The 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games: Back in Madison

The 2020 CrossFit Games were unprecedented as the world navigated the global COVID-19 pandemic. The season came to a screeching halt in mid-March that year when in-person events were disallowed across the globe. CrossFit was forced to pivot quickly in order to make the Games happen at all, which meant no spectators were permitted and strict regulations were in place to ensure the safety of the competitors and CrossFit staff. 

In 2021, athletes and fans were thrilled to once again gather at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, for a festival of fitness like no other. After the circumstances surrounding 2020, it was that much sweeter to crown the Fittest on Earth with thousands of fans in attendance.

The 2021 Open

The CrossFit Games season started with the announcement of NOBULL as the new title sponsor of the CrossFit Games. 

“NOBULL is the premier shoe and apparel brand to emerge from the CrossFit ecosystem, which has inspired thousands of entrepreneurial ventures around the world,” said CrossFit CEO Eric Roza. “My friends Marcus and Michael started NOBULL based on their passion for CrossFit and with the goal of creating shoes and apparel for the most demanding workouts. Put simply, CrossFit runs deep in NOBULL’s blood and culture.”

And so the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games season began, featuring a brand-new format. But one thing remained the same: It all started with the CrossFit Open. More than 264,000 athletes worldwide competed in one workout per week for three weeks — a shift from the typical five-week competition we’ve seen in years past. 

With COVID restrictions still affecting many parts of the world, CrossFit hosted the most accessible Open to date with the traditional prescribed and scaled workouts, along with brand-new foundations and equipment-free versions of each workout. The various options allowed athletes to complete some version of the week’s workout in their home, at a local affiliate, or even in a public park.

Also new in 2021 was the welcoming of 16 adaptive-athlete divisions, officially bringing adaptive athletes into the fold of CrossFit competition for the first time. 

After three weeks and a well-rounded test of fitness, Canadian Jeffrey Adler and Australian Tia-Clair Toomey topped the men’s and women’s leaderboards, respectively. The top 10 percent of individual athletes and top 25 percent of teams were invited to compete in the inaugural Quarterfinals at the close of the Open.

The 2021 Quarterfinals

For the first time in history, Quarterfinals were implemented as the second step in the qualification process for the CrossFit Games. The Quarterfinal tests challenged 13,937 individual athletes and 341 affiliate teams with higher skills, heavier weights, and increased volume in a virtual format. The Individual and Team Quarterfinals consisted of five tests apiece. Over the course of a weekend in May, athletes had various score-submission windows for each test. 

Quarterfinal athletes and teams were ranked in one of six continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, or South America. The top athletes and teams advanced to Semifinals to compete in one of 10 events across six continents, ensuring at least one athlete and team from each continent qualified for the Games. 

The 2021 Semifinals 

CrossFit partnered with 10 events to host the first-ever Semifinals. Approximately 600 individual athletes and 200 teams were invited to Semifinals. While the intention was that all would be held live and in person, COVID restrictions lingered and five of the 10 events were forced online. Even with the setback, CrossFit rose to the challenge and hosted comprehensive and well-rounded online events to determine who had what it took to compete at the Games. 

The Semifinals advanced the top athletes and teams to the finals. Those who narrowly missed Games qualification would be given one final shot in the Last-Chance Qualifier. 

The 2021 Last-Chance Qualifier

While 76 individual athletes had already punched their tickets to Madison, the 2021 Last-Chance Qualifier gave bubble athletes one more shot to qualify by way of another virtual competition. Athletes took on four events over the course of one weekend in July, and the top two men and women advanced to the Games, rounding out the pool of 80 individual athletes. 

After impressive performances in this new stage of competition, Sweden’s Emma Tall and Kristi Eramo-O’Connell of the U.S. received the final two individual invitations on the women’s side, and Russia’s Roman Khrennikov and Alexandre Caron of Canada earned spots in the men’s competition at the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games.

The 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games

The culmination of the season happened the week of July 27 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. Forty men, 40 women, 38 teams, 20 age-group athletes in each division, and five adaptive athletes in select divisions descended upon Wisconsin’s capitol city to fight for the title Fittest on Earth. 

Across multiple days of competition, athletes tackled a wide array of challenges, notably including kayaking, wall walks, and freestanding handstand push-ups — all new movements for the CrossFit Games.

Four-time Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey made history by sweeping the first three events, setting herself up nicely to defend her title. Toomey stacked up nine event wins by the end of the competition, making her career total a record-breaking 33. 

With the absence of five-time Fittest Man on Earth Mat Fraser on the men’s side it was anyone’s game. 2020’s third-fittest man on Earth Justin Medeiros established himself early on as the man to beat as he set out to prove that his rookie-year podium finish was no fluke. 

At the end of the weekend, Toomey was awarded her fifth consecutive Games championship and became the most dominant CrossFit athlete of all time after winning with a 256-point lead over second place. 

Medeiros became the youngest male champion in history in a performance reminiscent of legends such as Fraser and Rich Froning Jr. 

In the Affiliate Cup competition, CrossFit Mayhem, which is led by four-time individual champion Froning, repeated for the fifth time as the Affiliate Cup Champion team, claiming victory by a 279-point margin over second. 

THE 2020 REEBOK CROSSFIT GAMES: THE GAMES THAT ALMOST WEREN'T

The 2020 CrossFit Games were unlike any other. The COVID-19 pandemic halted the Sanctionals season in mid-March, and for a while it looked as though the Games would not happen at all. Through much perseverance, determination, and grit, CrossFit athletes, fans, and staff came together to support our most unique event to date. 

THE 2020 OPEN

The 2020 Open went off without a hitch. From Oct. 10, 2019, through Nov. 11, 2019, athletes took on one workout each week in their affiliates or home gyms, starting the season off with competition and camaraderie, oblivious to the big changes that were on the horizon. 

In traditional fashion, the 2020 Open featured a new movement in the single-leg squat. Open Workout 20.4 challenged athletes to a clean and jerk  progression of ascending weight paired with box jumps early on and single-leg squats in the later rounds. 

At the end of five weeks of online competition, which took place in home gyms and CrossFit affiliates around the globe, Canadian Patrick Vellner and Icelandic Sara Sigmundsdottir sat atop the overall leaderboard, punching their ticket to the Games and marking the close of the 2020 Open season. 

THE 2020 SANCTIONALS

The 2020 CrossFit Sanctionals season started in Dublin, Ireland, in November 2019, with the Filthy 150. This year’s CrossFit Games Rookie of the Year, Justin Medeiros, won the event, proving he had what it took to compete with the big dogs. We couldn’t know then the rookie phenom we’d see him become in the coming months. 

The Sanctionals season was set to span the globe with 28 events in 21 different countries on six continents. Winning a Sanctionals competition was one way to earn a spot to compete at the CrossFit Games as an individual and the only way to qualify a team. 

But the season ended abruptly with the Brazil CrossFit Championship, as the impending COVID-19 pandemic began to rear its ugly head, and sporting events and large gatherings were canceled around the globe. The remaining Sanctionals events were postponed as the world anticipated the effect of the pandemic. 

The postponed events were eventually canceled, and before we knew it, the Sanctionals season was over. 

In early May, which would’ve been mid-Sanctionals season, CrossFit canceled the Age Group and Team competitions as the reality set in that all large sporting events would likely be on hold for months to come. 

THE 2020 GAMES

In mid-May, CrossFit Director of Sport Dave Castro began to talk openly about hosting the 2020 Games at the historic Ranch in Aromas, California — the location of the inaugural 2007 CrossFit Games. It was clear at this point that the competition would not be returning to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2020 as the global pandemic continued to evolve. 

In early August, CrossFit announced the competition was a go. For the first time, the CrossFit Games were held in two stages: a Stage 1 online competition followed by an in-person final. 

Due to the interruption in the Sanctionals season, CrossFit was forced to reevaluate who would qualify for the 2020 Games. It was determined that the top 20 men and women from the worldwide Open and the 10 men and women who qualified through a Sanctionals competition would make up a roster of 30 men and 30 women.

STAGE ONE

From Sept. 18-19, Stage 1 of the CrossFit Games took place in local affiliates and home gyms around the globe. The top 30 men and women competed in seven events over two days to determine the top five in each division who would then head to the in-person finals. 

Stage 1 saw reigning Games champions Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey make history as the duo set new records for most CrossFit Games event wins — Toomey bested previous record holder Annie Thorisdottir with 15 event wins, and Fraser beat out Rich Froning with 19 event wins. 

Other highlights of Stage 1 included two-time CrossFit Games champion Katrin Davidsdottir’s comeback after a slow start to earn a spot in the top five and fan favorite and 2017 second-fittest woman on Earth Kara Saunders’ return to top-level competition after having her daughter. 

At the end of the weekend, the final five were determined.

THE FINALS

The 2020 CrossFit Games Finals were held Oct. 23-25, with events taking place at the Ranch and the Morgan Hill Sports Complex in Northern California. 

Over three long days of competition, athletes faced events that gave a nod to the historic Ranch in 2007 Reload, a beefed-up rendition of the first Games event in 2007, and Corn Sack Sprint, a return to 2009’s brutal hill sprint while carrying a sack. They conquered feats of strength in the CrossFit Total and the Snatch Speed Triple, and they tested  their gymnastics prowess in Handstand Sprint and the highly anticipated final, Atalanta. They faced an extreme mental challenge when the perceived finish of Ranch Loop was only the halfway point and they were told to run the trail in reverse to complete the event. They biked, they swam, they ran — a lot — and at the end of the weekend, Toomey and Fraser proved once again that they are the Fittest on Earth, finishing the weekend with 360-, and 545-point leads over second place.

THE 2019 REEBOK CROSSFIT GAMES: SEASON REFORMATTED

The CrossFit Games Season was largely changed in 2019. The Open gained great significance as a direct qualifier to the Games, Regionals were eliminated and replaced by CrossFit-sanctioned events, and the individual field of athletes was expanded, whereas the teams and age-group fields were reduced. The season culminated in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Alliant Energy Center for the third straight year for the 12^th CrossFit Games.

THE 2019 OPEN

One of the biggest changes to the 2019 season was the Open becoming a direct qualifier to the Games. The male and female National Champions from each country around the world (with at least one CrossFit affiliate) qualified for the Games, as well.  Additionally, the top 20 males and top 20 females in the Open who were not National Champions also qualified for the Games. The significance of the Open skyrocketed for Games hopefuls. 

The 2019 Open was held in February and March. CrossFit HQ didn’t host the live Open workout announcements that year. The live announcements were instead held and broadcasted by different groups around the world, with multiple announcement sites each week. Top elite athletes still competed at the announcements, but the new structure allowed more local top athletes to compete on the world stage. 

Sara Sigmundsdottir won her second Open in 2019, while Mathew Fraser won his third in a row and fourth overall (the most all time).

THE 2018-19 CROSSFIT-SANCTIONED EVENTS

A major change to the season was the elimination of Regionals, which were replaced by CrossFit-sanctioned events all around the world. There were 15 two- to four-day competitions that provided a direct invite to the 2019 CrossFit Games for the individual man and woman winners. 

In 2019, it was decided that teams could only qualify for the Games via winning a CrossFit-sanctioned event. One event did not feature a team competition, so 14 four-person teams were invited to the Games that year. Additionally, it was decided that team members did not need to train in the same location throughout the season, which made it easier to create “super teams” of elite athletes from different geographic locations.

THE 2019 GAMES

The largest Individual field of any Games was assembled to compete at the 2019 CrossFit Games. A total of 142 men and 131 women took to the field for the first event.  

However, the field was drastically reduced with cuts after each of the first six events (the most cuts of any Games). After the Games sixth event on Saturday morning, only 10 men and 10 women stood to take on the remaining six events of the Games.   

The first couple of events were programmed to accommodate the large field of athletes. The first event was notable and instantly classic, consisting of 4 rounds of a 400-meter run, 3 legless rope climbs, and 7 moderately heavy squat snatches at (185/130 lb). 

Another notable event was the 6k Ruck Run, which featured a progressively heavier ruck bag adding weight every kilometer. A few CrossFit benchmark workouts were transformed into Games events, including Mary (a rare AMRAP event), and The Standard (which featured Grace, 30 Muscle-Ups, and Isabel—completed consecutively).

The CrossFit Games coverage was delivered by an open-source world feed onsite, which provided video of the events with graphics. The world feed was used by over 30 media outlets around the world to broadcast their own unique commentary on their platforms.

Mathew Fraser won the Games for the fourth consecutive time, and tied Rich Froning as the only other athlete with four consecutive individual championships. Fraser won the first two events (a fete that had never happened at the Games before), but then he fell out of the lead, which Noah Ohlsen assumed for most of the weekend. Fraser eventually regained the lead after the second-to-last event. 

Tia-Clair Toomey won her third consecutive Games, the most by any female. She won in dominant fashion with the greatest margin of victory over second place.

THE 2018 REEBOK CROSSFIT GAMES: MADISON, YEAR TWO

The CrossFit Games returned to Madison, Wisconsin, and the Alliant Energy Center for the second year in 2018. Athletes, fans, and staff enjoyed the Games programming options, change of scenery and weather, and the welcoming hospitality of Wisconsin’s Capitol City.

THE 2018 OPEN

Open participation increased to an all-time high of 416,000 athletes in 2018. For five consecutive weeks between February and March, athletes and teams from around the globe competed to qualify for the now nine Regionals, seeking the opportunity to earn the coveted Games spots.

Continuing with the theme from 2017, the Open season started off internationally in São Paulo, Brazil, with the announcement of the first workout, and a live rematch between Samantha Briggs and Kristen Holte.

The other live Open workout announcement locations included Gibsonia, Pennsylvania; Houston, Texas; and Goodyear, Arizona. The grand finale took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, with a grand showdown between Iceland’s top Dottirs: Annie Thorisdottir, Katrin Davidsdottir, and Sara Sigmundsdottir.

Cassidy Lance-McWherter won her first Open in 2018 while Mathew Fraser won his second in a row, and third overall.

THE 2018 REGIONALS

For the first time since 2015, the Regional boundaries and qualifying spot allocations were reshuffled. The Regional boundaries around the globe were reorganized and more qualifying spots were given to Europe, while the spots allotted to the U.S. were reduced. The changes resulted in a total of nine Regionals made up of two regions each (for a total of 18 regions). Europe gained an additional Regional, Latin America had its own Regional reinstated as it was before 2014, and the U.S. Regionals were consolidated to five. Most Regionals still qualified five men, five women, and five teams to the Games, but the new Meridian Regional qualified four of each, while the Latin America Regional qualified one of each. In all, 40 men, 40 women, and 40 teams qualified for the Games.

An additional change to the 2018 season was teams being reduced from six to four people. The change enabled additional event programming opportunities and the introduction of the four-person Worm.

THE 2017 REEBOK CROSSFIT GAMES: GOODBYE CALIFORNIA, HELLO WISCONSIN

In 2017, the Games took place outside of California for the first time. The multi-day competition was held at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

THE 2017 OPEN

Participation in the worldwide Open increased to 380,000 athletes in 2017. For five consecutive weeks between February and March, athletes and teams from around the globe competed to qualify for one of eight Regionals, where they’d have a chance to earn their ticket to the CrossFit Games.

For the first time, there were two live Open workout announcements in different locations held back-to-back, both occurring outside of the U.S. Canadian athletes Patrick Vellner and Brent Fikowski threw down in Montreal, Canada, while Samantha Briggs and Kristen Holte went head-to-head in Paris, France.

Additional Open announcements took place at the Rogue Fitness Headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, in San Antonio, Texas, in Mexico City, Mexico, and in Madison, Wisconsin.

The competition concluded with Sara Sigmundsdottir winning her first worldwide Open, and Mathew Fraser winning his second.

THE 2017 REGIONALS

Eight Regionals determined which individuals and teams advanced to compete at the CrossFit Games. Over three consecutive weekends between May and June, the qualifers emerged - including five men, five women, and five six-person teams out of each Regional - for a total of 40 men, 40 women, and 40 teams who would be moving on to the Games.  

In 2017, all six of the Regional events for individuals and teams were programmed without a barbell. Individual events included a heavy dose of dumbbell movements and gymnastics. For the teams, the six-person Worm was introduced for the first time at Regionals, with the apparatus being used in half of the teams’ events.

THE 2017 GAMES

Madison, Wisconsin, brought a noticeable change of weather conditions from sunny California. Athletes competed in cooler temperatures and even some rain. 

Along with the new venue, CrossFit had a new broadcast partner in CBS Sports Network, and the Games were streamed live on Facebook and the CrossFit Games website.  

Significant unique Games events included a Run-Swim-Run event with open-water swimming in Lake Monona, a Cyclocross event with Trek bicycles, and a military-style Obstacle Course. Another new event, the Madison Triplet involved hurdling large hay bales and yellow “cheese curd” sandbag cleans, paying homage to the state, which is famous for its cheese. Additionally, past Games and Open events were reintroduced with new enhancements including Amanda .45, Assault Banger, and Heavy 17.5.

Mathew Fraser won the Games for the second consecutive time. He earned 1,132 out of 1,300 possible points, at the time giving him the most dominant performance in CrossFit Games history by both points margin over second place and percentage of points earned (in the Open era).

Tia-Clair Toomey and Kara Saunders were the first two Australian individuals to podium at the CrossFit Games. Toomey took first, Saunders took second. Toomey narrowly beat out Saunders by the tight margin of just 2 points overall (the slimmest margin of victory in the Open era). After back-to-back silver medals at the Games, Toomey won her first CrossFit Games Championship.

Wasatch CrossFit won the Affiliate Cup. The team was led by Adrian Conway who became a three-time Affiliate Cup team member, tying James Hobart with three CrossFit Games Team Championships. For the first time since 2010, Rich Froning did not stand atop a CrossFit Games Podium as his team, CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, took second.

THE 2016 REEBOK CROSSFIT GAMES: 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

2016 marked the 10-year anniversary of the CrossFit Games. The evolution of the sport is undeniable when the present is compared to the past.

In 2007, the inaugural Games kicked off at Director of the CrossFit Games Dave Castro’s family ranch in Aromas, California. Approximately 70 athletes came together for a grassroots throw down and a barbecue.

THE 2016 OPEN

In 2016, 324,000 athletes participated in the worldwide Open—the first stage of competition. From there, 260 athletes—40 men, 40 women and 30 teams of 6—moved on to eight Regional events where the top five in each category would earn an invitation to the Games.

The 2016 Open kicked off on Feb. 25, with the announcement of Open Workout 16.1 at NorCal CrossFit in Santa Clara, California. Canadian powerhouse Emily Abbott and fan favorite Chyna Cho were the first two athletes to take on the 25-minute AMRAP of overhead walking lunges, burpees and chest-to-bar pull-ups.

In 2016, the Open also took us to a garage gym in Candler, North Carolina, affiliates in Jacksonville, Florida and Colorado Springs, and back to the historic Ranch. In hindsight, the return to Aromas was perhaps a hint at events to come.

At the end of five weeks, Games veteran Noah Ohlsen and New Zealander Jamie Greene took the top spots in the all-inclusive competition.

THE 2016 REGIONALS

In the second year of a new Regional format, eight events spread over three weekends in May would decide who would go to the Games. Athletes from multiple regions competed for the very few qualifying spots. Those who were “Proven” at the end of their Regional weekend advanced to the ultimate proving grounds: the Games.

After eight hard-fought competitions that featured a squat snatch ladder, Regional version of the Hero workout Nate, handstand walking, heavy deadlifts and more, the best of the best earned themselves a spot at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, to compete for the title Fittest on Earth.

THE 2016 GAMES

While athletes and spectators have come to expect the Games to start in an off-site location, 2016 had a twist no one saw coming. The off-site events—which debuted in 2011 with athletes running into the ocean at the Santa Monica Pier—have become one of the most exciting aspects of the competition.

In 2016, athletes were told to pack a plane-ready bag and were hit with a very early-morning wake-up call. They were driven by bus to Los Angeles International Airport, where they boarded a flight destined for San Jose, California.

After 10 years, the fittest athletes in the world returned to the Ranch to pay homage to where it all started. They pulled up in the dust and heat of the legendary location and weren’t given much time to sight see. The Games had begun.

Reminiscent of the first event in 2009, athletes were greeted with a challenging 7-k trail run, which Castro made sure to emphasize would prove much more difficult this time around.

Event 2—Ranch Deadlift Ladder—was taken from the 2009 event list, as well, but in 2016 the bars were much heavier. In 2009 the men’s bars weighed from 315 lb. to 505 lb., and the women’s were 185 lb. to 375 lb. In 2016, the men would start at 425 lb. and end at 615 lb., while the women opened at 275 lb. and cleared the ladder at 415 lb. Brooke Wells and Sam Dancer shocked the small crowd in Aromas with their big weights, both clearing the ladder and winning the event.

The last event at the Ranch was the Ranch Mini Chipper. Athletes sprinted through a fast combo of wall-ball shots, medicine-ball GHD sit-ups and a sprint carrying a medicine ball up the Ranch’s legendary hill. Two-time Games champion Annie Thorisdottir and Games rookie Brent Fikowski took first in the event.

Then it was time to bid farewell to the Ranch, and after a long night and several flight delays, athletes returned to Carson. From there, they took on an open-water swim, a new version of Murph and new pieces of Rogue equipment. They faced many new challenges in the quest to reach the podium and earn the title of Fittest on Earth.

At the end of the weekend, two-time second-place Games finisher Mat Fraser stood atop the podium after a more-than-dominant performance throughout the entire week. Iceland transplant Katrin Davidsdottir took the women’s title for the second consecutive year, and CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, captained by four-time individual champion Rich Froning, repeated as the Affiliate Cup champ.

After seven years in the venue, rumor had it that 2016 would likely be the last year the Games would be held at the StubHub Center. That would become official on Nov. 20, when Castro announced the new host city for 2017: Madison, Wisconsin.

The 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games: A New Era

Darwin argued that evolution proceeds by small successive changes rather than large leaps.

Gradualism held true even for the man-made sport of the CrossFit Games. That is, until 2015. After years of minor, almost imperceptible changes to the sport, Director of the Games Dave Castro announced sweeping changes that would re-shape the regional format.

Forty eight athletes would no longer advance from the 17 Open regions to 17 regional competitions. The number of regionals would be cut to eight, and the number of regional qualifiers would plummet to 10 (for Latin America, Asia, and Africa), 20 (for regions in the United States and Canada), and 30 (for Europe and Australia).

To make it to regionals now, athletes needed to put in a Herculean effort in the Open. And to make it to the Games, athletes needed to be truly ready for the world stage. With multiple regions competing together at regionals, the advantage of coming from a less competitive region was stamped out. Only the world’s fittest would make it to Carson, California.

In addition to the regional changes, Castro added a Teenage Division for athletes 14 - 17 years old and a scaled option for the Open.

With the addition of the scaled option, Castro was able to make the Rx’d workouts even tougher. 2015 saw the addition of a new movement, handstand push-ups (15.4), as well as the shift to have muscle-ups at the start of the workout (in 15.3) rather than the end ( as seen in 14.4, 13.3, and 12.4). Many athletes would spend the 14 minutes of 15.3 fighting for their first muscle-up, with more than 3,000 athletes succeeding.

At the end of the Open, silver medalist Mat Fraser would come out ahead of recently retired four-time CrossFit Games champion Rich Froning Jr., and Ben Smith would finish third. On the women’s side, two-time CrossFit Games champion Annie Thorisdottir won. Kara Webb, who led part of the 2014 Games before being sidelined by a pinched nerve, took second, and newcomer Sara Sigmundsdottir followed in third.

At the new combined regionals, elite athletes from multiple regions competed for even fewer qualifying spots than in past years which led to multiple upsets. Multi-year top Games competitor, Josh Bridges, would miss qualification by one spot at the California Regional, and the perennial queen of Europe, Annie Thorisdottir, would be dethroned by her fellow countrywoman Sara Sigmundsdottir. Many veteran Games athletes would end the weekend outside of the cut.

Individual division retirees, Jason Khalipa of NorCal CrossFit and Rich Froning of CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, brought new energy to the team competition and helped successfully qualify their teams for the CrossFit Games.

The Games

Wednesday

For the fifth consecutive year, the Games started in the water. But this time, the athletes were given paddleboards. The Pier Paddle asked athletes to swim 500 meters around the Hermosa Beach Pier, then paddle two miles on the hard-to-balance prone-paddleboards, and then swim around the pier again before crossing the finish line.

Athletes from outside the United States proved more adept in the water. Finland’s Jonne Koski was the first across the line in 42:16, followed by Australia’s Khan Porter two minutes later. The fastest women would finish a minute after Porter, with Australia’s Kara Webb earning the W in 45:30 and Canada’s Michele Letendre following in 45:54.

Later that day, the athletes came to the StubHub Center to take on a 2010 throwback event: the Sandbag Move. Athletes had to move hundreds of pounds of sandbags from the top of the stairs on the north side of the Tennis Stadium to the top of the stairs on the south end, crossing through the center of the stadium using Rogue’s heavy duty wheelbarrows.

Shorter women tended to get stuck on the south wall, unable to sling the heavy sandbags over its high face without getting creative first. Some built platforms out of sandbags, which helped them get the heaviest red bag over the top. Even still, many approached the 15-minute time cap, and six reached it.

Olympian Anna Tunnicliffe blazed through the event, finishing it in 8:30, which was 30 seconds faster than the next fastest competitor, Emily Abbott (9:03). Lukas Hogberg handily won the event (10:07) with a close race between Mat Fraser (10:38) and two of the Games’ tallest athletes, Elijah Muhammad (10:47) and Chad Mackay (10:55).

Like in past years, the first day of competition pushed many international athletes to the top of the leaderboard, but with three days remaining there was plenty of chance for movement in the overall standings.

Friday

The athletes were given Thursday to recover, only to arrive on Friday in the blazing heat of the noon-time Los Angeles sun to take on the 1-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and 1-mile run of Murph.

With body armor strapped to their chests and the sun beating down, many athletes overheated. Long after European freaks of nature Bjorgvin Guomundsson and Sam Briggs ran in triumphantly to seal the win, many others struggled to finish the event. Some would need medical care, including Kara Webb and Annie Thorisdottir.

After that thorough beatdown, athletes were asked to quickly recover and take on the Snatch Speed Ladder, which was a variation of the Clean Speed Ladder that had appeared in the Games the year prior. For each round of the event, the athletes would face a ladder of five progressively heavier barbells. At the call of go, the athletes would race through the bars with only the fastest athletes earning an invite to the next round.

Brooke Ence would snatch her way to her first win of the weekend, beating Katrin Davidsdottir, while on the men’s side Jon Pera would win with Ben Smith in second and Mat Fraser in third.
 

For the first time, Castro put an event up for a vote on Twitter. Responding with a hashtag, fans voted between Long DT and Heavy DT for Friday’s closing event. Fans chose heavy. The classic CrossFit workout of 12 deadlifts, 9 hang power cleans, and 6 push jerks for 5 rounds, would jump in weight from 155 lb. to 205 lb. for men, and from 105 lb. to 145 lb. for women.

Foreshadowing the future rivalries in the overall competition, Sigmundsdottir and Davidsdottir went 1, 2, on Heavy DT as did Smith and Fraser. Incredibly, even after all of the work that had preceded the event Smith was able to push sub-8 (7:55) while Sigmundsdottir came in before 8:30 (8:25).

Fraser and Sigmundsdottir, the athletes who entered Friday in third, would end the day in the lead. Smith and Davidsdottir each made enormous leaps on Friday from the high teens to second overall. Kara Webb and Jonne Koski dropped from the lead to third.

Saturday

Saturday morning was all about speed. In Sprint Course 1, athletes would race through the pylons that made their debut in the ZigZag Sprint at the 2013 Games, and then over four hurdles. For Sprint Course 2, they would race back starting first with the hurdles.

As expected, former collegiate 400-meter runner Dan Bailey excelled, winning both events and even catching his sunglasses as they fell midway through. Collegiate soccer player Lindy Barber and Norwegian decathlete Kristin Holte traded wins. Quietly, Australia’s rookie, Tia-Clair Toomey, sealed fourth and third, pushing her up the overall standings from 13th to fifth overall.

Fraser maintained the white jersey throughout the Sprint Course events but with 24th and 37th place event finishes he was bleeding points as Smith gained on him with solid 11th and sixth place finishes. Fraser’s 88 point lead before the Sprint Course would shrink to 40.

Similarly, the woman in the white jersey wasn’t the one to watch on the Sprint Course. That is, if you wanted to watch the fastest athlete. The leader, Sigmundsdottir, dropped to 37th and 38th in the sprint events, and watched as her lead over Davidsdottir went from 40 to a mere 7 points.

Later that day, another piece of equipment from the 2013 Games returned. The Pig. Designed to be flipped like a tire, the Pig is a rectangular hunk of metal that can be loaded to almost any weight. In 2013, the guts of the Pig were exposed. This time, all 560-lb. for men and 395-lb. for women were enclosed within a fire-engine red casing.

Athletes had to flip that incredibly heavy Pig 100 feet before climbing a high-hung rope without the use of their legs four times, and then kick up into a handstand and walk 100 feet for the Soccer Chipper.

The Pig’s weight was obvious, challenging the world’s fittest for each and every flip. Smith would win this event (+100 pts), while Fraser dropped to 32nd (+16); in one event, Smith closed a 40-point gap and had enough points to spare that he now led Fraser by 44 points. Longtime strongwoman Elisabeth Akinwale won the event, while Sigmundsdottir took fourth and Davidsdottir 15th. In one event, Sigmundsdottir regained her 40-point lead over Davidsdottir. Even more concerning for Davidsdottir, she was also losing ground to third-ranked Kara Webb. After the Soccer Chipper, only 8 points separated second from third overall.

Next up was the clean and jerk, in which rookie competitors Brooke Ence and Aaron Hanna topped the charts with 242- and 350-lb. lifts. Smith and Fraser, both strong lifters, stayed close together on this event with Smith lifting 347 for second and Fraser 342 for fourth. Similarly, Sigmundsdottir took sixth (230 lb.) to Davidsdottir’s 10th (217 lb.). Webb’s 225-lb. ninth-ranked lift further shrank the gap between herself and Davidsdottir to 4 points.

To close out the day, the athletes took on the quick Triangle Couplet of thrusters and bar muscle-ups, which brought 2014 and 2013 women’s champions Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Sam Briggs to the top of the field for the event and gave an important win to Mat Fraser.

The Triangle Couplet allowed Fraser to close in on Smith by 24 points, such that only 30 points separated them heading into the final day of competition. Cole Sager had a great Saturday, jumping from 11th to third overall.

The day’s final event was good and bad for Davidsdottir. She gained on the leader by 24 points, taking eighth to Sigmundsdottir’s 18th, but lost her position as the second-ranked athlete to Webb who had been extremely close to her in the point totals and had an exceptional showing with a fourth-place finish on the couplet. Like Sager, Toomey had a great day and moved up from 13th to third.

Sunday

Sunday began with the surprising and unfortunate news that Annie Thorisdottir had withdrawn, citing lingering effects from Murph. The two-time champion and two-time second place finisher would not be returning to her usual place atop the podium in 2015.

Three events remained before the Fittest on Earth would be named: Midline Madness, Pedal to the Metal 1, and Pedal to the Metal 2. Though, the athletes didn’t know what the last two events would be when the day began.

Midline Madness was 6 rounds of a 400-meter run and 50-foot yoke carry (380 / 300 lb.). The two European women known for their running, Sam Briggs and Kristin Holte, smashed the event going sub-14 (13:26, 13:53).

On the men’s side, the turnout was far less predictable. An athlete who has long claimed to hate running, former Olympic lifter Mat Fraser, took second to Jacob Heppner. Smith took seventh, and saw his lead lessen to 8 points.

The women’s top three overall, Sigmundsdottir-Webb-Davidsdottir, went ninth-fifth-19th, which rearranged the standings such that Davidsdottir was back in second and now with a manageable 17-point gap between herself and Sigmundsdottir.

Entering Pedal to the Medal 1

A cloaked structure loomed at the north end of the Tennis Stadium, waiting to be revealed. Castro brought the athletes out to watch as Rogue uncovered the plexiglass peg board.

For Pedal to the Metal 1, athletes would need to figure out how to ascend the peg board three times before they could move on to row (24-calories), bike (16-calories), and then dumbbell squat snatch (100 / 70 lb., 8 reps).

The peg board came as a shock to many athletes who had never tried to ascend one before, though this piece of equipment didn’t come out of left field. Greg Glassman, the Founder and CEO of CrossFit, wrote about pegboards in 2002 in the Garage Gym article published in the CrossFit Journal.

“The Climbing Rope may or may not be an option in your gym, but there are several other climbing options that are possible in any space. Climbing Holds, Campus Boards, and Peg Boards are wickedly effective, functional, and fun,” Glassman wrote. “We’ve limited experience with this stuff, but it is our next frontier.”

That new frontier claimed athletes like the Sierra Nevada claimed members of the Donner Party; not everyone made it. Twelve men and 25 women failed to successfully ascend the pegboard once, including Davidsdottir and Sigmundsdottir, whose 17-point gap would remain intact heading into the final event given they both tied for 13th.

Margaux Alvarez came the closest to finishing the event with 8 reps remaining at the time cap. Six men made it through, including the two men vying for the title. Reaching the finish mat 31 seconds ahead, Fraser took second (94 points) to Smith’s fourth (84 points). That 10 points was all Fraser needed to close the 8-point gap, and give him the lead entering the last event. With only 2 points separating them, the winner would be decided by the final.

Entering Pedal to the Medal 2

For Pedal to the Metal 2, the athletes faced 12 parallette handstand push-ups, a 24-calorie row, 16-calorie bike, and 8 kettlebell deadlifts with 2 massive kettlebells weighing 203 lb. each for the men and 124 lb. each for the women.

Fraser and Sigmundsdottir entered the final event wearing the white leader’s jersey. Seven minutes worth of work or less separated them from the title Fittest on Earth and $275,000. All they needed to do was keep Smith and Davidsdottir behind them.

From the very start, that goal slipped from their fingers as their challengers overcame them in the chipper. Davidsdottir blazed through the event to seal her first event win of the weekend in 4:42. With 100 points added to her total, Davidsdottir now needed Sigmundsdottir to finish in fifth or lower. Sigmundsdottir would reach the time cap with 9 reps to go, and drop to 22nd in the event.

Pedal to the Metal 2 had dealt a massive blow to the rookie who had led the competition since Friday night. Sigmundsdottir had not just lost the title with her 22nd place finish, she had lost the silver medal as well. Prior to the event she had a 41 point gap over fourth-ranked Toomey, however, Toomey’s fourth place finish on PTTM 2 gave her a 48 point edge over Sigmundsdottir. Toomey would leap to silver, while Sigmundsdottir dropped to bronze.

In the short event, Smith would build a minute and a half lead over Fraser. Smith was the fourth across the line in 5:01. With Fraser so far back, it was immediately clear that Smith had done it. In his seventh year at the CrossFit Games, Ben Smith had earned the title Fittest on Earth.

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The 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games: The End of an Era

2014 marked the end of an era.

Rich Froning Jr. said it was his last year; he would retire from the individual competition whether or not he clinched the title Fittest on Earth for the fourth consecutive time. The 2008 champion and perennial podium contender Jason Khalipa also announced plans for retirement from the individual competition.

Meanwhile, it was becoming clear 2014 would be an exceptional year for the women’s competition. 2013 had been marked by the absence of the top two women in 2012—two-time fittest woman on Earth Annie Thorisdottir withdrew from the 2013 Open due to a back injury, and 2012 silver medalist Julie Foucher didn’t enter the 2013 season in order to focus on medical school. Both were back in 2014 and ready to challenge the woman who had won in their absence: Sam Briggs.

The Open kicked off the season with the announcement of the first of five workouts on February 27. More than 209,000 people registered for the Open, a 50 percent increase from 2013, when more than 138,000 registered for the online competition.

It quickly became clear the reigning champions expected nothing less than first place. Briggs won 14.1, 14.4, and 14.5, while Froning never finished a workout outside the top 10 worldwide.

Athletes from around the world proved their fitness in a repeat of the first-ever Open workout: double-unders and power snatches (11.1/14.1); followed by two ascending ladders: first an ascending ladder of overhead squats and chest-to-bar pull-ups, where athletes progressed if they could complete the work within each 3-minute time cap (14.2), and next an ever-heavier ladder of deadlifts and box jumps (14.3).

The fourth week brought a chipper that started on the rowing machine—a first for the Open—and led into toes-to-bars, wall-ball shots, cleans, and muscle-ups (14.4). For the finale, Director of the CrossFit Games Dave Castro announced a couplet of thrusters and burpees—21-18-15-12-9-6-3--for time. At the live Open Announcement in San Francisco, California, five CrossFit Games champions raced through the reps with Briggs and Froning so far in the lead it was a race between the two. In the last moments, Froning pulled ahead.

The top 48 male and female athletes, as well as the top 30 teams from each of the 17 regions were invited to participate in regional competitions that took place over four weekends from May 9 to June 1. In locations from Santiago, Chile, to Washington, D.C., individuals began the three-day competition with a 1-rep-max hang squat snatch before kicking up into a handstand for a max-distance handstand walk.

For the first time, every heat of every domestic and major international regional was broadcast live on Games.CrossFit.com, which allowed fans to watch every moment of the competition. Elijah Muhammad awed viewers as he leapt to near the top of the rope in each round of sprints and legless rope climbs, and fans rallied behind Briggs after a setback on the handstand walk put her perilously far back in the standings at the Europe Regional.

All told, individuals competed in seven events, the last of which called for 64 pull-ups and 8 overhead squats (205/135 lb.), while the teams competed in eight events, which deviated more substantially from the individual versions of the workouts than in past years.

Each regional had a certain number of CrossFit Games spots to award, ranging from just one male, female, and team for Latin America, Asia and Africa, to two men, women, and teams for each Canadian region, and three men, women, and teams for all U.S. regions, as well as Australia and Europe. In a major break from the previous couple years, an extra Games qualifying spot was not added when a past CrossFit Games champion finished on a regional podium in 2014.

After her setback on the max-distance handstand walk, Briggs fought to get back in contention for one of the region’s three Games qualifying spots but the women above her on the Leaderboard proved unshakeable. Even with three event wins, Briggs finished the weekend in fourth place—one rank and 6 points away from qualifying for the Games.

At the StubHub Center in Carson, California, the CrossFit Games began on July 22 with 200 masters athletes, ranging in age from 40 to over 60. They competed in eight events—the first was a deadlift ladder. The athletes also negotiated sleds, rope climbs, handstand walking, med ball cleans, burpee muscle-ups, and plenty of classic CrossFit. The events for the youngest age division, 40-44, were the toughest ever and included events that have appeared in the individual division at the 2007 and 2012 Games (2007).

All masters events were broadcast live on various platforms, including ESPN channels and games.crossfit.com. In the end, men and women in five age categories were crowned Fittest on Earth. The podium finishers in each category were awarded US$10,000, $5,000 and $3,000.

Midway through the masters competition, the individual and team competitions began at the Hermosa Beach Pier. For the third consecutive year, Castro started the Games early with a surprise swim event on Wednesday morning.

This year’s swim event asked the competitors to break through the surf and swim 250 yards through the ocean, before completing 50 kettlebell thrusters and 30 burpees. The event was designed like a pyramid with a 500-yard swim at the top. Once that was complete, the athletes went back through the same work as before but in reverse order: 30 burpees, 50 kettlebell thrusters and 250-yard swim. It ended with a run through the soft sand to the finish line.

Soon after, the teams negotiated the surf with a large yellow rescue sled for a 1,000-yard swim with all hands on board.

Later Wednesday night, the individual competitors went to the tennis stadium at the StubHub Center to set their 1-rep-max overhead squat. Each athlete was given three attempts, and once they added weight to the bar they couldn’t go back down. Mathew Fraser and Froning tied for first at 377 lb., while Kara Webb took the win with a 250-lb. lift.

The athletes were then given a little more than a day to rest, and prepare for the weekend’s events in front of the crowds.

Friday got off to an odd start with Froning slowing down to a walk in Triple 3, and Anna Tunnicliffe twisting her ankle while trying to fend off Kristin Holte on the final sprint to the finish line.

The aerodynamic looking Sprint Sled may have cut through the air had it not had such a good grip on the ground. Some athletes struggled to get the sled going for the 100-yard sprint across the soccer field, and almost all arrived at the finish line surprisingly spent. Neal Maddox had no problem with it from the get-go, racing it to the finish line a full eight seconds ahead of the next best man, Jason Khalipa. The next round, Maddox edged out Tommy Hackenbruck for the win yet again. On the women’s side, newcomers Lauren Brooks and Emily Abbott traded the wins.

Later that night, the competitors moved gracefully through increasingly challenging movements with the barbell and on the pull-up bar for the 21-15-9 Complex. Deadlifts turned into cleans which turned into snatches, and were followed by pull-ups, chest-to-bar pull-ups and bar muscle-ups. It was here Camille Leblanc-Bazinet strung together the reps, and took her first event win of the weekend.

On the team side, it was all about Bob. The Big Bob. The massive six-person sled that can be pushed, carried, pulled or dragged had returned to the Games, and it came with an addition: a pull-up bar. After the 6-mile Relay Run in the L.A. heat, the teams entered Frantasy Land where they had to complete increasingly challenging versions of Fran, and then advance the sled.

Soon after, they moved the Big Bob 100 yards, then set their cumulative 1-rep-max deadlifts—one for the men and one for the women—before returning to the sled to move it another 200 yards.

On Saturday, the Muscle-up Biathlon demanded three 400-meter runs up and over the crest of the soccer stadium followed by 18, 15, and 12 muscle-ups. Unlike any other event to date, it punished athletes each time they dropped from the rings with a 200-meter lap. As their arms fatigued the 200-meter runs piled on.

Cody Anderson managed all of the muscle-ups in unbroken sets to take the win. He finished 1,200 meters of running and 45 muscle-ups in just 10:43.

The rest of the day was filled with the Sprint Carry with cylinders and sandbags, the Clean Speed Ladder where only the fastest athletes advanced to the next, heavier round, and the Push Pull, where athletes dragged weighted sleds across the stadium before pushing their way through deeper and deeper deficit handstand push-ups.

For the teams, Saturday was all about the Worm. After the Triples Chipper, where the teams dealt with heavy medicine-ball cleans, muscle-ups and handstand push-ups, the teams couldn’t escape the Worm. They squatted it in unison and jumped over it in the Squat Burpee, and then sprinted it across the field in the Worm Sprint.

On Sunday, things wrapped up with the Midline March followed by Thick ’N Quick and the surprise Double Grace. Teams faced the Team Fifties, and the pairing of the two objects any sane teammate had come to loath: the Worm and the Bob for the Worm Bob Final.

The final day of competition saw big shifts on the Leaderboard, including the loss of one the women’s top contenders. Kara Webb of Australia entered the Midline March in second overall, but during the rounds of GHD sit-ups, handstand walks and overhead walking lunges, it quickly became clear something was wrong as she grimaced in pain. When she entered the tunnel at the end of the event, she would not return to the field. She decided to withdraw due to injury.

That shifted Thorisdottir into second overall, and Foucher into third, with Leblanc-Bazinet in the key position at the top heading into the final events.

Thick ’N Quick demanded four rope climbs with an unusually thick rope followed by 3 heavy overhead squats without a rack (245/165 lb.) Since the athletes were held in seclusion before the event, Castro was able to surprise heat after heat with the true end to the Games: Double Grace.

Moments after Thick ’N Quick, the competitors had to race through 60 clean and jerks (135/95 lb.)

Leblanc-Bazinet emerged the victor, with Thorisdottir and Foucher sharing the other spots on the podium.

Froning ended his incredible five-season career as the four-time CrossFit Games champion. He left no doubt by winning every event on Sunday by significant margins. First-time competitor Fraser joined him on the podium, as well as seven-time Games competitor Khalipa.

Perennial CrossFit Games team CrossFit Invictus earned the top spot on the podium and were joined by CrossFit Conjugate and CrossFit Marysville.

For the first time, prize money was awarded to every man and woman in the top 20, and CrossFit announced a Rookie of the Year (Mat Fraser) and Most Improved Athlete (Cassidy Lance), in addition to the longstanding award for Spirit of the Games (Becca Voigt).

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The 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games: A Year of Historic Numbers

In 2013, the CrossFit Games boasted staggering participation numbers worldwide during the Open.

The Open kicked off the season with the announcement of the first of five workouts on March 6. Anyone in the world could compete against CrossFit’s elite. More than 138,000 people registered for the five-week Open, nearly a 100 percent increase from 2012, when more than 69,000 registered for the competition. It also was a 220 percent increase from 2011, the Open’s inaugural year, in which more than 26,000 participants competed over six weeks.

Despite seemingly ubiquitous participation, one name was noticeably absent from the leaderboard: reigning Games champion Annie Thórisdóttir. The 24-year-old had been dealing with a back injury, and a recurrence lead her to forgo further competition after Open workout 13.3. After three events she was in 12th place worldwide. The void made way for other women in Europe, eager to replace the Games’ first repeat female champion on the Regional podium.

In the end, two-time CrossFit Games champion Rich Froning Jr. of the U.S.A. and the U.K.’s Sam Briggs won the worldwide Open after proving their fitness in workouts that included burpees plus snatches and a repeat of 2012’s 12-minute workout of as many rounds as possible of 150 wall balls, 90 double-unders and 30 muscle-ups. The five weeks ended with an AMRAP workout of thrusters and pull-ups that “rewarded” the fastest athletes by adding an additional four minutes to the workout each time they completed 90 reps.

The top 48 male and female athletes, as well as the top 30 teams from each of 17 regions were invited to participate in regional events that took place anywhere from May 17 to June 9. In locations from Ballerup, Denmark to Del Mar, Calif., individuals and teams began the three-day competition with a version of the classic CrossFit workout Jackie that called for both men and women to use the same weight: a 45-lb. barbell. The final day of competition at six regionals was broadcast live on games.crossfit.com—Central East, Mid Atlantic, Northern California, North Central, Southern California and South West—and the final event of the Europe Regional was broadcast live on Eurosport in a host of languages.

All told, individuals and teams each competed in seven events, the last of which called for rope climbs, sprints and squat cleans. Each regional had a certain number of CrossFit Games spots to award, ranging from just one male, female and team in Latin America to five males in Central East, where two defending champions earned return trips to the Games and opened up additional spots for others.

At the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., the CrossFit Games kicked off July 22 with 200 masters athletes, ranging in age from 40 to 60-plus. They competed in six events; the first was another one from the CrossFit vault: Nancy. The athletes also negotiated sleds, handstand push-ups, deadlifts, box jumps and one-rep-max clean and jerks. All masters events were broadcast live on various platforms, including ESPN channels and games.crossfit.com. In the end, men and women in five age categories were crowned Fittest on Earth.

As the masters’ competition ended, the individuals’ was just getting started. Games organizers planned events that used nearly the entire StubHub campus—and even beyond. Individual athletes began their competition at the Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine, Calif., for 10 rounds of two 25-yard swims and 3 bar muscle-ups. Next, they were back in Carson at the Velodrome for a 21,097-meter row.

The 2013 Games saw new equipment introduced: the so-called Pig, a weighted metal frame that could be flipped end over end, and the Worm, comprising six short segments of logs linked together by rope.

After nine events—also broadcast live—Froning retained his crown for the second consecutive year and became the first three-time Games champion in history. Briggs, returning to competition in 2013 after sitting out 2012 with a knee injury, was atop the podium for the women.

In the Affiliate Cup, Hack’s Pack Ute also made history, becoming the first team to pull off a repeat win at the Games after seven events that had squad members navigating mixed-pairs sled pulls and squat clean and jerks with the Worm before a record crowd of about 25,000 people.

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The 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games: Surprise Camp Pendleton Events

The CrossFit community’s rapid growth accelerated in 2012. Along with CrossFit Level 1 Seminars spreading true fitness all over the world, thousands of CrossFit affiliates encouraged its members to take a leap and prove their fitness in the worldwide Open.

More than 69,000 CrossFitters signed up for the 2012 Reebok Games CrossFit Open — 43,000 more than in 2011. Despite the new competitors, much stayed the same in the 2012 Open. Athletes completed five workouts over five weeks, starting on Wednesday, February 22 and ending on Sunday, March 25, 2012 — all of them composed of classic CrossFit movements such as high-rep snatches in 12.2 and a triplet of box jumps, push presses, and toe-to-bars in 12.3. And 2011’s final Open event, a 7-minute couplet of thrusters and chest–to-bar pull-ups again closed the Open in 2012. In the end, 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games champ Rich Froning won on the men’s side, and 2010 champ Kristan Clever led the women.

The Open was just part one of a three-part season, however. As in 2011, the 60 fittest athletes and 30 fittest teams from each region earned invitations to one of 17 Regionals, which were held over five weeks from April 27 to May 27, 2012. At Regionals, the bars got heavier, reps got higher, and the skills became more demanding. Individuals took on 45 handstand push-ups and 45 deadlifts in the first workout, Diane, then 30 reps of heavy hang cleans in the very next event. After three days and six rigorous tests of fitness, each Regional sent the top men, three women, and three teams on to the Games in Carson, Calif. 

Record-breaking crowds showed up from July 13-15, 2012 at the Home Depot Center to watch the CrossFit Games athletes throw down. As usual, Games director Dave Castro threw a curveball at the competitors. The Monday before the Games, Castro announced an additional day of off-site competition. The Wednesday before, individual athletes headed to U.S. Marine base Camp Pendleton, where they confronted a 700-meter ocean swim with fins, an 8-kilometer bike ride across undulating terrain and soft sand, an 11.3-kilometer run across steep hills and more than 427 meters of elevation gain, and multiple trips across the Obstacle course. After Pendleton, the athletes returned to the Home Depot Center for three more days of grueling competition.

Despite the new tests of fitness, 2012 recorded a first in CrossFit Games history — repeat champions. Rich Froning and Annie Thorisdottir each claimed the title Fittest on Earth for the second consecutive year. The team competition challenged teams’ breadth by forcing all six teammates to compete in every event, including 400-meter sprints and heavy yoke walks. It ended with a dose of the familiar, the same slate-wiped-clean Girls final as in 2011. Hack’s Pack Ute won the Affiliate Cup with a blistering time of 21:43, beating 2011 champ CrossFit New England’s time by more than two minutes.

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The 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games: Open and ESPN Coverage

The first big news of the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games season was the announcement of a 10-year title sponsorship deal with Reebok. The new partnership allowed for a dramatic increase in prize money. The winners took home a combined $1 million prize purse, with the male and female individual winners taking home $250,000 each.

The 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games season began with the first ever Open competition. Athletes worldwide competed in six workouts over six weeks from March 15 to May 1, 2011, posting their scores in real time and online. Anyone could throw their hat in the ring to compete for a position among the fittest athletes in the world. More than 26,000 athletes competed in the Open, making it one of the largest sporting events in history.

The 60 fittest athletes and 30 fittest teams from each region earned invitations to one of 17 Regionals. For the first time, Regional competitors around the world all competed in the same events. Across three days of competition and six events from May 27-June 19, 2011, the fittest men, women and teams around the world qualified for the season’s culminating event, the CrossFit Games held July 29-31, 2011 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

2011 witnessed another landmark evolution for the CrossFit Games; CrossFit and ESPN embarked upon a partnership to spread the sport of fitness to a wider audience than ever before. To begin, ESPN3 covered the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games with running Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Six weeks later, ESPN2 ran covering the entire male and female competition on primetime TV. ESPN2 and ESPN re-aired the shows multiple times throughout the fall and winter, building new interest in the CrossFit Games as the community geared up for the 2012 Open.

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The 2010 CrossFit Games: The Home Depot Center

In addition to Regionals, the 2010 season added a new qualifying step: Sectionals. From February 13 to March 28, 2010, athletes around the world first competed in smaller Sectional events. The best athletes at Sectionals then moved on to Regionals, the final qualifying step before the Games.

In 2010, the CrossFit Games outgrew the Aromas Ranch that hosted its first three years. The Games moved to the Home Depot Center, a professional sporting venue in Los Angeles that has hosted the X-Games and Major League Soccer events. A couplet of ring muscle-ups and squat snatches dedicated to Amanda Miller kicked off the competition on July 16, 2010.

A total of 45 men and 41 women participated in the 2010 Individual competition. All of them had to qualify in order to enter the competition. After qualifying in the regional level competitions, 68 affiliate teams competed in the 2010 Affiliate Cup. For the first time in CrossFit Games history, the 2010 Games featured male and female Masters competitions. Masters athletes qualified by completing a set of workouts at their local regional competitions.

Graham Holmberg of CrossFit Columbus won the 2010 men’s competition after finishing 19th the year before. Kristan Clever of Valley CrossFit won the women’s competition after a 4th-place 2009 performance. CrossFit Fort Vancouver won the Affiliate Cup Trophy. Brian Curley won the first-ever male Masters competition and Laurie Carver won the female Masters competition.

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The 2009 CrossFit Games: A Global Phenomenon

The 2009 Games marked the global explosion of CrossFit, with regional qualifiers held in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Iceland, Asia, Australia and Africa, as well as online. What started as a small event two years earlier was suddenly a global phenomenon.

With a JumboTron towering over the newly-renovated Ranch, the next installment of the Games kicked off July 10, 2009. Surrounded by bleachers packed with almost 4,000 fans, just more than 150 elite athletes competed in the individual contest, with close to 100 teams competing in the Affiliate Cup. A live DJ, a vendors' tent village, and a beer garden completed the event.

Given the growth of CrossFit around the world, it seemed fitting that Mikko Salo of Finland arrived quietly in Aromas, but left as the CrossFit Games champion. The stoic Finn’s consistent performance, across eight diverse events of CrossFit movements, earned him both the respect of his peers and a spot atop the podium.

Tanya Wagner, denied a victory in 2008, returned to Aromas to face an international challenge in the form of Annie Thorisdottir, a gifted young athlete from Iceland. This time around, the ebullient schoolteacher from Souderton, Pennsylvania, triumphed.

The Affiliate Cup featured almost 100 teams competing in the first separate team competition. After three workouts, the crew from Northwest CrossFit, in Washington state, was at the top of the standings.

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The 2008 CrossFit Games: Every Second Counts

In 2008, the Games exploded, with approximately 300 athletes competing in four challenging workouts, including a variant of the signature workout “Fran.” About 800 fans were on hand to watch the event from July 5-6, 2008. Jason Khalipa of Santa Clara, Calif., came from nowhere to beat favorite Josh Everett and won the men’s side of the competition. A documentary film, “Every Second Counts” by Sevan Matossian, was made about the competition, whetting the appetite of ravenous CrossFitters who were already counting down to the following July. 

Caity Matter of Ohio was crowned the women’s champion, with Tanya Wagner of Pennsylvania only 10 seconds behind her in the overall standings. CrossFit Oakland’s combined individual efforts earned them the title of Affiliate Cup champions, as well.

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The Inaugural 2007 CrossFit Games

CrossFit introduced the sport of fitness to the world in 2007, when a small group of around 70 athletes gathered at a ranch in northern California for the inaugural CrossFit Games.

CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman has always believed the fittest athletes would be able to handle any and every task, so the first event of the 2007 CrossFit Games was chosen randomly. With Coach Glassman presiding, colored balls labeled with movements were pulled from a hopper. A workout was created on the spot, and the assembled athletes were soon tested by a 1,000-meter row followed by five rounds of 25 pull-ups and seven push jerks.

With rowing machines humming in the California sunshine, CrossFit ushered in a new era of fitness competitions—an era where no points are awarded for style or appearance. The only way to win: do more work faster than anyone else, and let the clock be the judge.

California’s Jolie Gentry and Canadian James FitzGerald won the inaugural 2007 CrossFit Games. CrossFit Santa Cruz won the 2007 Affiliate Cup by virtue of its members' placing in the individual events.

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