After winning the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games Open, Noah Ohlsen had high expectations for himself. He expected to win the Atlantic Regional.
When he left the Georgia World Congress Center after the first day of competition, he sat in fifth place overall. It was a qualifying spot to the Games but it was the last qualifying spot for the Games. The 25-year-old had finished ninth in the day’s first event and tied for eighth in the second.
He started Day 2 “in a really weird headspace.”
“I felt like I really underperformed yesterday,” said a subdued Ohlsen after the athlete briefing Saturday evening.
During Friday night’s Update Show recapping the men’s individual competition at the Atlantic Regional, sideline commentator Brandon Domingue said, "Ben Smith doing Ben Smith things. Noah Ohlsen a little behind where you would expect.”
"Yeah, Noah Ohlsen not doing Noah Ohlsen things," fellow commentator Chase Ingraham replied.
When Ohlsen practiced the events at home in Miami, Florida, he had done better.
“It was pretty disheartening,” he said. “I was having a lot of negative thoughts last night.”
His girlfriend gave him a pep talk, told him to enjoy every rep.
“That worked pretty well,” Ohlsen said.
Still, he doubted himself.
“Theoretically, I should have been able to do well on Events 3 and 4,” he said. But that’s what he had thought about Events 1 and 2.
Saturday didn’t begin how he wanted. He finished 10th on Event 3: 104 wall-ball shots at 20 lb. and 52 pull-ups. But he took first in Event 4: 4 rounds of 28 pistols and 15 power cleans at 115 lb.
“I knew the advantage with pistols would be a difference maker,” said his coach Dusty Hyland.
Saturday ended with Event 5: 3 rounds of a 400-meter run, 40 GHD sit-ups and 7 deadlifts at 405 lb.
Ohlsen took an early lead. He hopped up on the GHD machine as if he were rear-mounting a horse and was the first man in his heat off of it in the first round. He maintained a slight edge over Smith until the final round, when Smith got to the run first, followed by rookie Chandler Smith. The event became a race of seconds between the two unrelated Smiths. It left Ohlsen to battle with Nathan Bramblett; both men reached the barbell at the same time. Bramblett was able to move faster. Ohlsen finished the event in fifth. He was OK with that.
“To go top five on one that I was unsure about is good,” Ohlsen said.
Hyland referred to the event as “a dog fight.”
“It comes to just moments, seconds,” he said.
As Ohlsen sat in the stands of a nearly empty venue Saturday night, he looked toward Sunday, the final day of competition. He was sitting in second place overall. Still, he appeared deflated.
“I wish I had more points and I was in first place, but I can’t control that now. I can control it tomorrow.”
Ohlsen won the Atlantic Regional last year. In 2014, he won the South East Regional.
For his part, Hyland said he wanted Ohlsen to have fun.
“I’m trying to get him back to where he enjoys competition again.”
In a recent CrossFit Inc. video titled “Road to the Games 16.05: Ohlsen / Bailey,” Ohlsen said he enjoyed training more than competing. Saying that might have been ill conceived.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have vocalized it because I realized it,” he said, shrugging.
Sunday’s chipper will come down to “no mistakes and crushing 50 burpees,” Hyland noted.
The event begins with 1,000 meters on the Assault Air Bike, followed by a 100-ft. handstand walk, 10 overhead squats at 225 lb., a 500-meter row, 50 burpee box jump-overs and 5 overhead squats.
“Having a struggle is good for him,” Hyland added, referencing last year’s Games in addition to the regional.
Ohlsen finished eighth at the 2015 Games for the second consecutive year after making some mistakes, including tipping over his wheelbarrow filled with sandbags in Sandbag 2015 on the first day of competition at the StubHub Center.
Hyland continued: “It’s between the ears now.”