Mandy Waller - January's Extraordinary Athlete

Ellie McKenzie • January 3, 2026

Mandy Waller - January's Extraordinary Athlete

We couldn’t think of a better person to celebrate as we begin a New Year, than the woman who has the highest overall attendance at the gym at almost 1700 visits. It’s hard to put everything we love about Mandy in one blog because there is just so much.

Mandy has been with CrossFit Odyssey just over six and a half years, although she has been doing CrossFit for about 10 years.

Mandy is regularly in the gym, as marked by her attendance. She pays attention to coaching and consistently tries to improve her form and abilities slowly and carefully, while also being conscious of adding in long, slow distance and mobility work. 


She is kind, welcoming, and friendly to everyone in the gym. She has even gone so far as to grab people off the street and convince them to come try CrossFit. 


She participates in the Saturday morning ruck at 7am, encouraging others to join; she participated in the Spartan Sprint with some of the girls in 2023 and she participated and got 3rd place in the Everyday People's Combine in 2023.



Mandy is a local veterinarian and has helped more pets in our gym out of the kindness of her heart than I can count. 


She has used her fitness to explore the world, including a stay at a wildlife sanctuary in Costa Rica, where she actually had to cross rivers with crocodiles, and a solo hike across southern Ireland. As a nature lover, she can tell you about all kinds of great hikes around the DFW area.



One possible negative - it’s hard to get a picture of her not flipping me off, so I took pictures while her hands are busy. 😂 And in that way, she is always making everyone in the gym laugh and have a great time while doing hard things.


Congratulations, Mandy, on your Journey to Extraordinary, and thank you for choosing us to be a part of your fantastic journey!