The CrossFit Games went down this weekend and here’s the scoop if you missed out (or if you just want to relive it!)
The top 5 men and top 5 women from Stage One of the CrossFit Games arrived in Aromas, California earlier this week to get settled in their “Bubble” before the weekend’s events. All athletes were tested and quarantined and only allowed one guest along with them (their coach). There were no stands and no spectators (although as the weekend progressed fans found a way to peek through the fences to watch live and Dave Castro encouraged them with cow bells too!
Here’s the short and sweet from each day, you should definitely head to the CrossFit Games Youtube channel though to watch some of these events if you haven’t already!!!
Friday
On the first day of competition, the athletes faced 5 workouts, the most ever on one Games day.
Event One: 1,500m Row into 5 rounds of 10 Bar Muscle Ups and 7 Shoulder to Overhead.
On the men’s side, Matt Fraser started his weekend off where he left things off last year (winning) followed by Justin Medeiros, a Rookie at the Games (although has experience competing in the Teen division). For the women’s, the story is strangely similar…Tia Toomey takes the W followed by 19 year old Haley Adams.
Event Two: 320m Hill Sprint with a 50/30lb corn sack.
A classic event for The Ranch, a hill sprint, up the steep terrain of Dave Castro’s homeland. Matt and Tia collected another win, this marked Tia’s 17th career Games win and surpassed Rich Froning’s record and moved into 2nd place for most wins ever. Second place went to Samuel Kwant, something that seemed surprising on Friday but we’ve all learned of Kwant’s strength and skills by the end of the weekend. Katrin Davidsdottir took 2nd for the women, she was looking strong after the past few weaker-looking years following her 2-year reign as Fittest on Earth in 2015 and 2016.
Event Three: The CrossFit Total (1RM Back Squat, Strict Press, Deadlift).
Here’s all the amazing weights each athlete finished at:
Back Squat:
Fraser, 492. Medeiros, 480. Adler, 470. Kwant, 460. Ohlsen, 455.
Toomey, 335. Wells, 315. Pearce, 272, Davidsdottir, 269. Adams, 260.
Strict Press:
Fraser, 210. Kwant and Adler, 207. Ohlsen, 205. Medeiros, 175.
Pearce, 157. Toomey, 140. Wells, 137. Davidsdottir, 137. Adams, 127.
Deadlift:
Adler, 567 (this led him to edge out Fraser for an event win). Ohlsen, 540. Medeiros, 437. Fraser, 535. Kwant, 529.
Wells, 432. Toomey, 415. Pearce, 335. Adams, 327. Davidsdottir, 295.
Event Four: 100 yard Handstand Walk (Sprint).
Fraser pocketed another win by going almost unbroken through the entire race (90 yards, then the last 10) while Justin Medeiros dropped for a split second every 5 yards and took 2nd!
Wells won the event with 2 quick breaks throughout followed by Pearce and Adams who went unbroken. This event was Toomey’s worst finish for the weekend coming in 5th.
Event Five: The Ranch Loop.
Final event of the Day 1 and the athletes are sent off on a ~3 mile trail run throughout the sandy, grassy, steep Ranch hills. As Fraser and Medeiros are racing to the finish line, the announcers share that there is a twist to the event that the athletes are unaware of. As Matt and Justin cross the finish line about the collapse, Dave Castro’s devil horns pop through and he points them back up the hill they just sprinted down, full-effort…he said “run it again in reverse.” He wasn’t joking despite Matt’s initial impression/hope. This was a fun one to watch as the athletes came close to the finish line and saw the others running back up the hill towards them, the dread sunk in. Matt went on to hold his lead and take 1st.
For the women, Toomey and Adams were battling it out as they came to the faux-finish with Davidsdottir in 3rd. Katrin is known for her grit for she leaned into the unknowable twist and ended up taking Toomey and Adams on the way back and locked in a 1st place finish!
After all was said and done, the leaderboard was:
- Mathew Fraser – 475 | Tia-Clair Toomey – 370
- Justin Medeiros – 255 | Haley Adams – 295
- Noah Ohlsen – 235 | Katrin Davidsdottir – 260
- Jeffrey Adler – 220 | Kari Pearce – 255
- Samuel Kwant – 215 | Brooke Wells – 220
Saturday
Continuing yesterday’s battles, athletes faced 4 events today.
Event Six: 30-20-10 Toes to Bar and Kettlebell Lunges.
Toomey continued to dominate and Davidsdottir kept her momentum rolling with a close chase and a 2nd place finish. Adams finished in 5th which helped Katrin jump some spots on the leaderboard!
Noah Ohlsen, who was 2nd Fittest Man in 2019, had a slow start on Friday that had fans rooting hard for him going into day two. He started out strong and almost held off Fraser, but in typical fashion Matt was able to pull ahead and finish strong to take yet another 1st place finish with Noah following in 2nd and Medeiros in 3rd.
Event Seven: Snatch Speed Ladder.
Three barbells laid out on the field, ascending weights and three rounds to crown the winner of this event. Toomey crushed every barbell, every round to take another 1st. Adams was eliminated after the 1st round, then Pearce eliminated on round 2. With the final three women and an ending barbell of 185, Toomey cruised through with no misses. Wells paced herself and hit each lift successfully to get 2nd and Katrin finishing 3rd with first a miss then a make at the final bar.
In the first round, Ohlsen missed the 3rd bar and was side by side with Medeiros to clinch the last spot in this first round. Noah hit his second lift and continued to the next round. Fraser sped through round 2 with no issue but the remaining athletes, Ohlsen, Kwant and Adler, struggled with the final bar. Sam Kwant got in 2nd followed by Jeffrey Adler which eliminated Noah. In the final round, Matt was again dominate however did fail the final barbell at 285lbs. A quick recovery and successful lift locked in his W followed by Adler then Kwant.
Event Eight: 10 rounds 440 Bike Sprint (on an actual Hybrid bike across a field) and 1 legless rope climb.
This was a fun race to watch as athletes sprinted on their bikes down the field, a quick turnaround and back towards the rig where they completed their climb and saddled back up.
Toomey took another 1st followed by Adams in 2nd who outraced Pearce, 4th for Davidsdottir then Wells. The men’s side had a close race between Fraser and Adler but Fraser once again put his foot on the gas and edged out another win. Noah had another challenging event, taking a 5th place finish.
Event Nine: For Time, 200-300m hill run and 5-7-9-11 of burpees over a beam and thrusters ascending in weight along with reps.
Wells started out strong and kept a solid lead, all until the final 11 thrusters at a heavy 115lbs where she red-lined and lost her lead to Toomey, then Pearce and Davidsdottir. Adams struggled with the heavier weights taking a 5th. This win gave Toomey a clean sweep for wins the entire day.
Kwant gave Matt a run for his money but finished 2nd to Matt’s 1st – giving Matt a clean sweep for the day as well and locking up 27 total career Games wins. Ohlsen came in 3rd followed by Adler, and rookie Justin faded on the final round for a 5th.
Leaderboard, End of Day Two
- Mathew Fraser – 875 | Tia-Clair Toomey – 770
- Jeffrey Adler – 440 | Katrin Davidsdottir – 480
- Samuel Kwant – 415 | Kari Pearce – 455
- Justin Medeiros – 395 | Haley Adams – 415
- Noah Ohlsen – 395 | Brooke Wells – 400
Sunday
Finishing with the last 3 events, the leaders Matt and Tia had an absolute mathematical win guaranteed. Crazy. However 2nd-5th was separated by as little as 45 points so the final two podium spots were still anyone’s for the taking.
Event Ten: 4 rounds, starting every 4:00 of 15/10 cal Assault Bike, 50m Swim, 10 GHD Sit Ups and 10 Ball slams (60/40#).
Every other round, the order of movements would reverse since athletes ended up on the opposite end of the pool after round 1. This made for a really interesting look inside the elite athlete’s competitive mind. Getting only 2 identical rounds meant the first round could be approached cautiously to learn the impact of each movement on the following one however once they knew what things felt like they were able to throttle down hard on the 2nd time around. We saw this happen with Toomey and Adams who raced each round. Toomey is an incredible swimmer…although Adams had the lead getting into the pool every round, Tia cruised past her and earned a significant lead getting out of the pool every time. This put Adams into the 3rd place position over Katrin however…her podium hopes in sight!
Sam Kwant locked in his first ever career win on this brutal workout. He was able to keep a lead on Matt Fraser on each interval to break Matt’s winning streak and landing him a 2nd place finish. Ohlsen started out strong with the fastest time on the first interval but faded along with Adler and Medeiros. This put Kwant into 2nd place overall jumping over Adler.
Event Eleven: 100yd sprint, 100 yd sled sprint, 100yd sprint.
Such a tight race on the men’s side as Kwant and Fraser raced down the field, legs flailing! Matt beat out Kwant by .37 seconds!
Toomey kept the lead throughout the event for her 6th consecutive win followed by Wells in 2nd. That finish pushed her into 4th place and put Pearce in 5th place heading into the final event. Adams held onto her 3rd place spot.
Event Twelve: 1 mile run, 100 handstand pushups, 200 pistols, 300 pullups, 1 mile run, in a weighted vest.
The “toughest final event in Games history”, dubbed by Dave Castro, proved to be such as the athletes all fought for a podium finish. The most impressive finish was Kari Pearce taking 1st, fighting off Katrin, to leapfrog her way to the 3rd place overall spot to podium for the first time! Katrin’s 2nd place finish put her onto the podium as well behind Tia Toomey who completed the workout side by side with fellow training partner and champion Matt Fraser. Matt took another 1st after chasing down Noah. Noah needed to get 1st in order to lock in a podium spot but came up short with a 2nd place finish. Kwant was last to finish on the field but his lead was safe to maintain his 2nd place finish overall!
Leaderboard, Final
- Mathew Fraser – 1150 | Tia-Clair Toomey – 1025
- Samuel Kwant – 605 | Katrin Davidsdottir – 665
- Justin Medeiros – 560 | Kari Pearce – 585
- Noah Ohlsen – 540 | Haley Adams – 560
- Jeffrey Adler – 505 | Brooke Wells – 525