The 17-year-old Muscle Shoals High School student landed in the top ten out of more than 2,800 competitors to make it to the teen division of the games, which are July 19-21 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, USA.

A high school wrestler coming off shoulder surgery, James was looking for a rehabilitation regiment when he came across the teen games.

“Around last year when I saw the teenagers competing on TV I thought, ‘I want to do that. But I was nowhere near what they could do in any workout, so I set out a goal. I realized it was pretty attainable around spring this year,'” he said.

His brother, Joe, also is on the wrestling team and tried out for the games but didn’t make the cut while James tied for seventh place. The brothers started out with a makeshift gym they built in their garage.

Their father, Phillip Green, said 10 boys in the 16- 17-year-old division qualified for the games through a grueling five-week open competition.

“It’s just been something really special. They built this gym in the garage. That’s how a lot of CrossFit gyms are, in people’s garage, storage units or whatever,” he said.

Eventually, the boys joined Hi-Temp Athletics in Tuscumbia, which is a CrossFit facility. They also have met and stayed in touch with Hi-Temp’s Elijah Muhammad, who has competed in the CrossFit Games.

“When they really started to get more interested, CrossFit is social media heavy, and the guys found Elijah Muhammad. They started putting some comments out there and he responded back. And the guys, they thought they had met a superstar,” Phillip said.

“He’s really encouraged them and said they had potential, that they were competitive at an elite level.”

James now has a website, jamesgreencrossfit.com, that has updates and information, as well as links to his Instagram site. He said he is making sure to keep his perspective at an even keel, especially knowing he’ll move up to a men’s division next year.

Source: Times Daily