Only one more week to go!
The 2018 Open is creeping to a close, but Week 4 had some new stuff for everyone to tackle.
A new movement in handstand walks and a new handstand push-up standard really tested the community’s gymnastic virtuosity.
Don’t forget the heavy barbell, though. If the muscles in my hamstrings, glutes and low back are good indicators, then there was definitely a significant stimulus from the deadlifts as well.
Hopefully your CNS is recovering from your Monday redo and you’re ready to finish the Open strong.
In the meantime, here are my grades from Week 4 and 18.4.
Grade: A+
Austin Malleolo
Deadlifts and Austin Malleolo go together like peas and carrots.
He’s also quite proficient upside down. Sprinkle in the fact that he has generally maintained an elite level of fitness for almost a decade (he first qualified for the Games back in 2010), and 18.4 was an event win waiting to happen for the five-time CrossFit Games competitor.
This win marks the third time that Malleolo has won an Open workout in his career. The previous one came in 15.1, which was a triplet of toes-to-bars, deadlifts (surprise!) and snatches.
Just a year prior, he also won workout 14.3, which featured box jumps and, you guessed it, deadlifts.
Workout 18.4 is just another notch in the belt of Malleolo’s illustrious career, during which he’s finished in the top 5 worldwide in the Open, won his Regional multiple times, held Regional event records and finished inside the top 10 at the Games twice.
He’s one of the best CrossFit has to offer. Not just because of his accomplishments in the sport, but because of his contributions to the CrossFit community at large over the years.
Malleolo is a Seminar Staff Flowmaster and has dedicated countless hours and weekends to teaching others at seminars how to improve their lives through health and fitness.
The world’s best performance by an all-around good dude? That deserves an A+
Annie Thorisdottir
Annie Thorisdottir still can win.
For anyone who may have thought that Thorisdottir was done, I’d like to remind them of an old poker adage made famous by Poker World Champion Jack Straus: All you need is a chip and a chair.
The phrase refers to how a down-on-his-luck Straus, down to his very last chip in the World Series of Poker, rallied and came back in triumphant fashion to win the tournament.
A few years ago, Thorisdottir shockingly withdrew from the 2015 Games in the wake of a Murph event that left normally upbeat Thorisdottir nearly collapsed from the heat and exhaustion.
She would return in 2016 and finish 13th, but that year she never had the same panache we were used to seeing from arguably the most iconic female athlete in CrossFit Games history.
I started seeing opinions and quips around the community centering on the notion that Thorisdottir’s days as a force at the top of the sport were behind her, and that before long she might leave the individual competition.
The only things that mattered, though, the “chip and a chair,” were Annie’s belief in herself and her dedication to putting in the work to prove it.
She proved it by making the podium at the Games in 2017. She’s proved it once again with her fourth career Open workout win in 18.4.
“Iceland Annie” is still going strong, and she’s got herself a top grade this week.
Grade: A
Tonia Osborne
No woman in the Masters 45-49 Division was closer to finishing the full Rx’d version of 18.4 than Tonia Osborne.
Osborne, a four-time masters competitor at the CrossFit Games and two-time bronze medalist, came just 5 feet shy of finishing the final handstand walk in the workout under the 9-minute time cap.
What’s also impressive is that she had the best tiebreak time of anyone who tied her at 164 reps, individual and masters divisions included.
That means she completed Diane and everything else save the final handstand walk in 7:38. The final handstand walk may have gotten the best of her, but at 47 years young, even finishing Diane in that time frame a few years ago was a crazy feat.
Throw in another 45 deadlifts at 205 lb. and 100 feet of handstand walking, and it’s hard not to appreciate Osborne’s performance.
Her score would have been good enough for sixth worldwide in the 40-44 Division below her, and it was 43rd on the West Coast for the individual women.
She may not have finished under the time cap, but she gets a worldwide win in her age division for 18.4 and an A grade in my book.
Luis Oscar Mora
In 2016 it seemed like Luis Oscar Mora was the pride of Mexico and Latin America at the CrossFit Games.
The then-17-year-old Mora finished fourth overall in the Boys 16-17 Division, just 2 points shy of the podium behind eventual 2017 champion Angelo DiCicco.
Last year the big question was how Mora would fare with the “big boys” in the individual men’s competition now that he had aged up.
The answer: not as well as some had hoped.
He finished 23rd in the Open in Latin America, failed to qualify for Regionals and tempered expectations that he immediately would find success at the next level.
Right now, though, it seems like 2017 was exactly what he needed to grow.
With one week left in the Open, Mora is in first place in the the Central America Region following a trio of first-place finishes in the region.
He’s also the leader, with a 12-point buffer over second, for the Fittest in Mexico. What a difference a year makes for these youngsters.
Only one male athlete will qualify from the Latin America Regional this year, but Luis Oscar Mora’s performance thus far makes him a favorite from Central America and earns him an A for this week.
Grade: C-
Anthony Davis
If you want to be a competitor and you’ve got a significant hole in your game, sooner or later Dave Castro will find it.
With 18.4, it appears that Castro may have unearthed a chink in Anthony Davis’ armor.
Davis finished fifth worldwide in last year’s Open, and after two weeks, he was third worldwide in the Open this year.
That was before 18.4 came along. Davis finished with just 137 reps, placing him in 166th place for the workout in the Central East.
More importantly, it dropped him from fourth in the region overall after 18.3 to 28th and immediately puts him in danger of not qualifying for Regionals.
Personally, it would be rough for me as a fan to see Davis miss out on an individual invite to Regionals this year. Last year, despite his success, he was committed to joining the Timberwolf CrossFit Affiliate Cup team and helped them to an eighth-place finish at the Games.
All is not lost though. If he manages a top-10 finish in the region in 18.5, he should manage to work his way up into the top 24.
If that happens, he should get offered another chance to compete once additional invites go out after people declare whether they’re going to compete on a team.
It’s not guaranteed, but there is still hope. That earns him a passing grade, but barely.
Cover photo: Courtesy of Jordan Chabinsky.
