Are the CrossFit Games primed for an upset on the men’s podium? Could Americans Noah Ohlsen, Cole Sager or Scott Panchik win?
- With a wildly new qualification process thrown into the mix, will this translate into mayhem on the leaderboard?
- Three Americans are hoping this is true when the Games take place in Madison, Wisconsin, in August
For a sport synonymous with being unknown and unknowable, the seasons and competitive landscape had become a little stale in recent years. A five-week online competition in February-March, a six- or seven-event competition on a familiar, predictable Regional floor in May, all culminating with a 13-15 event throwdown known as the CrossFit Games in the first week of August.
Yes, there were small deviations. Would the Open feature a one rep maximum? Would your Regional be the first, second or third weekend? Would there be a rest day or not? But in large part, athletes and coaches knew what to prepare for, and as a result the competitions became a bit predictable.
Over the past seven seasons the men’s competition has only seen three champions. Two of the three podium finishers in the past three years have always been Mat Fraser and Patrick Vellner with Brent Fikwoski being in the top four.
On the women’s side it’s a similarly small group at the very top – Tia-Clair Toomey, Katrin Davidsdottir, Kara Saunders, Sara Sigmundsdottir, Laura Horvath and Annie Thorisdottir. That’s the entire list of podium finishers since 2015.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s been plenty of drama. In 2017, Toomey edged Saunders by two points for the title, despite losing to her in the final event by two-tenths of a second in the closest race in Games history. And everyone loves to see records broken, which Fraser has done in the last three years as he’s established, and then broken twice, the largest margin of victory by an individual. But, as CrossFit founder Greg Glassman has been saying throughout the season, “No one likes a predictable competition, and I’m not afraid to mix it up”.
He’s alluded to the potential of cricket at the CrossFit Games (presumably he was joking), but what he isn’t joking about is getting back to the notion that competitive CrossFit is meant to be unknown and unknowable. With only a handful of weeks until the Games, that’s exactly what we have: an unknowable test waiting at the end of a landmark year of changes for CrossFit.