Learn about the 15.5 and overall winners.
The 2015 Open has closed.
Over five weeks, athletes from across the globe competed in six scored events that tested their fitness with toes-to-bars, snatches, deadlifts, clean and jerks, overhead squats, chest-to-bar pull-ups, muscle-ups, wall-ball shots, double-unders, handstand push-ups, cleans, rowing and thrusters.
The final two movements came together for 15.5.
Open Workout 15.5
27-21-15-9 reps for time of:
Row (calories)
Thrusters (95 lb. / 65 lb.)
Athletes had to finish all 144 reps of rowing and thrusters in order to log a score. Incredibly, the world’s fastest athletes were able to finish all of the work in less than seven minutes.
The last three women to win the CrossFit Games—Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (2014), Sam Briggs (2013) and Annie Thorisdottir (2012, 2011)—set the scores to beat on Thursday night, moments after Director of the Games Dave Castro announced the workout. Briggs, who's known for her engine, pulled ahead of the other champions to finish in 7 minutes even.
Over the next four days, 22 women posted sub-7-minute times, with Colleen Fotsch of Northern California pushing the time back the farthest to 6:26. The 25-year-old athlete took 23rd at the 2014 NorCal Regional where she put in her best finish on the hang squat snatch (160 lb., seventh).
Mat Fraser and Simon Paquette tied with the fastest time of all men worldwide: 5 minutes and 19 seconds! Paquette competed in the Games in 2013, where took 26th place. His best finish at the Games was third on the first 2,000 meters of the half marathon row (6:35.9).
Fraser, the silver medalist at the 2014 Games, has been in close contention with the four-time champion Rich Froning for the top spot on the worldwide leaderboard. With this performance, Fraser more than maintained the 5-point gap between himself and Froning to earn the overall win.
Check out the overall worldwide leaderboard to get a sense of who might go on to win the 2015 Games. If you look back at the last four years of Open competition, you’ll see that the future CrossFit Games champion has always been within the top three in the Open. Often the Open champ went on to win the Games (Annie Thorisdottir in '11, Sam Briggs in '13, Rich Froning in '12 through '14).
2011
Open Champs: Dan Bailey (sixth in Games), Annie Thorisdottir
Games Champs: Rich Froning (third in Open), Annie Thorisdottir
2012
Open Champs: Rich Froning, Kristan Clever
Games Champs: Rich Froning, Annie Thorisdottir (third in the Open)
2013
Open Champs: Rich Froning, Sam Briggs
Games Champs: Rich Froning, Sam Briggs
2014
Open Champs: Rich Froning, Sam Briggs
Games Champs: Rich Froning, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (second in the Open)
2015
Open Champs: Mat Fraser, Annie Thorisdottir
Games Champs: ?
Congratulations to all of the athletes who competed in the Open! The next stage of the CrossFit Games season, regionals, will be held across three weekends in May (May 15-17, 22-24, 29-31). Tickets are on sale on Games.CrossFit.com now.
