If you're looking for a dark horse at this week's 2017 CrossFit Games, in Madison, Wisconsin, keep an eye on 26-year-old James Newbury from Adelaide, Australia.

Newbury was playing semi-professional rugby league in 2011 when he decided to give CrossFit a try. While training with Mick Shaw at CrossFit Effects in Sydney, Shaw gave Newbury some advice: "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

It remains with Newbury to this day. 

Following Shaw's advice as well as his programming, Newbury placed in what he estimated was the 1,300 range in Australia in the Open that year. Hooked by the sport, he quit playing rugby league in order to give CrossFit his full attention.

In 2012, Newbury finished 47th in Australia in the Open and parlayed that into a ninth-place finish in the Australia Regional. He credits his long and intensive background in competitive sports for the dramatic improvement. Before rugby league, he did track and field, with high jump, shot put, and the 100-meter dash being his favorite events, and prior to that he played soccer.

Newbury's impressive finish in the 2012 Regional inspired him to raise the bar, making qualifying for the Games his next goal. He moved home to Adelaide and opened a gym called CrossFit Mode, where he trained -- essentially on his own -- for the next year.

Failing to improve as fast as he'd hoped, Newbury enlisted the services of Bobby Dee after meeting the famed coach at a competition in 2013.

"I needed to improve on everything," said Newbury. "But in particular [Dee] really wanted to get me stronger."

"You've got to be able to lift the weights," Dee told Newbury, "then you can build fitness around that. Fitness is quicker to build. Strength takes a few seasons. Obviously, we'll get you fit for the Open and Regionals, but most of the time we'll be working on strength."

"We've been working on it going on three and a half years," said Newbury. "I'm still not one of the strongest guys out there, but I've improved a lot. He's pretty good at getting people strong."

Dee also increased the volume Newbury was doing in training. For the first three weeks, Newbury couldn't even finish all the workouts Dee had programmed for him.   

After following Dee's program for six months, Newbury saw his performance enjoy a great leap forward once again. In 2013, he finished 10th in Australia in the Open and 11th in the Australia Regional.

Switching to individual programming in 2014, Newbury improved even more, finishing fourth at the Australia Regionals, just one spot short of qualifying for the Games. He said, "After that, I was like, 'Alright, I want to give this a really hard crack in 2015. Let's get it all fitted down to the ground for me.'"

Newbury's enthusiasm was greater than his luck. After tearing his patellar tendon, he finished a disappointing 13th in the Pacific Regional in 2015. While rehabbing the injury, he gained an appreciation for the role recovery plays in programming. From that point forward, Newbury made saunas and massages as much a part of his training as running and lifting.

Feeling stronger than ever, he finished second in the Pacific Regional last year to secure a spot at the Games, but his first appearance at the StubHub Center didn't go as well as expected.

"James put a lot of pressure on himself to do extremely well and that might have been to his detriment," said Dee. "I think he tried too hard. He destroyed himself in that first workout, and it kind of ruined his next four days of competition. In hindsight, had he not been such an eager beaver and said, 'I'm going to back off a little bit on the run because it's the first event and this is my first time at the Games.' I think he would have done a lot better because he wouldn't have been so beat up."

Newbury finished the Games in 24th place -- not bad for a rookie, but not as good as he'd hoped. Disappointed, he vowed to learn from the experience.

"I wrote five or six pages in a diary after last year's Games about things that I could have done better," he said. "I wrote about nutrition, hydration, massage . . . better ways to deal with pre-workout nerves, and not dwelling on bad performances."

With his disappointing 26th-place finish in the Ranch Trail Run fresh in his mind, Newbury reached out to Brian MacKenzie, who specializes in helping athletes build endurance.

"It's almost like a weightlifting program but for endurance," said Newbury. "It's about learning how to control my breath properly. I think it makes for a more wholesome program for myself, plus it gives me some extra work to do. I don't want to leave any stones unturned."

To that end, Newbury also does a 20-minute protocol working on his knees, shoulders, and midlines four times a week with Sean Pastuch, owner of The Active Life.

All the extra work Newbury has put in over the course of the past year paid off when he finished first in this year's Pacific Regional. As notable as the accomplishment is, it's only made him hungry for more.

Entering this year's Games, Newbury's feeling as confident as ever.

"I think this year is going to be a completely different ballgame for me," he said. "I feel like I'm prepared for whatever they can give us. I feel like I've improved physically. I also feel like mentally I've improved a lot. It's going to be a very different Games for me."

A top-ten finish may be asking a little too much of him, but, given the steady improvement he's enjoyed from one year to the next, maybe it's not.

By Storms Reback