Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey are poised to repeat as CrossFit Games champions, but nothing is certain. Saturday’s competition will be thrilling throughout all divisions as competitors push for the podium.
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8:45 AM., MADISON TRIPLUS (INDIVIDUALS)
How do you get through a 3,500-m swim-paddle-run mash-up, an event consisting entirely of undisclosed movements and rep counts, and back-to-back couplets determined by a teeming mass of blood-thirsty CrossFit fans?
Just be Superman.
That’s Kara Saunders’ mantra—at least for this season. She said her inner monologue often takes cues from a book she's recently read, and this year, that’s Steven Kotler’s “The Rise of Superman.”
In it, Kotler investigates how extreme athletes hone their minds to push the limits of human performance, and Saunders said the text helps her stay focused.
“To me, it just means to see the possible in what seems impossible,” she said.
9:00 A.M., JUMP FINISH (TEENS)
While the Individuals were swimming, 17-year-old Haley Adams did something no one has ever done before at the CrossFit Games.
Not Froning, not Fraser, not Davidsdottir.
Adams has won seven straight events. She leads the Girls 16-17 Division by 184 points. She shrugged off the accomplishment and a suggestion that she’s likely to win the CrossFit Games for the first time after finishing second to Kaela Stephano in 2016 and 2017.
“It’s a good close to a chapter,” Adams said.
The next chapter for the girl who was 11th at the Atlantic Regional?
“By the time I’m 23—six years of very, very hard work—I would like to be in contention to win the CrossFit Games.”
Beyond that, she recognizes she’s a force in her community.
“I try to be an example. … Work out, be healthy, don’t eat junk.”
12:15 P.M., CHAOS (INDIVIDUALS)
“They said, ’Bring what you need for the event.’”
Stephanie Chung packed the house for this one, but Games staff didn’t make her check the overweight carry-on bag.
They did prevent her and the other women from talking to the men before the dudes took the field for their half of the second event of the day. In Chaos, the athletes were marched out to a field of implements but had no idea what they’d be doing. Judges just told the athletes the movement, then told them when they had completed enough reps to move on.
“I kind of just warmed up for everything,” said Kari Pearce. “I just paced my way through the first couple of elements.”
Pearce said she knew the time cap and worked accordingly through the SkiErg, burpees, single-arm overhead squats, single-leg squats, box jump-overs and Slug pull.
Veteran Becca Voigt has seen a few variations of the Chaos concept, once in 2010 and once in 2014.
“In 2010, (Dave Castro) said it so fast that we just started doing push-ups,” Voigt recalled of the prescription for The Final 1, The Final 2 and The Final 3. Competitors were sequestered before the series of challenges and briefed just before they performed them.
Voigt used her previous experience to guide her in 2018 and spent the workout “staying within my capacity and not blowing my WOD.”
1:45 P.M., JUMP FINISH (MASTERS MEN 60+)
Mark Landry got his first muscle-up today—and then another.
He’s 60.
“Made my day,” said Landry, who is sitting in 13th in the 60+ Division after seven events.
Tom Bourdon, beside Landry outside the competition area, offered congratulations and perspective: “Two would have won it five, six, seven years ago!”
When asked how it felt to get on top of the rings for the first time, Landry pointed to a reaction that fired up the crowd and his CrossFit Resilience supporters in the Age Group Pavilion:
“You saw me go wild!”
6:00 P.M., BICOUPLETS (INDIVIDUALS)
“It’s a result of the marathon row. My hands are just kind of tender from that.”
This happened to Meredith Root on the first set of chest-to-bar pull-ups in Bicouplet 1.
Root said she actually voted for the 21-15-9 couplet to be first, but, in retrospect, she said she didn’t think it would have made a difference.
“I think if you have an advantage with bar muscle-ups, you probably have an advantage with pull-ups.”
In the first heat, she took seventh in Bicouplet 2 and fourth in the other half of the event.
Courtney Haley won both halves of the first heat—but she didn’t vote.
“I think I was sleeping, trying to recover from the start of the day,” she said.
THE VOTE IS IN
A quick survey of eight men in the early heats revealed that none of them voted for the order of the Bicouplet events.
Some took a stoic approach and planned to accept any order. Others wanted to leave it up to the fans. And some just need to up their social-media game.
Here’s what the athletes had to say:
“I’d rather not worry about it.” —Ethan Helbig
“I don’t really care. It is what it is.” —John Coltey
“I just didn’t think to go vote for it.” —Josh Bridges
“I just want to do it. I don’t really care what order it is. Just let everyone else decide and just focus on the work.” —Mitchel Stevenson
“It didn’t matter either way. ... Ride the lightning.” —Sean Sweeney
“For me anyway, it was ‘let the public decide.’ ... I think if I went to vote for it, I’d start to overthink it.” —Khan Porter
“Honestly, I like both workouts. Any order is a good order. ... I was just excited to see a barbell and a gymnastics movement.” —Scott Panchik
“I did tell people what to vote for. Does that count? I don’t get on Facebook much.” —Alec Smith (who told friends to vote for Bicouplet 1 first)
CURRENT OVERALL STANDINGS (AFTER 11 EVENTS)
MEN
1. Mathew Fraser (890)
2. Patrick Vellner (752)
3. Lukas Högberg (704)
WOMEN
1. Tia-Clair Toomey (928)
2. Laura Horvath (814)
3. Kara Saunders (804)
Visit the Leaderboard for a complete list of the overall standings for TEAMS, MASTERS and TEENAGERS.