Mat Fraser Shares How His CrossFit Success Was Predicted by an Eerily Accurate Fortune Cookie
Few sports have a history of being dominated by just a few key names quite like CrossFit. We’re creeping towards the 20-year mark since the inception of the CrossFit Games, and two names still stand out among the men as unstoppable athletes: Rich Froning and Mat Fraser, both of whom retired before their win streak could be broken. But Fraser, who’s known for his tagline ‘hard work pays off,’ has now revealed that he may have had a mystical and motivating reason for believing his hard work was going to pay off, years before he even bagged his first title.
In a recent Instagram post, a reflective Fraser shared snaps from one of his earliest CrossFit competitions back in 2013. The pictures included some shots of him competing at the CrossFit New England East Coast Championships, a giant cheque for $2,000 that Fraser picked up from winning the event, and a photo of a rather prophetic fortune cookie message from the Panda Express meal the five-time Games winner says he ate the night before the competition.
The small paper slip — which Fraser says in his Instagram caption he has saved — reads, ‘Participation in sport may lead you to a lucrative career.’ Eerie.
Fraser, who went on to absolutely dominate the male field from 2016 to 2020, earning the moniker of ‘Fittest Man in History,’ racked up an estimated $1.6 million from Games winnings alone, as well as gaining lucrative sponsorship deals from the likes of Nike, a book deal and has since launched a successful training app.
The athlete and entrepreneur announced his retirement from competition in February 2021, saying that he ‘felt he had achieved everything he wanted in the sport’, now has an estimated net worth of around seven million dollars, rendering the fortune cookie’s prediction eerily accurate.
Many commenters on the Instagram post shared their disbelief at the prophetic dessert, with one user stating, ‘I’m headed to Panda Express right now.’ Us too; us too.
More Like This
Team Talk: Matt O’Keefe, CEO of HWPO Training on the Business of Sport
Shane Orr, Coach to 6x CrossFit Champion on Co-Parenting in Fitness
9x CrossFit Games Finalist Says CrossFit Needs to Improve or Hyrox Will Take Over
You Might Also Like
