- Haley Adams in the girls 16-17 had the most dominating Games performance in history, winning 9 of the 11 events. The other two events? She was 2nd in both! She earned 1,080 out of a possible 1,100 points. Can she be the first athlete to make the jump from teens to the Games?
- We should be talking about Tia-Claire Toomey as the best CrossFitter in history instead of Mat Fraser. If she can match Rich Froning’s 4 straight championships by winning the next two years, she also has two silver medals vs his one. She didn’t show any weaknesses throughout the weekend.
- I wish they would switch back to YouTube Live. Facebook is horrible.
- I will never row a marathon. Boring as fuck, but impressive to see their times.
- The Crit was such a crapshoot event. The top 20 women in the event were separated by less time than they were in the time trial!
- Speed lifting ladders are still the most exciting to watch.
- It’s incredible to watch what the Games athletes can do with their bodies. I’ve been doing CrossFit for almost 8 years and they always blow me away.
- May have to get out to Madison next year after not attending these last two years.
- As I predicted, the stupid Handstand push-up standard from the Open was nowhere to be seen. When doing any type of overhead pressing movement they don’t require your shoulders to be extended up so why do they require it when we’re upside down? Makes no sense whatsoever.
- The announcers are clueless about what is going on way too often compared to any other sport I’ve ever watched. There were so many times when they were completely wrong on strategy, placing, points, saying someone was finished when they weren’t, etc. It often seemed like they were often watching a different event.
- Huge inconsistencies with judging. No surprise. They need to start training people and paying them instead of getting volunteers. The job is too important.
- In other sports you get explanations of decisions by referees. In CrossFit they never explain what goes on with a judging mistake or when an outcome is contested and adjusted. Even the announcers would comment on how judges seemed to throw the rules out the window for certain athletes.
- Watching on TV it seems like they complicate way too many things with movement standards, judging, layout, barriers, etc. Keep it simple. The cones separating the rouse course for the Battleground events is a good example. You’re never going to have some athletes running in one direction while others are running back, so why put those barriers in the way?
- It’s annoying to watch some of the same things repeated every heat when they go down to the floor for “inside” info about the event that is about to begin. I understand doing it for people who may be tuning in for later heats, but hearing something like Fibonacci numbers explained eight times gets really old.
- The planning and work that goes into an event like the CrossFit Games must be unthinkable. I wonder how many volunteers, employees, and hours are involved over the course of the year.
- Mat Fraser didn’t seem quite as dominating this year, but still won by a huge margin in the end. I’m still not a fan.
- Speaking of Fraser, he screamed and waved at a cameraman again this year, who wasn’t in his way, but was in his sight line. Come on dude. You’re the fittest man in the world. Get over it and concentrate on yourself. I have never seen anyone else yell at the camera crew during an event.
- Laura Horvath was impressive throughout the competition. I think we all kept waiting for her to disappear and she seemed to get better. Being 21-years-old probably helps a lot with recovery!
- Too early to guess who might replace Lindy Barber on CrossFit Mayhem Freedom? Last year I guessed Jen Smith would replace Kristin Reffett and was obviously wrong.
Tag: CrossFit Games
CrossFit Games Open Workout 18.2
Disappointed with the time, but if I’ve learned anything during the Opens it’s that I’m terrible when there are box or barbell facing burpees in the workout.
Canadian Skill Testing Requirement
For the first time, there was an official fantasy competition for the CrossFit Games, from Reebok. If anyone correctly picked the top 10 men, top 10 women, and top 5 teams, they could have won $1,000,000! Pretty safe bet on Reebok’s part.
While looking through the rules, this seemed odd…
Any potential winner who is a resident of Canada will be required to correctly answer, without assistance of any kind, whether mechanical or otherwise, a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question administered online or offline in order to be awarded a prize.
Curiosity got me. They have a law in Canada, requiring skill testing questions for this type of thing.
Muscle-ups
The start of men’s event 5 of the 2017 CrossFit Games Central Regional at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN.
2016 West Coast Road Trip
This summer, during a 3 month sabbatical from work, I went to the CrossFit Games again and then drove from LA up to Seattle with my friends Bryan and Kevin.
2016 CrossFit Games Open Results
My 5th CrossFit Open is in the books. It didn’t go how I hoped it would, but not bad overall. Slight drop for 2016 after breaking into the top 10% last year. A shoulder injury limited me to singles on the chest-to-bar pull-ups in 16.1 as well as the bar muscle-ups in 16.3, otherwise my ranking may have been pretty close to last year.
- 2016 – 19,127th out of 166,846* (top 11.5%)
- 2015 – 13,195th out of 141,884 (9.3%)
- 2014 – 13,737th out of 80,281 (17.1%)
- 2013 – 9,251st out of 46,227 (20%)
- 2012 – 16,389th out of 22,174 (73.9%)
With Dave Castro mentioning they might introduce a 35-39 Masters division next year, it’s neat to see how I would compare. Far far away from the top 200 that get to compete in the Masters Qualifier after the Open, but I’ll take top 6.5% (1,981st out of 30,327).
*Each year I compare my place to the number of men who complete at least one workout, not everyone that signs up (178k+ this year). I don’t care about beating the guys who don’t show up to play. 🙂
Why I Compete in the CrossFit Games Open
The 2013 CrossFit Games season kicked off on Wednesday night with the live announcement of Workout 13.1 and a throwdown between two of the top athletes in our sport.
I’ve been chatting with friends back home in MI, a cousin in Texas, and friends at the box here in Phoenix all week. We’re sharing strategies, giving pep talks, and excited for one another.
As of Wednesday, over 120,000 athletes from around the world had registered for the Open, with many more to register before the close of the first workout on Sunday. Registrations should easily double the total of 69,560 in 2012. CrossFitters everywhere are excited for each other. There is no other community like this.
Most of us have no chance at qualifying for Regionals or the Games. However, we will accomplish things we didn’t know we could. We’ll set PRs. We’ll push harder than we have in any other workout. We’ll sweat, cry, yell, and gasp for air; maybe all in the same workout. We’ll have a lot of fun and make new friends.
Many of us loved to play sports in high school. We miss the competition, the adrenaline rushes, and being compared to our peers. The CrossFit Games Open gives us all that and more.
I get to compare myself to CrossFit athletes around the world. I’m not the best athlete in the world or even at my box, but after 5 weeks, I’ll know exactly where I rank in the world and that’s pretty fucking cool. Since I competed last year, I also get to measure my improvement. The registration fee might be the best $20 I spend all year.
Do CrossFit. Prove your fitness. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll try to prove mine in 13.1.
The 2013 CrossFit Games Season
The 2013 Open launches in just three short months. As the growth of the worldwide CrossFit community explodes, the 2013 season promises to be the biggest and best yet. In 2011, more than 26,000 athletes registered for the Open. In 2012, that number jumped to almost 70,000 participants. Think six figures this year. It will be simultaneously the fiercest and most inclusive competition we’ve ever seen.
Looking forward to it!
My First CrossFit Competition
Nearly 70,000 people around the world competed in the 2012 CrossFit Games Open. It really is an open competition that anyone can join. It was my first CrossFit competition and will not be my last.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Open, I’ll explain a bit. Each Wednesday night, for 5 weeks, a new workout is announced online. Athletes have 96 hours (4 days) to complete the workout and submit a score online. Athletes can submit a video of the workout or complete it at a CrossFit affiliate where they can validate the score. I completed all of my workouts at CrossFit Full Strength in Phoenix, AZ, where I’ve been working out since early January. If you are ever in the area, it’s a great box with top notch coaches and a great community.
After each workout is completed, athletes get ranked according to the number of reps completed. The placing in each workout is used as a point total toward the total ranking. Low points are obviously better because 1st place in a workout is worth one point. The winners of the Open had 41 points in the men’s division and 26 points in the women’s division! Me? I had 91,945 points.
When the Open started I had only been doing CrossFit for 4 months (see how I got started), so I set a realistic goal to beat 10% of the guys. I finished 1,194th out of 1,554 in the South West region and 16,389th out of 22,174 in the world for men that completed all 5 workouts. That comes out to beating 23% of men in the South West and 26% of men in the world. BOOYAH!
Below you can see my leaderboards. In each workout the first number is my ranking in the workout and the number in parenthesis is the number of reps I completed for that workout.
I posted recaps of each workout on my CrossFit blog:
The Open is so cool because you get to see how you compare against people from around the world. Now I have a benchmark to measure against for next year’s Open. How much can I improve my fitness in the next year? The sky’s the limit.
Since the Open was 5 weeks long and I had to fit in that special workout each week, I was glad to see the end. But I have the itch to compete again in another competition as a way to push and test my body, not so much as a way to shoot for any type of win. I’m realistic about my strength and body without aspirations of being an elite CrossFitter. If I can make a version of me that is better than yesterday, I’m succeeded.
In this competition I was able to do things I wouldn’t dream of. An example came in the 2nd workout, a snatch ladder. Before the workout my PR in the snatch was 95 pounds. In fact, I had never attempted anything heavier. After easily knocking out 30 reps at 75 pounds, I spent 3 or 4 minutes failing to get 135 pounds over my head even once. I figured there was no way it was happening, but with 4 minutes left on the clock, I kept trying. Then I got it. And then I got it again and again. I managed to get 6 reps. A 40 pound PR not once, but 6 times!
I’d become addicted to CrossFit soon after my first workout on October 31, 2012, but competing in the CrossFit Games put the sport on another level for me. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year have in store. Where’s the next competition? Sign me up.
The CrossFit Games Open Starts Next Week
Are you participating? I am. You can compete against the best CrossFitters in the world to see how you stack up. It’s only $20 to register.
Nick Momrik 