The CrossFit Games were growing. So much so that they had to add Regional qualifying events to whittle down the increasing number of athletes who wanted a shot at the title of “Fittest on Earth.”
From 17 regions around the globe, Games organizers narrowed the pool of competitors to 146. That year, Tanya Wagner and Mikko Salo won the Games, which were hosted for the third and final year at The Ranch in Aromas, California, also known as home to Games Director Dave Castro.
It was 2009—one year before the Games would outgrow its digs in Northern California and move to the then-Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, and two years before CrossFit HQ would introduce the Open to the world.
It was also the same year the global CrossFit community met Annie Thorisdottir.
This year the former two-time Games champion celebrates her eighth year of Regional competition after missing the 2013 Regional with a back injury. Things have changed in that time.
Today, more than 350,000 athletes worldwide compete in the Open. The top 20 men, women and teams move on to eight so-called “super Regionals” that combine regions. There, the top five men, women and teams compete at the Games, now in its 11th year.
“Regionals here now is like the Games in Aromas,” the 27-year-old joked after she checked in for the Meridian Regional late Thursday afternoon at La Caja Mágica in Madrid, Spain.
She added: “I’m definitely training more than I did (then).”
In the Games’ early years, it was common for competitive athletes to train no more than one hour a day.
Today, Thorisdottir said she trains up to five hours per day, five days per week, does a skill session on the sixth day and rests the seventh day.
“It used to be a lot of hanging out,” she said with her quintessential smile. “It was not nearly as much (training) as I’m doing now.”
Jason Smith, a South African who also is in his eighth year of Regional competition, said he trains year-round for Regionals.
“In the beginning, it was just South Africans competing against each other,” said the 32-year-old, referencing the former Africa Region.
“Now we’re struggling to qualify (for Regionals),” he said. “The competition is a lot tougher.”
Smith said he trains four hours per day up to seven days a week.
“During the Open season, I’m trying to increase my fitness,” he said.
More volume and approaching workouts with higher intensity gets the job done, Smith said.
“It’s not about hitting 1-rep maxes all the time.”
Frederik Aegidius also noted the increased number of athletes competing, as well as the additional training volume required. The 29-year-old shares the same training schedule as Thorisdottir, his girlfriend, and the same coach: Jami Tikkanen, a former member of CrossFit Inc.’s Seminar Staff. Tikkanen has coached Thorisdottir for seven years and Aegidius for six.
In 2010, Tikkanen said, it would have been “impossible” for Regional athletes to complete the events required of them this year.
“The programming challenges the athlete, and the athlete challenges the programming,” he explained.
Gone are the days of simply doing the CrossFit.com workout of the day and ending the training session, Tikkanen noted.
Competitive athletes continue to expand the boundaries of what’s possible, he said.
“We’re not anywhere close to the potential of the athlete, and every year it’s going to keep evolving.”
Smith expressed similar sentiments.
“You either get better with the sport, or you sit back and not improve. It’s your choice.”
Still, some things haven’t changed.
“The people are still the same,” Aegidius said. “(All the athletes are still) very easily compatible. There’s no ego. It’s a friendly environment.”
Considering athletes competing at the Meridian Regional represent 27 countries, his statement is significant.
“There’s so many different nationalities,” he said. “And we all have something in common.”
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