Koda CrossFit Redemption Rolls Deep at the Games
By: Sarah Dugan
Koda CrossFit Redemption Fans | Photo by Sarah Dugan
You couldn’t miss the Koda CrossFit Redemption fans at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games. Koda CrossFit has six locations between Oklahoma and Colorado — and their members showed up. The team had more than 40 family members, friends, and fans cheering them on at the Alliant Energy Center.
As Koda CrossFit Redemption dominated Heat 1 of Team Test 8, Muscle-up Bob — its time of 15:49.69 put them in ninth for the test and moved them up the leaderboard to 20th — place in the test and movement up the leaderboard to 20th place.
Team member and Koda CrossFit Iron View owner Kevin Schuetz said his wife and kids, parents, and brother all traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, to show their support.
“It’s so good, it’s so fun to watch him go out and compete,” his brother Austin Schuetz said. “He’s been at it so long. You see, this appearance at the 2023 CrossFit Games is the fruit of 11 years of Kevin’s labor.”
Liz Schuetz, Kevin’s wife, shared how proud she is of him and showing their two kids to never give up on their dreams. “We’re so happy our kids could be here to cheer him on and we’re all just really proud of him,” she said. “There’s a lot of strategy involved, but I think that this is something they will remember.”
“He’s been close (to qualifying for the Games) a lot of times,” Liz adds, “(but it’s) even better that he’s here with his business partner, training partner, Casey.”
That’s Casey McCallister she’s talking about. And did we mention McCallister is not only a first-time Games competitor but also a new father? His wife gave birth just last week to baby Shep, “just in the nick of time,” Liz joked.
With McCallister’s wife at home recovering and taking care of their newborn, his parents, Rory and Darla McCallister, came to Madison to support the team.
“It’s just like T-ball,” Rory said. “It’s just he’s older and we go different places. We still go watch him.”
Darla adds: “We’re just so proud.”
Touch and Go-Go-Go!
By: Dan Froehlich
Team CrossFit East Nashville PRVN | Photo by @wongsdottir
CrossFit East Nashville PRVN’s Taylor Williamson put the team in the lead with 14 snatches at 135 lb in her portion of Run Lift Relay.
And her teammate Tola Morakinyo made sure they kept it.
Last to the platform in the run, starting his first snatch with just 1:06 left in the 3-minute test, Morakinyo knew what he was doing the whole time. And there was nothing the other nine competitors on the field could do about it.
“I had a plan going in,” he said. “Don’t push the run too hard. I felt like it would blow up the hamstrings immediately.”
Morakinyo went touch-and-go for his first 6 snatches at 185 lb and then did sets of 3 up to 15. Looking back, he could have stopped there — but he didn’t. He hung on for 4 more over the final 11 seconds to give the team a test-best 33 reps, 5 more than second-place Rhino CrossFit Dawgs’ 28.
Rookie Jelle Hoste “Drops the Hammer”
By: Nicole Peyton
Jelle Hoste of CrossFit Kortrijk | Photo by flsportsguy photography
Belgium Jelle Hoste qualified for his first CrossFit Games at the 2023 Europe Semifinal. Hoste, 28, has had an impressive performance in his Games debut so far. Most notably, he’s taken sixth place in Ride, fourth place in Ski-Bag, and out-ran the entire field — men and women — in the Cross-Country 5K. He sprinted across the finish line in 16:39.68 and edged out out Jeffrey Adler by just 7 seconds. Hoste said he was under the pace he knew he could keep for much of the test.
“I was waiting for somebody to attack — and that was Adler,” he said. “Once I felt he slowed down, I dropped the hammer.”
Rolfe’s Redemption
By: Kelley Laxton
Emily Rolfe | Photo by Johany Jutras
When Emily Rolfe arrived at the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games, she was suffering from a slight strain in her bicep but decided to continue on with the competition. During the toes-to-bars in Event 1, she noticed her left hand was turning blue. By the end of the event, her whole arm was numb.
She approached CrossFit’s medical staff after finishing the test, where she was immediately rushed to the University of Wisconsin hospital.
Rolfe underwent emergency vascular surgery.
For the past year, Rolfe has been working hard to recover and earn another shot at qualifying for the Games. She received her fourth-career Games invitation through the North America West Semifinal and is not taking her redemption year for granted.
Rolfe knew the Saturday morning test, Cross-Country 5K, was in her wheelhouse, and she did not hold back. She swiftly finished three laps, sprinted through North Park, and passed the endzone in 17:48.62, taking her first test win of the weekend and securing a seventh-place position on the overall leaderboard.
“I’m just enjoying being back out here, and I’m not taking it for granted,” Rolfe told Niki Brazier.
What About Bob?
By: Dan Froehlich
CrossFit Invictus | Photo by Johany Jutras
The race to be first off the turf at North Park during Saturday’s Muscle-up Bob proved to be a test of stamina and mental fortitude.
With just 15 Worm clean and jerks separating it from a final push on the Bob, CrossFit Invictus found itself slightly trailing CrossFit East Nashville PRVN.
Invictus cut the lead to half a rep by the time the set was completed, but still saw East Nashville PRVN advance its Worm and drop it a second before them.
That’s when Invictus literally put their heads down and got to work, crouching down and sliding their heads through the holes into the Bob while East Nashville took just a beat to catch its collective breath.
It was the opening Invictus needed.
Invictus never relented on the final Bob push, powering the 1,188-lb behemoth across the finish line, a full sled-length separating the team from East Nashville. The team earned its second-straight test win as it chases its first Affiliate Cup since 2014.
“I think I just heard (Jorge Fernandez) yell ‘go!’ multiple times and that was it,” Josh Al-Chamaa said on the field after the event. “What he says I do.”
Jack Farlow Out-Lifts Everyone
By: Dan Froehlich
Jack Farlow of CrossFit PSC | Photo by flsportsguy photography
Slated to lift first in every round of Olympic Total, Jack Farlow went for it.
The second-youngest individual male athlete wowed the crowd with his strength, igniting the Coliseum with a total of 701 lb, edging out second-place Bronislaw Olenkowicz — who was lifting directly next to Farlow — by 21 lb.
“I had to play a bit of a game there with 396 (clean and jerk) just in case he hit his 385,” Farlow said after hitting a 5-lb snatch PR (305) and clean and jerking 1 lb below his all-time best.
His numbers were no accident. Farlow paid close attention to the other athletes out on the floor to carefully select his weight.
“I couldn’t snatch what (Olenkowicz) was going to, so I knew I had to make it up on the clean and jerk,” Farlow said. “I would hold off putting my weights on until he established his and I just played the game.”
Icelandic Energy
By: Dan Froehlich
Annie Thorisdottir and Katrin Davidsdottir | Photo by Ginnie Coleman
Katrin Davidsdottir wasn’t trying to steal Annie Thorisdottir’s thunder — she was using the electric vibe reverberating throughout the Coliseum to her advantage.
Attempting lifts in succession during Saturday’s Olympic Total, Thorisdottir would use the full 20 seconds to successfully complete each lift, allowing Davidsdottir to attempt her lift while the crowd was still roaring. After her second snatch, Davidsdottir walked immediately over to Thorisdottir, leaned in close to her, and congratulated her friend.
Thorisdottir finished with a 422-lb total to place 13th in the test, while Davidsdottir logged 412 lb to finish 20th.
Go Ahead, Sprint
By: Kelley Laxton
Patrick Vellner of CrossFit Nanaimo | Photo by Adam Bow
A lack of pacing at the start of a test is usually Patrick Vellner’s greatest demise. But in Test 8 — Intervals — sprinting out the gates proved to be in his favor.
With a 6-minute time cap for each of the two intervals, Vellner only had a few minutes of work. Go ahead, sprint.
Making quick work of the box jumps, Vellner did what he does best, just kept moving, and at an incredibly fast pace. He finished the first interval at 3:36.41, claiming a few extra minutes of rest as the remaining competitors fought the 6-minute time cap.
At the sound of the buzzer — signaling the start of Interval 2 — Vellner was primed and ready. And with the crowd chanting his name, it fueled him more. Pulling out in front, Vellner attacked the box jumps and row, strolling across the finish line in 7:21.36 to secure his first test win of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
Going for (Un)broke(n)
By: Dan Froehlich
CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue | Photo by Anders Malm
Going into Saturday’s final team event — B-Bells and P-Bars — CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue needed a win.
Trailing overall leader CrossFit Invictus by 60 points, the modus operandi was simple — go unbroken.
In an event that featured a total of 45 synchronized sandbag squats with a 200/125-lb bag on the shoulder, that’s exactly what Oslo Navy Blue did. They went unbroken on every set of squats.
“We had to,” the team members collectively said.
The strategy paid off as the team won the test by 28 seconds. They now trail Invictus by just 44 points heading into the final day of competition.
Other Memorable Moments From the 2023 Games:
Cover photo by Anders Malm