Former Flippin’ Bird Named To Sports Illustrated’s Fittest 50

CEDAR CITY, Utah – A former Southern Utah student-athlete has been named to Sport Illustrated’s list of the Fittest 50 Women Athletes.

Talayna Fortunato was ranked No. 25 on SI’s Fittest 50 list for her accomplishments as a CrossFit athlete. She said that being included on the prestigious list was, “extremely rewarding,” and that she felt very honored.

Those on the list were assessed by their strength, speed, endurance and agility.

The list also included athletes like Allyson Felix, Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey and Kerri Walsh Jennings.

Fortunato has competed at the CrossFit Games three times, and is also a licensed physical therapist and heptathlete along with being a former collegiate student-athlete. Fortunato competed on SUU’s gymnastics team, and also became a member of the track and field squad during her last year at SUU competing in the heptathlon.

She credits much of her success to the time she spent at SUU as a student-athlete. Fortunato said it was at SUU where she, “learned how to balance school and gymnastics,” which in turn has helped her, “be able to prioritize and handle a full schedule in life as well.”

Fortunato had about six years between the time her gymnastics career ended and her CrossFit career took off. During that time, she described herself as a “gym rat,” but the lack of competition wasn’t fulfilling.

“Once I found CrossFit it almost seemed like my gymnastics career as a whole made more sense and had a purpose beyond itself, because it brought me to a point that I could be successful in CrossFit. It did take quite a lot of hard work to get back into the shape to be competitive again.”

Fortunato said that she is “living (her) childhood dream” of being a professional athlete. She was drawn to CrossFit because of the ever-changing workout activities. “The possibilities for workouts are endless. CrossFit allowed me to excel because of my gymnastics background. It also gave me new goals to work towards and the intensity of the workouts was so high it was a very fulfilling feeling to complete the workouts and see improvements. It also gave my everyday training a sense of purpose again and once I found how successful I could be in competing it was like I got to live my childhood dream of being a professional athlete. I never thought that would ever happen, but CrossFit provided the avenue for it.”

You can read the Fittest 50 feature in its entirety by following this link. Fortunato is active on Instagram and Twitter @talaynaf, and also frequently updates her blog, www.talayna.com.