Dante Karangaroa of Te Ātihaunui a Pāpārangi, from the Whanganui River, is the fittest man in New Zealand. Karangaroa earned the title after winning the open individual section at this year’s Cross Fit National competition held in Tauranga.
But he says without the encouragement of his parents he wouldn’t know what hard work looked like and he is still trying to come to terms with being the fittest man in the country.
“It’s pretty surreal, " Karangaroa says. " I still haven’t even processed it yet at the moment, obviously just getting back into mahi now, so hopefully after a few more weeks settling down it’ll come to reality. But other than that, I still haven’t processed it yet.”
“My parents have been 100% inspirational. Without them I wouldn’t know what hard work would look like. They obviously pushed me to be my best and that played a big part in pushing myself as an individual. Obviously, without them, I probably would not have been introduced to the sport.”
“I was introduced to it as a young fella. I used to box before CrossFit. My parents did CrossFit and then I just got dragged along for the ride, and then it kind of just stuck, and I pursued it through high school and then coming out of high school had a bit of a break while I was studying down in Wellington and then picked it back up a few years ago and then started competing again”, Karangaroa says.
The 23-year-old Karangaroa says that he followed a one-year long plan that would see him train at least six days a week, and countless hours in the gym. Karangaroa says he had to take on the assistance of a nutritionist to help with his eating and had to make huge personal sacrifices to compete and be successful at the elite level of Cross Fit.
" I set the goal about one year ago, one full year before competing at Nationals, that I wanted to win it, and then obviously every single day leading up to it for the past 12 months was in trying to win it, so it was a pretty big sacrifice in terms of my daily life, I come away from home all the time, and I spend more time at the gym than I do at home. There was a lot of sacrifice leading up to the nationals, a lot of effort went into it, a lot of planning.”
“I currently have a nutritionist, Bailey Rogers, who also won the female open individual section at nationals, so she’s currently the fittest female in New Zealand as well, so we were able to share both podiums together. So, she runs my nutrition, tells me what to eat, when to eat, and that plays a big role in terms of training. Obviously eating crap food wouldn’t help me, so having her in my support group played a big part.”
“And when I wasn’t training, I was either at physio, or doing recovery protocols, might be doing saunas, swimming etc. And that was all broken up between work. I coach three classes a day and then obviously my training works around that”, Karangaroa says.
Karangaroa is a personal trainer at Awanui Cross Fit and Primal HQ based in Whanganui. Karangaroa says Cross Fit doesn’t get the same support and financial backing here in Aotearoa as it does in other countries, which would allow him to do Cross Fit full-time. But the sport is growing at a rapid pace, and he is hopeful that one day for a full-time career in Cross Fit.
“It’s still quite young as a sport in New Zealand as opposed to Australia. A lot of the competitors over there are able to do it full time without having to work another job. Just because there’s a bit more backing, a bit more support. But I would like to see New Zealand obviously start getting behind it more”, Karanagoa says.
Karangaroa headed to Sydney, straight after the nationals, to compete at the Down Under Cross Fit Champs in which he placed fifth overall, out of the top 30 of the fittest men in the Oceania region.
“That competition was an experience and a half. It was my first time leaving New Zealand to go to a competition like that. But yeah, same again with Nationals, it was a surreal experience. Meeting very high-end competitors there, they definitely brought the intensity and it’s a little bit different from what they bring over here in New Zealand. There are more competitors over there, there are a lot more competitors in terms of the Oceania region. But the competition was well run. I was just trying to soak up as much of the experience as possible,” Karangaroa says.
Karangaroa says more Māori and Pasifika people are taking up Cross Fit and that Māori and Pasifika people naturally gravitate toward the sport not only for its physical fitness and health components but also because of the broad range of people of all ethnicities and ages that enjoy the sport.
“I guess just the health and fitness side of things, a lot of people like to stay healthy. There is quite a big scene coming up with our Māori people, especially in places like Rotorua, and new Māori competitions like Mata Toa. So, the scene of CrossFit with Māori has been quite big, and it is growing. I guess our people just like to feel better about themselves.”
“I think we’ve got like young kid’s competitions starting at age 12 and then I think the oldest Cross Fitter competing at the moment would be in their late 80s, so it’s pretty big numbers. When you’re going away to competitions, everyone seems to do the exact same thing. You’re always around like-minded people who hat always just want to better themselves in a way, and obviously look after themselves,” Karangaroa says.
