Losing an arm hasn’t stopped this inspirational weightlifter from demolishing the odds and displaying her ferocious intensity in the gym.
Krystal Cantu, 25, lost her right arm in a horrific car wreck last August when the vehicle she was riding in blew a tire outside her hometown of San Antonio, Texas, and flipped through the air, crushing Cantu on impact, Barcroft reports.
Her boyfriend emerged unscathed, but Cantu had to be airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment.
Shortly after arriving, she learned that she would have to lose her arm if she wanted to stay alive.
“When I arrived at the hospital, the surgeon came up to me and said that he had looked at everything and the arm needed to come off,” Cantu said. “I had a moment but then I said, ‘All right — if it’s going to save my life, take it off.'”
An avid trainer in CrossFit, a fitness craze that combines weightlifting, gymnastics and cardio, Cantu amazingly was back in the gym just three weeks after her harrowing ordeal.
“The accident was the best thing that could have happened to me, so much good has come out of it,” she said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it.”
Cantu’s coach, Chris Xanders, added, “Everyone sees that what she’s doing may look difficult but she’s still going through it and trying her best.
“You can feel that the intensity is really turned up when Krystal is in the gym.”
Cantu has a successful career working in IT, but wants to follow her dream of competing professionally in CrossFit.
“Adaptive athletes can do anything normal people can do and I just really want the CrossFit games and the CrossFit headquarters to see that and give us a chance to compete,” she said.
“I feel like I can conquer anything when I’m in the gym,” she said. “I feel like I have super powers when I’m in there.”
