Day 1

The first event of the 2019 CrossFit Games was the aptly named “First Cut.” An event that would cull the field from about 300 athletes down to 75 men and 75 women. For a test that required balance to fairly “cut” the competition, Dave Castro put together a workout appropriate to the task. The workout was revealed as the CrossFit.com workout of the day and was presented as this:

4 Rounds

400m run

3 legless rope climbs

7 snatch (185/130lbs)

The workout served as a well balanced test of elite fitness; blending the endurance of a collective mile run, the gymnastic upper body pulling of the rope climbs, and the strength and technique required for the relatively heavy Olympic lift. This was an almost perfect test to eliminate the high number of athletes that simply did not belong in the greater field of elite athletes. The winners of the event were last years fittest on Earth, Mat Fraser and Tia Toomey.

The second event “Second Cut” was a quick triplet chipper, this time designed to reduce the field from 75 to 50 on each side of the competition. Where the opening event was relatively long and grueling test, the follow up was a little speedier. The workout was as follows:

800m row

66 KB jerks (16/12kg)

132-ft. handstand walk

Though not as well designed as the first workout, “Second Cut” was another solid test of overall fitness that served its purpose to further cut the field. The mix of a short row,intended to get the athlete’s heart rates up, followed by the shoulder exhausting kettle bell jerks, set up the competitors for a tough length of handstand walks. While this was ultimately just a handstand walk workout, it still had a classic CrossFit feel that kept the right athletes where they needed to be, with Fraser taking another event win and newcomer Danielle Brandon taking the event for the women’s side.

Day 2

Day one of the 2019 CrossFit Games composed of less than 30 minutes of total workout time for most of the athletes that earned their way into day two. 30 minutes is a far cry from the Games previous first days, with last years opening day ending with a marathon row. Day two would open with an event more reminiscent of day ones past with a 6k ruck run, a single workout that would come close to the total time worked for day one’s events. Last year’s third fittest man on earth, Lukas Hogberg, would win the event for the men, and Canada’s Emily Rolfe taking the event for the women. This event cut the field from 50 to 40 athletes competing in each field.

After the long and punishing “Ruck” the remaining competitor’s were treated to short and punishing “Sprint Couplet”

172-ft. sled push
15 | 18 bar muscle-ups
172-ft. sled push

The sled was light and the rep count low for the 40 athletes left in the field. The event lasted less than a minute and a half for event winners Amanda Barnhart and Matt McLeod. Cut continued, leaving 30 athletes moving on into event five.

Day two would end with a classic CrossFit workout, and a showdown for the ages. the event was “Mary”

20-min. AMRAP:
5 HSPU
10 pistols
15 pull-ups

A 20 minute AMRAP was an excellent was to end a day at the CrossFit games, especially when one considers that it would cut the field to the top 20 athletes. For an elite competitor the movements in “Mary” are simple, but the AMRAP format forces them to push their limits, especially when performing side by side with other great athletes. This was perhaps one of the most exciting workouts of the entire Games, with Mat Fraser and Noah Ohlsen almost going rep for rep the entire workout, with Ohlsen edging out Fraser in the end to take his first ever event win in his six years of competing. Former gymnast and body weight specialist Kari Pearce took the win for the women in a dominant fashion.

Day 3

The third day of competition would start with the last cut, in an event that would become somewhat controversial, and simple sprint. An event that would test speed and agility, and would remove fan favorites like Patrick Vellner, Annie Thorsdottir, Cole Sager, Brooke Wells, and Sara Sigmundsdottir from the games. Saxon Panchik took the event win moving him into the top ten, and Kristin Holte would win for the women, continuing her quietly impressive year at the games.

The resulting cuts of the sprint event took some of the air out of the competition, but the show must go on and continued with an event that would have served as a better final cut event as it was another machination of classic CrossFit methodologies, the “Split Triplet”

5 rounds:
1 pegboard ascent
100 double-unders
10 DB hang split snatches (55 | 80 lb.)
10 DB hang clean and jerks (55 | 80 lb.)

This is the kind of event fans have come to expect from Dave Castro, a challenging mix of body weight control, quick cardio, and moving heavy weight. This was a CrossFit workout through and through. Fraser and Ohlsen would once again duke it out, but Fraser would ultimately take the event win as he was fighting back for his leader’s jersey. Toomey would take her second event win of the games in a dominating performance that would echo throughout the rest of the competition.

Saturday would close out with what many fans had been waiting for, some heavy weights. The top ten men and women throw it down with a max clean. A single lift with athletes going one at a time made for some fun moments, especially between event winner Mat Fraser and perennial games athlete Scott Panchik. Toomey would start a winning streak here, despite a strong push by Amanda Barnhart.

Day 4

The last day of the 2019 Games started with an event that would traditionally kick off the whole affair with a morning at the lake. The men and women would compete all together in a 1000 meter swim that was followed by a 1000 meter paddle. The Australians would dominate with Toomey extending her winning streak to three events, and rookie Matt McLeod taking his second event win.

The tenth and eleventh events of the games were back to back couplets that would test the athletes grit, and willingness to go to the infamous “dark place” often associated with the annual competition. Collectively the events were titled “Ringer 1” and “Ringer 2”

Ringer 1
30-20-10 reps of:
Air bike (calories)
Toes-to-rings

Ringer 2
15-10-5 reps for time of:
Burpees
Overhead squats (95 | 135 lb.)

James Newbury would go full send on Ringer 1 and edge out Mat Fraser to take the event win, but Fraser left enough in the tank to take Ringer 2 as well as his place back atop the leader board. On the women’s side Katrin Davidsdottir made her presence known with back to back event wins that would vault her up to third place and in a position to podium for the third time in her career.

In a fashion very suitable to the theme of the weekend the 2019 CrossFit Games would end with a combination of classic CrossFit events that Castro would dub “The Standard”

30 clean and jerks (Grace)
30 muscle-ups
30 snatches (Isabel)

♀ 95 lb.
♂ 135 lb.

Also in classic CrossFit fashion, Mat Fraser and Tia Toomey would dominate the event. Noah Ohlsen hung by Fraser as best he could, but was not able to overtake the three time champ. Toomey was in a league of her own taking her 5th event win of the games, and Jamie Greene would take second in the event and putting herself on the podium.

Mat Fraser tied Rich Froning with four Games championships, and Tia Toomey made history by being the first woman to win three CrossFit games (All consecutive). The men’s podium was filled out with well known competitors Noah Ohlsen taking second and Bjorgvin Gudmunsson returning to the top three. Behind Toomey, Kristin Holte finished her strong year with second place, and Jamie Greene would take third.

Overview

After almost a year of mystery this year’s Games started off with a bang. The first two days were full of excitement with fun events and harsh cuts that kept things interesting. The quick move to the “top” ten at the beginning of day three removed some excitement from the games, but Noah Ohlsen’s strong performance kept Mat Fraser honest, and made men’s competition the most interesting it has been since 2015 when Fraser took second.

All said and done the programming was very strong, but with the order of events and the placement of the cuts the overall “test of fitness” seemed to be imbalanced. I hope for the future of the sport that CrossFit HQ will be open to constructive criticism and make appropriate changes for the 2019-2020 season.