Chelsea Espe

MILITARY SPOUSE, GYM OWNER, GRID RACER: CHELSEA ESPE ADDS ANOTHER LINE TO THE RESUME

Chelsea Espe’s athletic background reads long before CrossFit enters the picture. Five years of dance, ten years of track and field, six years of field hockey. She played both track and field hockey at the collegiate level before landing in a CrossFit gym in late 2018. Within a month she was coaching. Within a few years she and her husband Luke co-owned 12 Labours CrossFit, running locations in Annapolis and Columbia, Maryland.

Born and raised in Frederick, Maryland, Espe holds a degree in business administration with a minor in marketing and public relations. On the fitness side, she carries a CrossFit Level 1, Precision Nutrition L1, and a Cornell Plant-Based Nutrition certification. The combination of business ownership, coaching credentials, and a decade of competitive athletics before CrossFit gives her a baseline most first-year Grid players don’t walk in with.

As a military spouse, Espe knows what it means to adapt. The Carolina Flight are getting a utility player who has been competing in one form or another for most of her life, and who runs a gym that prepares other athletes for exactly this kind of stage.