High-profile stars draw attention to all the amazing athletes in the Affiliate Cup.
In the CrossFit Games’ inaugural year, CrossFit Santa Cruz won the Affiliate Cup by virtue of its members’ placings in individual events.
In 2015, the fittest man in history was competing on a team. The same year, another former Games champion joined him in team competition.
What a difference nine years make.
“Two CrossFit Games champions, one the fittest man who ever walked the Earth—it makes going team cool,” said Chase Ingraham, a Games commentator and CrossFit Seminar Staff member who himself qualified for the Games in 2010.
During Saturday-morning’s Clean and Jerk event, the crowd in the StubHub Center’s soccer stadium erupted as the announcer highlighted the fact that four-time Games champion Rich Froning and 2008 winner Jason Khalipa were approaching their platforms.
Froning, of CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, made 345 lb. and fans screamed. He hit 365 lb. and the crowd erupted much as it did during his years as an Individual competitor.
“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for Rich Froning!” the announcer commanded as the event concluded.
“When you know the individual background on an athlete, it’s funner to watch,” noted Austin Begiebing, who is coaching the NorCal CrossFit team that includes Khalipa.
“(The team competition) is getting more competitive, and it will continue to grow in popularity, for sure.”
While the competition is not about Froning or Khalipa, the two men have brought more attention to the team competition, Ingraham said.
“The team competition has always been great. It’s always been exciting. But it has always played second fiddle to the Individual competition.”
With Froning and Khalipa in the team competition, they’ve brought the attention that followed them as individual competitors, said team coaches and athletes at this year’s Games.
“It’s specifically Jason and Rich that have drawn the spotlight,” said Tommy Hackenbruck, a member of the Ute CrossFit team that won the Affiliate Cup in 2012 and 2013. Ute was the first team to win the cup two consecutive years.
After finishing sixth at last year’s Games as an individual competitor, Hackenbruck is back on Ute’s team this year.
Over the years, the team competition has “evolved under the radar,” he said.
“Everyone here is capable of going to regionals and holding their own,” Hackenbruck said Saturday morning, gesturing to fellow athletes in the warm-up area.
That’s because team competition requires six well-rounded athletes rather than individual specialists on one squad, noted CrossFit New England coach Ben Bergeron.
“These guys would have been on the (individual) podium in 2009,” he said, glancing over at his team as it warmed up for the clean-and-jerk event.
Two former Games champions competing on teams does not make the team competition better, Ingraham said.
“It just makes people aware of how great team competition is.”
And, several said, it highlights the caliber of athletes now needed to win the team competition at the Games.
“In order to win the Affiliate Cup, you need Games-level athletes. It’s the Rich Froning effect in the Central East (Region), where he made all the guys better,” Ingraham continued. “It’s forcing teams around the world to make the team better. If you want to go team now, it is year-round training.”
Hackenbruck expressed a similar sentiment.
“It’s not like a weekend off. It’s a legit test of fitness for all six people.”
In 2014, Games organizers added a fourth day of competition for teams: Wednesday. Last year the day featured one event: a 1,000-yard swim with a rescue sled. This year, it included two tests—one that required a total of 1,000 yards of ocean swimming with a rescue sled and 150 deadlifts with the 435-lb. Worm, and another that called for all six team members to run 1 mile in relay fashion. It was a far cry from 2009, when teams had three events on Friday and one on Sunday.
That was highlighted on Friday, Bergeron noted.
“It was the hardest day of programming ever.”
The day’s first event had teams running a total of 1,800 m over the soccer-stadium berm and doing 150 squats, again with the Worm. Later in the day, all three of the teams’ male-female pairs were required to do 21 deadlifts at 545 lb. and 21 synchronized bar muscle-ups; the rep scheme was different for each pair.
“Nobody feels close to prime,” Bergeron said Saturday morning.
And, he added, that’s what the Games should be.
“The Games should be a brutal test—not to beat people up, but it should be the ultimate test (to find the fittest).”
Bergeron added: “If the Zombie apocalypse hit, the CrossFit Games champion should be the last man standing. Or woman. Or team.”
