View From The Edge | CrossFit Games 2020: Rich Froning vs Mat Fraser is now possible but may still just be a dream too far
- With no team event to compete in, but having qualified via the Open, Rich Froning can throw his hat in the ring even though he said he would not compete individually
They are cutting the national champions, age groups and teams, inviting the top 20 men and women from the Open and the winners of the sanctionals.
Froning would have competed in the team event with CrossFit Mayhem. But he finished in the top 20 of the Open, so qualifies for the individual competition. Now, fans wait with bated breath to see if he will collect his invitation in lieu of the team competition.
Froning won four consecutive titles from 2011 to 2014. Only Fraser has matched that feat, winning from 2016 to 2019. But even as fans salivate over a decider between the two, Froning has said numerous times that he would not compete as an individual again.
“Physically I feel I could hop back out there and be competitive,” Froning said in April 2019 on the YouTube channel Team Richey. “I don’t feel like I need to do that any more. I don’t have that [killer switch] when I need to go out there and win the CrossFit Games as an individual. If I’m physically the same as someone else, but they have that little switch, obviously they are going to win.”