Lake Bluff Mom Becomes World Champion
Anne Marie McNiven and the power of showing up
When many people think of world champions, they probably don’t picture a Lake Bluff mom heading to a 5 a.m. workout before the rest of the village wakes up. But this June, one local mother did exactly that, winning a HYROX Pro Doubles World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden.
For those unfamiliar, HYROX is a global fitness race that combines eight one-kilometer runs with eight functional fitness stations. With approximately 1.5 million athletes competing worldwide this season, only 7,500 qualified for the world championships.
Yet for her, the title isn’t really the story. The story is what happened along the way.
Like many women, she spent years focused on raising children, building a career and caring for everyone around her. Somewhere along the way, pieces of herself took a back seat.
“Working out is therapeutic for me,” she said. “It’s the time I dedicate to me every day—something we don’t do for ourselves very well, and definitely something I lost sight of when the kids were young.”
She returned to fitness in her 40s, attending 5 a.m. classes at Quest Performance Training in Lake Bluff. What started as a way to prioritize her health quickly grew into something much bigger.
She and a friend signed up for their first HYROX race simply because it sounded fun. After unexpectedly placing third in Chicago, they were hooked. There were setbacks, disappointments and missed qualification attempts, but she kept showing up.
“There is something magical about being afraid to do something and doing it anyway.”
Perhaps the greatest reward has been watching her children watch her. One conversation with her eldest daughter stuck with her. After asking how long she planned to continue competing, her daughter smiled and simply said, “I think it’s kind of cool.”
“I love being a role model for our children—hard work, dedication and a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “I want to show that strength and performance are beautiful and that our bodies are still capable in our 40s and beyond.”
For Anne Marie, that was the real victory: not becoming a world champion, but showing her children that it’s never too late to rediscover a piece of yourself.
As she puts it, “We all need three places in our life: home, career, and something else. Find that something else.”