Santa Barbara Officer Takes Third in World Police and Fire Games

The discipline necessary to accomplish one “Thruster,” much less 30 of them, is awe inspiring. They require a clean-and-jerk of 95 pounds or more from the floor, to the shoulder level, and then overhead. Santa Barbara police officer Michaela Bebernes did the requisite 30 reps, and much more, to beat out all but two of her 35 international competitors at the World Police and Fire Games in mid-August.

The competition’s other tasks included repeated sequences of deadlifts of 155 pounds, riding and rowing something called the Assault Bike “to max exhaustion,” and a dozen 55-pound dumbbell snatches and 18-inch box jumps. The awesome Officer Bebernes stepped up to third place on the Women’s Crossfit Elite winners’ podium in Los Angeles.

Bebernes, who has been with the police department for a year and a half, said she believed exercise and fitness were keys to a long career and life. She’d also competed in the 2017 SoCal CrossFit Open, at which her high finish in 26th place sent her into the elite division at the world games.

Styled after Olympic competitions, the world games are held every odd year for peace officers and firefighters at agencies like corrections, probation, border protection, immigration, and customs from more than 70 countries.