Still Reigning

May 29, 2016

Mike Warkentin

Sara Sigmundsdottir repeats as Meridian champion.

They own the regional.

Between the two of them, Sara Sigmundsdottir and Annie Thorisdottir have won seven out of eight regionals held in Europe since 2009. Only Sam Briggs was able to crack the string in 2013, when Thorisdottir was injured and Sigmundsdottir didn’t make it past the second event.

In 2016, the Icelanders grabbed the top of the leaderboard with a one-two finish in Event 1, and they didn’t budge for the next six events. At the end of the weekend, Sigmundsdottir was 10 points ahead of Thorisdottir, who was 64 points ahead of third-place Kristin Holte. Not without some fitness-related discomfort, the top two had a relatively smooth cruise through one of the toughest regions for female competitors. All told, Meridian women hold five of seven event records as of press time, with Sigmundsdottir and Thorisdottir in possession of one each.

Sigmundsdottir said she hoped to finish top 10 in all regional events, so she was thrilled to instead finish in the top five every time.

For her, the win is a stepping stone. She finished third at the Games last year but was disappointed because first was well within her grasp until she let it slip away in the final event of the competition. A year of hard training and a second consecutive regional win have her ready to roar again.

“I lost a little bit of self-esteem after the Games last year. I thought, ‘Oh, this is so typical that happens to me and nothing ever good happens. I always mess everything up in the end.’ And now it’s like, ‘OK, I can really do this.’ It makes me believe in myself more.”

She continued: “Now I know how good everybody is, and I know how hard I have to work. And I’m willing to be in a lot of pain to make it back to the podium this year.”

The champion plans to train with Sam Briggs, who qualified in fourth overall after a rough Day 1 that had her questioning whether she could climb out of a significant hole.

“I’m probably more excited about that than being in first place,” Sigmundsdottir said of Briggs’ finish. The two have been training together for the last three weeks, and they’ll continue with that plan prior to the Games in July.

“I’ll try and push her where I can,” Briggs said. “She’s already a beast.”

The Brit, who plans to retire after this year, accomplished her goal for this season.

“My goal was just to get back there,” she said.

Thorisdottir, who had to withdraw from the Games last year with heatstroke, is looking forward to a fresh run at the Games.

“I am so excited because last year I felt like I was in the best shape of my life, during the Games—not during regionals, during the Games—and I was so devastated that I didn’t get to show that.”

She’s traveling less this year and said it’s benefited her training a great deal. She’s fresh, healthy and sure of herself.

“I am confident that I am going to give a hell of a fight for first place at the Games. … I am going to make damn sure that I’m ready for whatever shows up,” she said.

Thuridur Erla Helgadottir rounds out the field. She’ll be making her fifth appearance at the Games, her third as an individual.

Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson was third at the Europe Regional in 2014 and second at the Meridian in 2015. This year, he’s champion—and he sees the same pattern you do.

“I didn’t change anything regarding my training—just a little more disciplined. When I started, I wasn’t thinking about being the best for the first one, two, three years. I think I did it the right way. I’ve progressed enough between each year, and I can see the progression.”

That, of course, means he’s still improving.

“I’m pretty confident I’m better than I was last year,” said Guðmundsson, who finished third at the Games. “The Games is just such a different competition than regionals. I mean, I will do my best—my absolute best—to make it again to the podium and do even better.”

He’ll be joined by Lukas Esslinger, Jonne Koski, Adrian Mundwiler and Lukas Högberg. Esslinger, from Switzerland, will be heading back to his old stomping grounds: He spent time at CrossFit Invictus in San Diego, California, while studying English in 2013. Koski will be competing in his third straight Games at the ripe old age of 21. Högberg will head to the Games for the third time.

Mundwiler, also from Switzerland but living in Spain, managed to qualify for the Games in his first year of CrossFit competition.

“For one year we set the goal ‘go to the Games.’ It was a high goal. … The goal was first year Open, first year regionals, first year Games,” he said.

In the team competition, Nordic OPEX recorded a decisive victory by never finishing worse than fifth across nine events.

Bjork Odinsdottir, 19th as an individual at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games and seventh at last year’s Meridian competition, will be heading back to Carson with the team from Stockholm, Sweden.

She’s recovering from an injury and will be focusing on running to prepare for the Games.

“We’re going to start now, and for me, torn Achilles just a couple of months ago, so I’m just starting to run right now. So I’m going to have to put most of the work in, I would say.”

The team from CrossFit Nordic in Sweden is all in, she said.

“We have already planned a long training camp, and we are going to go to Phoenix one month before Games. I mean, none of us are actually working full-time jobs. That’s what it’s going to cost. We’re going to be poor, I would say.”

No Meridian/European team has even stood on the CrossFit Games podium, and Odinsdottir is hoping her group’s commitment will bring success in Carson.

“I would say there is a lot of good teams out there. Because we live and eat and sleep and train together, I think that’s going to get us far. Same as with Yas. I mean they’re really close. They train all the hours together. I think that’s what it costs.”

For CrossFit Yas, second-place finishers last year but disqualified for using an ineligible athlete, another second place brings redemption.

“We want to show what we can do on the big scale. All we needed to do was get there,” Elliot Simmonds said of his group of expats who represent United Arab Emirates.

“I think for me I felt a bit gutted about the whole thing last year, and being able to come back and prove it with the team has been awesome. … It’s like it never happened. Second place again. Let’s do it!” said Robinson, the ineligible athlete last year.

The two teams will be joined by Team CrossFit Copenhagen 1 (Denmark), CFXY (Iceland) and CrossFit Solid (Sweden, fifth at last year’s Games).

Later today, the final teams and individuals will earn spots in the CrossFit Games via the East and Central Regionals. After that, it’s eight weeks of preparation in hopes of being named Fittest on Earth.