The Power of ‘Yes’: Abi Wynn-Jones’ Fight Against EDS

Abi Wynn-Jones sustained countless injuries as a child.

An avid athlete — long-distance running, gymnastics, and swimming, to name a few — young Wynn-Jones found herself checking into the nearest emergency room frequently with sport-related injuries.

“But that was normal, right? I must be a really clumsy child,” she thought. 

The doctors didn’t seem to be too concerned. On each visit, she would be treated and sent right back to her sports once she was healed. 

But because she was seeing different doctors at different emergency rooms each time, no one caught on to the unusual amount of injuries. At 13 years old, she hit her growth spurt and her body could barely hold itself up. That is when doctors found she had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a genetic disorder that affects her connective tissues. Essentially, her body doesn’t produce collagen correctly, causing her ligaments, skin, blood vessels, and more to be very fragile.

Two years later, she underwent the first medical intervention after her diagnosis. To keep her right arm from dislocating every day, it was pinned in place, which took away almost all the function in her shoulder, wrist, and hand.

The surgeon looked at her and said, “You’re going to have to stop playing sports, and you’re going to have to accept that you will be wheelchair-bound when you are in your 20s.”

Wynn-Jones felt as though she had been struck in the face. 

“I didn’t understand. It was like a whole piece of me being ripped away,” she said. “(But) this was how EDS was treated back then (in the late 1980s). They said, ‘Well just don’t injure yourself then. Strap yourself in cotton wall.’”

Little did that doctor know that not only would Wynn-Jones be walking in her 40s, but she would also still be an athlete, making it to the most elite stage of competition in the Sport of Fitness — the Adaptive CrossFit Games. 

It’s Not What You Can’t Do, It’s What You Can Do

For the next few weeks after surgery, Wynn-Jones took her doctor’s advice. She stopped playing sports and became sedentary. But that made her hips so brittle she could barely hold up her own body weight. 

She was told she needed to be as thin as possible if she wanted to continue walking, so she brought running and long-distance cycling back into her routine and cut back on eating to lose weight. 

That kept her standing, but “I was literally falling apart,” she said. For 20 years, the only thing keeping her body together was staying lean and routine physical therapy and medical appointments. By 2020, she weighed just over 130 pounds (60 kilos) at 5-foot-10. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Wynn-Jones lost access to the only treatments that kept her body intact. Within six weeks of lockdown, she was housebound, unable to even walk down the stairs to leave her second-floor apartment. 

“It suddenly felt like I had nothing left,” she said. “I had nothing else to live for.”

But in May 2020, an ad for a new CrossFit gym near her popped up on her Instagram feed that gave her a second chance at life. 

“I thought, ‘You know what? It can’t get any worse.’” 

CrossFit Catford was offering discounted memberships for the first 50 people to sign up, so after confirming with her doctors, Wynn-Jones reached out to affiliate owner Nicola Stiddard on Instagram asking if CrossFit was something she could try. 

“I don’t know, let’s find out. Let’s see what you can do,” Stiddard responded. 

All she had ever been told was what she couldn’t do with her EDS. This was the first time she was told what she could do.  

Due to lockdown restrictions, CrossFit Catford opened its affiliate with online classes. But Stiddard offered to personally train Wynn-Jones in the garden outside of her home. At first, she couldn’t even do a bodyweight squat or even grip a barbell. So, Stiddard had Wynn-Jones squat with a PVC pipe. The coach would even move her feet into position and hoist her back up when it became difficult to stand. 

After learning how to withstand her own body weight, Wynn-Jones began to gain weight, and most importantly, muscle. Soon, she had gained back 30 kilos of strength.  

On Aug. 1, 2020, CrossFit Catford officially opened its doors, so Wynn-Jones was introduced to the supportive coaching staff. 

“All of the coaches that Nicola employed would just sit there and say, “What can we do?’”

One of those coaches was Natasha Ellis, who specialized in weightlifting. She was fascinated by Wynn-Jones’ determination and became very involved in her training. 

Over the last four years, Wynn-Jones has learned how to snatch a barbell overhead with one arm and deadlift with the support of a strap. She can squat over 200 lb and even flip upside down into a handstand while supporting her immobile arm on a box. 

The Return to Sport

Although CrossFit transformed Wynn-Jones’ life, she still missed competing in sports. 

That changed in November 2020, when CrossFit announced the addition of adaptive divisions to the 2021 CrossFit Open, giving Wynn-Jones an opportunity to bring sport back into her life. 

From that day forward, she signed up for every adaptive Open and CrossFit competition she could. 

After three years, Wynn-Jones made it to the pinnacle of her sport, qualifying for the 2024 Adaptive CrossFit Games after an eighth-place finish in the Women’s Moderate Neuromuscular division at Semifinals. 

Upon qualifying, she found out her division would require pull-ups at the CrossFit Games. Due to her condition, she was the only athlete in the competition who would be required to complete them with one arm. 

“I can’t do that,” she told event organizers Kevin and Shannon Ogar. 

“No, this isn’t about what you can’t do,” they responded. They told her to train for it. 

So, Wynn-Jones returned to CrossFit Blackheath, CrossFit Catford’s sister affiliate, and spent hours with her community playing with different ways to do pull-ups. She found if she balanced her body weight by putting her non-working arm in a sling-type contraption using a band, she would be able to get her chin over the bar using just her left arm. 

Three weeks later, Wynn-Jones got her first first pull-up. 

“All it took was the community at my gym coming together and saying, ‘How about we try this,’” she said. 

Taking her new-found skill to San Antonio, Texas, in September, Wynn-Jones joined over 300 athletes to show the world what can be achieved if they say, “Yes, I can do this.” 

Not only did Wynn-Jones complete her pull-ups with one arm during Event 4, Hanging Frace, but in the final event, she managed to achieve several chest-to-bar pull-ups. 

By the end of the competition, Wynn-Jones became the fifth-fittest on Earth in the Women’s Moderate Neuromuscular division. 

In a world that has always told her, “You can’t do that,” it only took one person to say, “Let’s see what you can do,” to save Wynn-Jones’ life. Through the support of the community and coaching staff at both CrossFit Catford and CrossFit Blackheath and her determination to return to her love for sport, Wynn-Jones is continuing to prove that one surgeon wrong.  

“I essentially opted out of the medical process that a lot of people with EDS get,” Wynn-Jones said. 

Yet, she is 42 years old and is not wheelchair-bound.