There's a New Queen of the South

Camille-Leblanc Bazinet has been untouchable—until now.

Tennil Reed qualified for the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games in first place, 10 points ahead of five-time Regional victor Leblanc-Bazinet (South: 2015-2016, Canada East: 2011, 2013-14), at the South Regional in San Antonio, Texas, this weekend.

Though Leblanc-Bazinet is celebrated as the athlete with the most Regional event wins—male or female—at 26, Reed has made her mark on CrossFit history as the South’s first woman to seriously challenge the 2014 CrossFit Games champion for the Regional’s top podium spot. And that after just three years of experience at Regionals and one at the CrossFit Games (Reed took 11th at the Games in 2016).

It was an outcome Reed had never considered.

“I never underestimate Camille or any of these other competitors because you never know what they've been doing in training compared to you,” Reed said after winning Event 3 and besting Leblanc-Bazinet by four places and just under 3 minutes.

Her win followed second- and third-place finishes in the first two events, and based on the fury with which she tackled the third—sprinting through transitions and taking no time to rest—you might have guessed that her zeal to get back to the Games had clouded her judgment. Veterans pace; newbies burn out. But Reed quickly dispelled any concerns that she might be an overly Games-hungry zealot.

“I feel like in this sport, everyone’s always trying to prove themselves to other people,” she said. “I don't really care about that stuff. I’m doing this because it’s for me, because I enjoy it. I have fun doing it.”

Seven-year CrossFit Games veteran Leblanc-Bazinet felt the same.

“It’s competing,” Leblanc-Bazinet said with a shrug after winning Event 5.

When sideline reporter Nick Zelinski asked her what it was like to compete against Reed, she replied, “I think everyone is here just to do their best. Really it’s not against her at all, I’m just trying to do my best, that’s all.”

Still, Reed was right behind her. Going into the final event, the pair was tied for points, a tiebreaker the only thing separating Leblanc-Bazinet, in first, from the still-green Reed.

The women took to the Assault AirBike like metalheads to a drum, ponytails flying. Reed established an early lead ahead of Leblanc-Bazinet, each advancing their boxes simultaneously, but Reed jumped a few reps ahead.

In the end, the footrace was between Reed and four-time Games veteran Margaux Alvarez, whose time of 3:57.83 was good enough for first in the event and the third Games-qualifying spot.

But Reed’s second-place event finish to Leblanc-Bazinet’s fourth earned all the points she needed, and for the first time in two years, there’s a new champion in the South.

Despite her claim to compete only for herself, she couldn’t help but express a bit of glee after her victory.

“(It feels) so freakin’ good!” she exclaimed as she exited the floor. “I wanted that more than I wanted to go to the Games last year. This beats everything. I’m forever fulfilled.”

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The men’s competition at the 2017 South Regional began with a 5-foot-8, 200-lb. hole: Roy Gamboa, the South’s champion since 2015, withdrew from competition to focus on his new career as a firefighter, leaving the top spot up for grabs among five returning Games athletes (Travis Williams, 2015-16; Sean Sweeney, 2016; Logan Collins, 2016; Elijah “EZ” Muhammad, 2015; Joseph Guesnier, 2016) and a sea of Regional regulars and rookies.

The title would be mostly for bragging rights: Williams, Sweeney and Collins already proved their capacities at the Games in 2016, where each of them placed higher than Regional victor Gamboa. But the not-quite-rookies felt they still had more to prove, with Collins especially dissatisfied with his 31st-place finish in his Games debut last year.

“It absolutely is important to me (to get back to the Games),” Collins said after Day 1. “Last year I was like, ‘I'm pretty fit,’ and I got my butt kicked out there, so it was humbling for sure.”

He may have gotten his butt kicked at the Games, but he kicked his fair share this weekend in the South, snatching the top spot after Event 2 and never letting go. He won the Regional with five top-three finishes and no finish outside the top 10.

While Collins kicked ass, Sweeney and Muhammad toyed with fans’ emotions. Though Sweeney went into the Regional as a favorite to return to the Games, a 44th-place finish in Event 2 was more than he could recover from, hovering just below—but never crossing—the qualification line. He finished the weekend in sixth.

Muhammad’s fans were one the edge of their seats until the very end of the competition. The 2015 CrossFit Games athlete and long-time fan favorite is famous for just barely missing Games qualification. He missed it by two spots in 2013 and just one in 2014 and 2016.

This weekend he jolted fans awake when he jumped from sixth to third after winning Event 3. Though he dropped to fourth after a gnarly 20th-place Event 5 finish, he dropped no further, and fans will cheer the beloved EZ at the Games once again.

“I’ve always been close, so I'm going to keep pursuing (qualification),” he said after Day 2. “I have to do this because there are people that believe in me ... if one person says I can qualify for the Games, man, I’m going to try.”

Fans expected to hear Muhammad’s and Sweeney’s names. Less familiar but just as prevalent was Dakota Rager’s. With only one individual Regional appearance under his belt—he took 13th in California in 2015—Rager opened the weekend not only with an event win but an event record, besting 2016 CrossFit Games champion Mathew Fraser’s Event 1 time in the East (14:58.08) by 1.19 seconds.

The 25-year-old from CutThroat CrossFit in Colorado may be a rookie in the South, but he’s already survived the pressure of the big stage, helping team CrossFit 808 to a 24th-place finish at the Games last year. This weekend, Rager held a qualifying spot from Day 1 forward, finishing in third with two event wins and five top-10 finishes. He credited his former CrossFit 808 teammates with getting him this far.

“Pretty much everything I know about CrossFit ... comes from them,” he said on Day 2. “Being able to compete with them last year at the Games has helped me this year to be a lot more confident and a lot more relaxed in this setting.”

****

Wasatch Brutes may have dominated the Leaderboard all weekend in the South—stacked with individual Games veterans, the team took the top podium spot with three event wins (Events 2-4), two event records (Events 2-3) and no finish outside the top five—but it was team BIGG Friends who won hearts.

No Latin American CrossFit athlete has done a single rep at the CrossFit Games since 2014, when BIGG CrossFit Recoleta—same team, different members—took 43rd. But after a third-place finish at the South Regional, team BIGG Friends from BIGG CrossFit Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina, will do what no Latin American has done since the region merged with the South West and South Central in 2015: compete for a chance to take home the Affiliate Cup Championship.

“We are all very excited,” team member Gonzalo Duro said, speaking with the aid of a translator. “As a Latin American team, this is a big step.”

Before the South Regional, Tommy Marquez predicted Latin America would not send an individual or team to the Games until 2018, noting CrossFit’s slow growth across the region. In 2011, Marquez wrote, Brazil was still home to just six affiliates.

But as the sport grew in Latin America, so did the talent. In 2015, not a single Latin American individual or team broke the top 20 at the South Regional. The following year saw four (Anderon Primo, 18^th; Anita Pravatti, 17^th; BIGG Friends Reloaded, 11^th; and Team Moema, 16^th).

After Mexico’s 2016 fittest woman, Brenda Castro, lost to Brooke Wells by just one rep in the live announcement of Open Workout 17.4, fans thought she was Latin America’s best chance to rep the region at the Games. She fell short, taking 12th place, but BIGG Friends delivered in her stead. The team’s qualification may be a surprise to some—though it shouldn’t; the team finished the Open in fourth worldwide—but the Argentinians knew they had it in them all along.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Duro said on Day 1. “But I am very confident that it will happen.”

Perhaps that confidence came from how badly the team wanted it. Every team wants it, but Duro said it means a little bit more to the Latin Americans, who represented six countries across all three divisions at the South Regional.

“It’s not easy for Latin American athletes to be here,” he said. “Back in Latin America, we don’t have this sport culture in general, so we have to be more dedicated to be here.”

The team trained six hours per day to get to San Antonio, also competing in the off-season to practice teamwork.

The effort showed. From the moment they took the floor—a pair of Colombian flags showing Latin American pride draped over the fan barricade in the background—the team made its home nipping at the heels of the Wasatch Brutes. And though Salt Lake City CrossFit took the new record in Event 1, finishing in 15:06.41, BIGG Friends’ time of 15:19.85 was still faster than the previous record set by Pro1 Montreal in the East, proving the team can be competitive on a worldwide scale.

Over the weekend, BIGG Friends took four top-three finishes and only one finish outside the top 10 (the team took 11th in Event 2). Team members moved through strict handstand push-ups like pistons, their synchronized bar muscle-ups smoother than jazz. They ate up their rope climbs legless and though the team struggled to move as one with the Worm, its time in the final event, 5:21.97, was more than 36 seconds faster than CrossFit 808’s winning time in the same event at the 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games.

All in all, BIGG Friends earned Latin America’s first ticket to the Games in the new qualifying format with the precision, consistency and fire of a veteran team, proving Latin America has joined the ranks of the elite.

There's a New Queen of the South

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