The 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games season is off to a hot start after Director of the Games Dave Castro announced the 20-minute suck fest, also known as 18.1, in front of thousands of Brazilians in the live announcement last week.
As in past years, I’ll be providing a report card of the good, the bad, and the ugly from each week of competition, across all divisions.
Grade: Perfect
Sam Briggs
This grade is reserved for the one and only Samantha Briggs. Open Workout 18.1 marks her record-extending 11th Open-workout win, and quite frankly, I don’t think she’s human anymore.
Briggs has participated in 33 Open workouts across her career, which means she wins one out of every three since she started in 2011 (let that stat settle in).
Most people are lucky to have one workout in which they finish inside the top 100, maybe 50, of their region. Meanwhile, the Terminator Briggs is busy killing Open workouts the way Pat Sherwood kills a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
I have little doubt that Briggs can add to her body count win total once again by the time the 2018 Open is over.
Grade: A+
Brazil
Maybe it’s the fact that 18.1 marked my first trip to Brazil. Maybe I was enchanted since it was my first time calling an Open announcement live.
Or just maybe it was the 2,000+ screaming Brazilians representing over 100 affiliates who were onsite waving flags and chanting in Portuguese that has me believing that the CrossFit community in Brazil knocked it out of the park last week. I was fortunate enough to witness the thriving community during the live announcement in São Paulo last Thursday.
The attitude of every affiliate member, coach, and athlete during our four days in the city echoed back to the earlier days of the CrossFit Games, when everything about the sport was new, exciting and cause for celebration at the highest level.
Para todos os fãs e CrossFitters do Brasil, obrigado por sua hospitalidade.
To all the fans and CrossFitters in Brazil, thanks for your hospitality.
Grade: B-
Tia-Clair Toomey
One week into the season, and it was a fairly ho-hum start for Fittest Woman on Earth Tia-Clair Toomey.
She finished the workout 33rd in the Australasia Region, and enters Week 2 outside of one of the top 30 spots to qualify for Regionals.
Let’s be honest, it’s not even remotely near panic mode for Toomey. She only has to make up three spots in four weeks, and her track record speaks for itself. By Weeks 3 or 4, I’m sure she’ll be back inside the top 10, or even top five, and everything should be peachy keen.
However, she is the CrossFit Games champion, and as such, should be held to the highest standard week in and week out.
Her 33rd-place finish is her worst finish in her region in the Open since she became a force at the Games in 2015. Each year, though, she has finished one workout outside of the top 30, so this isn’t unprecedented.
She wasn’t the top dog in those years, though, and she is now. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Grade: C
Scott Panchik
Scott Panchik has never finished outside of the top 10 at the CrossFit Games. He’s also never finished outside the top 40 in his region in an Open workout … at least until last week.
Panchik, the fittest man to never make the podium (Disagree? Come at me, bro!), finished 18.1 in 45th place in the Central East.
Similar to Toomey, Panchik’s performance isn’t cause for concern, but he is graded on a much different (read: more elite) scale than most. Last year, Regional qualifiers in the Central East had as many as two finishes outside the top 40.
The climb back up the leaderboard will be tougher this year, though, as eight men with individual Games experience are already in front of him.
Hopefully by the time he takes the floor for the 18.4 announcement, he’ll be back in the top 10 in his region where he belongs.
Kyle Kasperbauer
Kyle Kasperbauer’s quest to repeat as champion in the Masters Men 35-39 Division got off to a bumpy start in 18.1
Kasperbauer finished Week 1 on Page 3 of the Leaderboard in 136th place, surprising for the only athlete who has made the podium in the Individual, Team and Masters Division of the CrossFit Games.
He’s still technically in a qualifying spot, as the top 200 worldwide in each Masters Division advances to the Age Group Online Qualifier, but how high he finishes in the Open does matter, even within the top 200.
Open placement has been counted as a score in the Online Qualifier in the past, and no Masters athlete outside the top 75 in the Open managed to make it to the Games.
Additionally, the overwhelming majority of masters Games qualifiers finish the Open inside the top 20. The 20th-place finisher in the 35-39 Division last year had 305 points, and to hit that mark by Open’s end, Kasperbauer would need to average a 42nd-place finish in each workout.
It’s certainly more than doable, but another similar finish to 18.1 could spell trouble going forward.
Grade: F
Jonathan Varela and Malachi Bennett
For a moment, it appeared that Jonathan Varela and Malachi Bennett serendipitously had the two top scores in 18.1, side by side at their unaffiliated gym.
Upon further inspection and review of their videos, they were both assessed a major penalty, have since had their scores adjusted, and were denied the top spots on the Leaderboard after it was discovered that their Xebex brand rowers were significantly easier to log calories on than the Concept2.
A few things seem iffy in regards to the situation and the choice to use these rowers and submit their scores.
1. In the submission videos, as the camera pans to the right for a moment, you can clearly see a Concept2 rower sitting in the gym in a position to be used (not stored upright).
2. Both athletes have multiple Opens under their belt (Bennett- six, Varela- 3) during which the Concept2 rower has been implemented.
3. For the time it took the athletes to row 14 calories most rounds (25-28 seconds), they would need to be holding an 1,800-2,000 calorie-per-hour pace on a Concept2 rower.
4. Neither athlete has qualified for Regionals. Bennett, while a solid athlete, has a best Open workout finish of 117th, and Varela has yet to crack the top 2,500 in a workout. Top worldwide finishes seemed shady at best.
5. CrossFit 307 in their town of Casper, Wyoming, has Concept2 rowers.
Bennett and Varela chose not to use the correct rowers even though they had the option. They are both experienced athletes who should have known the difference between the Xebex and the Concept2. Their pace is outlandish given the circumstances, and even through the pace could feasibly be achieved, they haven’t proven to be the caliber of athletes to do it.
From what I gather by the people coming to the defense of their character on social media, I’m sure they’re both decent guys.
They just aren’t the best at 18.1.
