Stay in one place long enough and you’ll put down some roots.
In California, those roots look like a rusty peanut roaster beneath a scoreboard from the 2007 CrossFit Games. A hundred years later, long after the fading 2009 Games banner has disintegrated at The Ranch, someone might dig up a few rusty rods and wonder why they were driven into the ground at the foot of the hill in a seemingly random pattern.
They’re roots—artifacts from the fitness revolution.
In Carson, the roots are the Pigs, Worms, Big Bobs and signature bumper plates Rogue sold off to local gyms for years; the CrossFit stickers that “decorate” the StubHub Center press box; and the gouges in the walls where heavy barbells came to rest.
The roots are also the signature moments tied to the unique geography: Camille Leblanc-Bazinet’s unbroken sets of muscle-ups under the lights, a line of athletes running at the top of the hill above the soccer field, the SoCal sun reflected off the metal tracks to light up Julie Foucher in the Double Banger, Rich Froning with an arm in the air in the Tennis Stadium—four times in a row.
In 2017, the Games were contested outside California for the first time, and we’re putting down new roots in Wisconsin. We’re building a modern Colossus of Fitness that’s doing sumo deadlift high pulls on the isthmus with one Nano in each lake.
We carved a cyclocross track into a dog park and drilled an obstacle course into the Alliant Energy Center. We churned the waters of Lake Monona with the Fittest on Earth from 14 to 65. We decorated the city, and five months after the Games, elevators in Madison hotels still close their doors to unite Mat Fraser’s torso with his legs. We introduced the world to 100-lb. Cheese Curds, hurdled hay bales and flooded the Midwest with a new batch of Games gear.
And we’re coming back in 2018. Big time.
We’re making improvements to the Alliant Energy Center. We heard your requests, and we’re stepping up to make the spectator experience even better in 2018. Plans were in motion before Tia-Clair Toomey left the building with the oversized check in August.
Dave Castro and the Games team have already been back to Madison, and they’re putting down more roots. You’ll see what we mean in August, but trust us: You won’t want to miss the new tests that will face the Fittest on Earth. The Games are tougher every year, and the 12th installment won’t be any different.
In 2018, expect more. Expect bigger. Expect better.
Expect fitter.
The #CrossFitGames season starts Feb. 22 with the Open. Anyone can participate. Register starting Jan. 11.
— The CrossFit Games (@CrossFitGames) December 21, 2017
By Mike Warkentin
