Athlete Profiles: August 2014 - Paul Roux Janse van Rensburg

Name: Paul Roux Janse van Rensburg (YES IT'S THAT LONG)

Nickname on the boards: Ironically, Small Paul

Member Since: October 2012

Occupation: Investment Banking and Valuation Analyst at Houlihan Capital

Words to live by: In everything you do be tender in mercy, fiery in passion and motivated by love.

Favorite quote: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

Favorite movies: Dinner with Schmucks, Step Brother, Gladiator, Troy, 300, and think most Oscar nominated movies are worth taking a look at.

Favorite food: I love food in general. Some of my favorites include: Lamb chops and Boerewors (can be found at the Artizone Chicago online store). I also love a good steak, medium rare.

Favorite music or artist: The Partlotones (they are a South African band, check them out on Spotify), Foo Fighters, Zac Brown Band, Johnny Clegg (also South African)

Favorite sport or activity: Tennis, Golf, Crossfit

Sport or activity that you are training for: None specifically; however, putting up bigger numbers in weightlifting is something that motivates me while training. I am also training to make several other activities easier, such as volleyball, biking and MOVING (Lord knows how many people I will help this year) by being stronger, faster and bigger.

Goals

Personal:

Be a better person. Everyone has flaws and it’s understanding your flaws and making an effort to improve on them that lets you improve yourself. Otherwise, working on being the best son, brother, boyfriend and friend that I can be.

Professional:

Open a wine importing business for my father's wine from Cape Town, South Africa. I am also in the process of taking the CPA exams, well maybe not during the summer…but I will take my next exam in October. I want to attain the Certified Public Accountant accreditation.

Athletic:

Clean & Jerk – 300lbs (currently at 255lbs with C&J and 264 with Clean)

Snatch – 220lbs (currently at 180lbs, still a long way to go)

Back Squat – 400lbs

Front Squat – 350lbs

Also get my body fat percentage back to below 15%.

I am passionate about: Family, my amazing girlfriend, friends, Crossfit (including weightlifting) and becoming a better person.

Name some things we don’t know about you:

Well, I am 6’4” and have been since I was14 years old (I am now 27). However, I was around 80 lbs. lighter.
I am from South Africa (the country), and yes there are white people there.
I was on a tennis scholarship at a small university south of (Hot)lanta, where I played 3-4 hours of tennis per day, 5 or 6 days a week.
Since joining Crossfit, I have ripped 3 pairs of jeans by squatting on the dance floor…#JACKED

Adventure you are planning: I am taking a group of my friends to Cape Town, South Africa in November. We have several great activities planned, including Shark Cage diving, morning and night-time Safaris, and climbing Table Mountain.

If anyone is interested, I know pretty much everything there is to do in the Cape Town area, and would be happy to offer recommendations on lekker things to do. In addition, my parents own a Wine Estate just outside the city with guest houses called La Provence. Anyone looking for travel suggestions, I highly recommend a trip to Cape Town and their vineyard (I know, shameless plug).