The legless rope climb made its debut at the 2013 CrossFit Games. Less than a year later, Elijah “EZ” Muhammad brought the house down with his explosive vertical jump plus single-pull legless rope climb during Legless at the 2014 South East Regional. EZ finished the workout in 3:33. His ascent was so fast the cameras struggled to follow him.
Today, eight years after we first saw Legless in action, CrossFit has brought the workout back(-ish), and after the first weekend of Semifinals competition, we are already seeing how far our athletes have collectively come.
Has the Separator Become the Standard?
CrossFit is many things: an exercise program. A lifestyle. A community. For some, a sport. And in each of these functions, there’s one thing it does better than anything else in the world: test fitness.
The 2022 Semifinals kicked off all over the world this weekend, with the Torian Pro starting off in Oceania, the Syndicate Crown in North America, and the CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown in Europe.
One of the CrossFit-programmed Semifinal workouts this year was a repeat of the 2014 Regional event Legless — but in true CrossFit fashion, there were a couple twists..
2014 Regional Event 5:
10 rounds for time of:
1 legless rope climb, 14 ft
Run, 200 ft
Time cap: 11 minutes
2022 Semifinals Event 1:
10 rounds for time of:
1 legless rope climb, 15 ft
Run, 170 ft
Time cap: 11 minutes
The athletes will have to climb an extra foot on the rope, but they have 30 fewer feet to run each round, which for many will more than compensate for the rope change. The time cap remained unchanged at 11 minutes.
Dominating the New Legless
All three of this weekend’s Semifinal competitions have tested the new version of the workout, and the results are staggering. So far, over 70 men beat EZ’s time from 2014, including 19 male athletes who finished in sub-three minutes
On the women’s side, Tia-Clair Toomey and Kristi Eramo O’Connell have become the first two thus far to beat the 3:33.3 time, with Toomey closing in just nine-tenths of a second under at 3:32.54 and O’Connell 12 seconds under at 3:21.28.
The best part? We still have three weeks to go to watch these athletes crush it.
| Legless - 2014 vs. 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Semifinals Event | *Beat EZ’s time (3:3.3) | *Sub 3:00.0 |
| Torian Pro - Men | 24 | 3 |
| Torian Pro - Women | 1 | 0 |
| CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown - Men | 26 | 6 |
| Syndicate Crown - Men | 22 | 10 |
| Syndicate Crown - Women | 1 | 0 |
Because there were slight changes between the 2014 workout versus the 2022 Semifinals version, Muhammad still holds an all-time event record for his stellar performance in the 2014 CrossFit Regional event, but two athletes from the Syndicate Crown, *Spencer Arey and *Kristi Eramo O’Connell, hold the new event records for the Semifinals workout.
*All scores are unofficial until the leaderboard has been finalized. As the weeks progress, we will continue to update the stats to include all Semifinals by the end of the four weeks.
Kristi Eramo O'Connell completing Legless, 2022 Semifinals - Syndicate Crown | Photographer: kierankesner
Athletes To Watch
Heading into the next few weeks of Semifinals, we have our eye on a couple athletes whose legless rope climbs are swift and sure to put them in contention for a top spot in this event.
During the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge in Week 2 of Semifinals, we will be watching out for Cole Sager, who has been stunning us with his climbing moves since the 2015 CrossFit Regionals, where he set a new event record by 17 seconds in Tommy V.
Week 3 will bring Sam Briggs, who’s known for her brute arm strength and ability to suffer, at Strength in Depth in London. As someone who previously perfected climbing a rope upside down, for Briggs, going up legless will be just another day on the job.
Be sure to keep up with Semifinals coverage, starting this weekend at Games.CrossFit.com. Learn more about how to watch online or spectate in person via the links below.
Cover photo: Bayley Martin (left) and Ricky Garard (right) competing in Legless, 2022 Semifinals - Torian Pro | Photographer: @benywatson