Can you climb a mountain, sprint through snow, carry a wounded man across enemy lines, and haul a mass of metal whilst completely underwater all in the same day? In record time?
Then you're probably one of the thousand-some troops at the Edmonton Garrison this week taking part in Strong Contender.
The annual sports tournament, which started Monday, challenges members of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group to go head to head in eight different sports to see who is the toughest of the tough.
"Training in the army is an interesting animal," said garrison spokesperson Capt. Brian Kominar.
"You can't always just march with your rucksack or go to the shooting range and fire your service weapon."
Strong Contender is meant to build fitness and esprit de corps amongst soldiers. About 1,082 soldiers are competing, with everyone else on the base out to cheer them on, he said.
"It promotes a little bit of a competitive environment and at the end of the day, we're a better team for it."
This year's tournament matches up with the garrison's efforts to gear up for high-readiness/rapid deployment, Kominar said. Troops will parachute into Resolute Bay, Nunavut, this February as part of Exercise Arctic Ram, for example, and head south to Wainwright for live fire training in April. By May, they'll be doing a war game called Maple Resolve – a massive field exercise involving thousands of troops.
Tactical sports
This year's Strong Contender features soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey (ice and ball), powerlifting, curling, and tactical athletics.
Tactical athletics is a sort of mini-Olympics that challenges five-person teams to complete five athletic events in a single day.
In past years, these events have all been typical CrossFit activities such as push-ups or sprints, said Master Cpl. Marc Trudel, coach of 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry's tactical athlete team and Morinville resident.
This year, the events have a more military bent.
"These are all things we actually do in the army," Trudel said.
Competitors have to run an obstacle course while carrying a wounded soldier, for example (played here by one lucky, and hopefully light, team member), figure out how to climb a climbing wall to collect flags on it as quick as possible, and do a five-kilometre snowshoe relay outdoors using just one set of snowshoes.
They also have to walk back and forth along the bottom of the deep end of a swimming pool while moving a 35-pound weight through hoops. They then ditch the weight and swim two lengths of the pool at top speed.
Added to all this is a thick layer of mystery. Competitors don't know the layout of each event's course beforehand, and don't know what the fifth event is until moments before it starts.
It's a combination of team problem solving and high-level fitness, Trudel said – you need brains and brawn to succeed.
With all the other sports, you know what you're doing in advance – your challenge in them is to make a team and learn teamwork, said Cpl. Tyler Kosumovic of 3 PPCLI's tactical athletics team.
"These events, (they) bring out our fitness and military and problem-solving skills and put them to a real test. The events are really random."
Kosumovic said he and his teammates have been training two-to-three times a day five-to-six days a week to prepare for this competition, utilizing CrossFit activities such as powerlifting and Olympic-style lifting.
Strong Contender is mainly about bragging rights, but event winners and the top-scoring units also qualify for a day off, Kominar said.
It's a chance for the troops to work together, get fit and have fun, Trudel said.
"The army's a big team, and we try to play together so we can fight together."
Strong Contender wraps up Friday.
