition left me with a clear vision of how good I needed to be able to compete with the best. I hired a coach the next day.
The night after that competition, my brother and I decided on two goals:
Become as good as you could possibly be
Qualify for regionals
Regionals was recognised as a statement of being amongst the top athletes — and that’s where I wanted to go.”
A year after that competition, André’s brother died in a tragic skiing accident in the Swiss mountains. He was out photographing the mountains and was chasing a scroll down the side of a cliff, he slipped, fell, and died on the spot.
“My brother and I were so close — he was such a great guy — very ambitious, hard working, caring, big dreamer. He was brilliant at his job in hotels, a talented athlete, in a great relationship, and he loved photography. He was even selected as one of the most talented future hoteliers and was a member of ‘les cles d’ors’, which was unheard of at such a young age. It absolutely broke my heart when he passed away and my life has changed forever.”
When Pierre passed away, the goals he and André set together at the competition took on a much greater meaning. “I promised him that I would get to regionals. A promise is a promise. Nothing could get in the way and if I failed I would get back up, that was the deal. Everytime I want to quit or don’t feel like doing something, I feel like my brother is right there telling me to ‘pick it back up’ or ‘you can do this’. I know it’s kind of cheesy, and it’s not something I really tell anyone, but it’s always there.
I got to regionals in 2018 — and I did it for my brother. Now, I want to be as good as I can possibly be.”
Everything in André’s life is focused on being the best athlete possible and bringing on other athletes too. “My daily routine is designed to train, sleep, and eat as much as possible, and have a low-stress life outside of training. I don’t want to look back at my career and think ‘what if’. ‘What if I would have eaten better, slept better, trained harder’, I want to give it all I’ve got, and regardless of the outcome, remember that I did everything.
As well as working on myself, though, I coach other people too. I love the feeling of helping others. I’ve coached around 10,000 hours of classes and personal training in 3 different countries over the past 5 years. I really enjoy having a positive impact on other people’s lives. I want to help and inspire other people to go after their dreams too — I want to help people to conquer the adversity that they face in their lives and achieve their goals no matter what.”
With a regional under his belt, thousands and coaching hours, and so much determination he enough for multiple people, who knows what the future will bring for André.
“I’m grateful for the life I’ve had so far, despite the things that has happened to my family. As for my future, I really don’t know if I will ever become one of the best CrossFit athletes in the world, but I will do everything I can do. I will be the very best that I can possibly be.”
