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What, in your view, does it take
to be truly an elite CrossFitter?
Ever since I can remember,
I've been very competitive.
There doesn't even have to be anything on the line
except for the fact that I just want to win.
I have to compete against myself.
Instead of being like,
"I can do that, but not great,"
or, "That's a little too heavy for me,"
or, "I'm too tired,"
it's, "Yes" to everything.
You have to have a high tolerance
for suffering.
You need to embrace the suffering.
We all can hurt,
like, that's the easy part,
but I'm gonna suffer smarter than you.
It's a grind.
Every day is not a highlight reel, for sure.
What separates the average gym girl
and the elite is the in between the ears.
I'm just here to fuck shit up.
People can shine real bright for two days,
but four days is a different thing.
In the moment, it's hard to see the beauty
in that struggle.
But those moments make it all worth it.
Pushing yourself to the limits, coming out
on the other side of that and beating a challenge.
Most people would accomplish that and then stop.
What they do is say, "Okay, I did that."
Now what's the next thing?
Coming into the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit games,
the major storylines were one, the most dominant athlete
the CrossFit games I've ever seen,
Tia-Clair Toomey is gone.
We are all waiting to see Tia-Clair Toomey.
This is our sixth time coming to the Games.
So we've been here five of the years at Tia won.
Um, so it's very different not seeing her competing.
2022, Tia-Claire Toomey wins her sixth straight championship,
more than any individual, male or female,
in the history of the CrossFit Games.
With Tia-Clair Toomey in the field, if she showed up
at an event, regardless of what it was,
everyone else was competing for second place
and they all knew it.
This time last year when I was competing,
my emotion was so up and down,
I just couldn't pinpoint what was going on.
And then fast forward two and a half months
after competing, to find out that I was pregnant
made so much sense.
I'm sorry I'm not out there competing.
- It's so nice to meet you. - So it's worth it.
- Look it. - It totally is worth it.
It totally is worth it.
I used to say, y'know, "There's death,
taxes, and Tia Toomey."
She was just going to win.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you too.
Oh, my gosh. I came all the way
- from the Netherlands. - Oh, whoah!
I never dreamed I would meet you, it's amazing.
Aw! Thank you so much. That's so sweet.
She's just rattled off six in a row.
But now Tia Toomey for the first time in six years,
is stepping out of the female field.
Which now opens the doors pretty much
for anyone available.
And that was the exciting part.
And it was the same thing for the men.
We have Justin Meideros, who won back to back championships.
A lot of the athletes that have been
in the sport lived through a four year champ,
a five year champ, and now they see this young,
up and coming dude with the mullet
win two years in a row.
The sentiment's like, "Oh, no, here we go again."
He didn't just win the games twice.
He won everything two years in a row.
Every competition he went, he won for two years in a row.
And that doesn't come easy.
In the men's field this year, there's not another
male athlete that has won the games.
So I definitely, like, felt the target that was on my back.
Well, it's the day before competition,
so my family's been at the RV park.
Hey-hey.
- Hey. - Brought a crew.
This is Mama Medeiros and Papa Medeiros.
Little sanctuary? I was like,
I have no idea who's gonna be here.
This is uh, my Papa Wally.
Um, this is my sister Megan,
my mom, my sister Jessica, her boyfriend.
Lookin' good!
Thank you. Tryin' to.
Tryin' to look the part, at least. You know?
Well, it's better to act the part now.
Yeah. Now I gotta act the part.
But look it.
They put your face with your mullet in the "R".
That's pretty cool.
You don't have to win singular tests,
but if you're always somewhere in the top five, that's fine.
And that's where Justin was just undeniably great.
But coming into semifinals, didn't seem like himself.
Here's Medeiros at 275.
- Oh! - And a miss
for Justin Medeiros.
His performances have gotten worse throughout
the competition.
Hasn't looked like the champion
we're used to seeing on the competition floor.
You were fifth in the Semifinals.
What am I to make of that?
'Cause I don't feel like I'm necessarily, like,
the most physically gifted guy that's out there
on the competition floor. But I'm gonna get every ounce
out of my fitness possible and maybe even perform
higher than, like, what my fitness is capable of.
So at Semifinals, that was kind of one of
the first competitions that I had
where that didn't happen.
And I think it was almost like a wake up call,
you know? Like, it's time to get this,
like, train back on track, because that's not who I am,
that's not who I want to be.
Let's go Tristan!
Like, as a games competitor.
So that's the goal of this weekend.
I mean, it's a long weekend,
but the motto for the Games is "Just die for points,"
like, "no matter what comes up."
So that's the plan, starting with Event Number One.
- All right. - All right. Love you.
- Love you. - Get some rest.
Can't wait to see you.
- Love ya. - Love ya.
- Be careful on the bike. - Yup. Will do.
- Have fun tomorrow. - Yeah.
All the fun.
I've had some good luck over the years,
and I've been the victim of some bad luck at times.
I think the worst luck I've ever had is
that I've kind of straddled two dynasties.
I had to deal with Matt Fraser for a better
part of five years, and he was the force.
And as soon as he retired, I got to deal with Justin Medeiros.
I've been competing a long time at the CrossFit Games,
and the majority of that time has been here in Madison.
There's lots of memories, good and bad,
from events, times on the competition floor.
You know, it's weird to think that we were
going to be moving next year and finding
a new home for this sport.
It's bittersweet. I think I'm excited
to move on somewhere new and try something new, but, you know,
you have to mourn a little bit what you leave behind.
Welcome to the 2023
NOBULL CrossFit Games. Congratulations for--
I expect to see the best version
of my competitors that there could possibly be
every time I take the floor.
And I picture every worst case scenario
that there could possibly be.
I want to know every mistake
I could possibly make so I can plan for it.
And so, over the years, I've made a lot of them.
I've had a lot of bad events.
I've had to make some epic comebacks.
But points on the last day are worth
just as many as points on the first day.
I think the best way to describe
the CrossFit Games would be to call it
the Woodstock of fitness.
It is a huge festival where we not only
have a competition to crown the fittest on Earth,
but where people who are involved in the CrossFit
community can come and gather in one place.
You guys may have heard,
but this is the last season
that we will be in Madison.
We've got an awesome program set up for you guys.
It's going to be a great week of competition.
It's a showcase of the fittest people on the planet.
We can do everything.
It really is crazy.
Like, we have to be at the--
like, we have to do the absolute best on this one weekend.
Like, this one weekend is like defining our whole year.
If an athlete misses a test due to an injury
or while receiving medical attention or assessment,
they may not return to the competition.
It's really tough to translate
to people that just aren't familiar with it,
because it looks like we're just
doing stupid human tricks all the time.
So what we'll do, press, we'll walk off,
and then within this chalk square to the tape line,
we'll do a pirouette and then carry on.
But as you start to kind of peel back the layers a little bit,
you start to see these amazing stories in athletes
that have really just found something unique.
Pirouette, nice and tight.
Good job, Olivia.
Olivia is a phenomenal athlete.
Such a raw, young talent, especially at a 17 year old.
She just turned 17 as well.
We often joke in the warm up area,
like, "What were you doing ten years ago", you know?
Dang, Olivia.
Gotta get this camera on you more often.
These athletes are doing this year round
for multiple years in a row.
This will look weird.
This will look weird
For some athletes,
I mean, Annie Thorisdottir,
this is her third decade competing at the CrossFit Games.
Yep.
Okay. It's a lot better.
What time is it?
- Are we pretty much uh... - Thirty-six.
Yeah. We gotta go head over.
Noah might be the best dude in the sport.
- My man. - Thank you brother.
I think it's a testament to him
that he's won the Spirit of the Games,
- he's made the podium and... - Cool. Bounce back.
Keep climbing, baby.
He's in rarefied air
going ten consecutive trips to the CrossFit Games.
- Just getting started. - Yeah, it doesn't feel like
that, but I like that perspective.
The basis of the CrossFit Games is the unexpected.
Some years we've had events where you don't know
what's happening until you're actually on the floor
and movement by movement, they're telling you
what's coming up next.
- Yeah. That was a sick one. - Yeah.
We watch football. We watch basketball.
We watch baseball. We know what the field structure is.
We know what the plays are. We know what the rules are.
And when you come to the CrossFit Games,
there's a lot of the unknown and unknowable.
It's definitely a cat and mouse game,
though, where like, we're always trying to make it
through the hints that they provide or, like, freeze frame
a video in front of a whiteboard and, like, see if you can
parse out what's on the--
- Do you play that game? - Oh yeah, 100%.
I think we all do to some degree.
I think that's what makes it is so special.
I mean, we train all year across so many different
modalities of strength, endurance gymnastics,
and we're trying to put all these things together and become
the most well rounded athlete we can be.
So when we get ready for the CrossFit Games,
we're literally ready for anything.
It is the beginning of the end.
The fittest athletes in the world have descended
on Madison, Wisconsin, for one last ride.
Basically, this first group of 20,
we're going to get you guys briefed up,
walk through the stages where we need to get you on the course.
This is the first event of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
They got a long ride, 40 minutes event.
So it's a stamina test, a bit of a skill test.
On each and every lap,
they'll have 2400 meters of biking, 200 meters of running.
If we look at the CrossFit Games as a whole,
it's not won or lost on one event.
Now you can set yourself up in a pretty deep hole,
have some work to do to try to climb back out of it.
Scared.
But these athletes are going to experience
a range of tests,
and they're going to have to be good across the board
if they want to be on top at the end of the weekend.
There you go.
- Say it one more time. - H-O-R-V-A-T-H, Horvath.
- There. - That's me.
Perfect.
Laura Horvath is one
of the greatest athletes
this sport has had.
She doesn't talk a lot.
She's quiet and reserved by nature.
But underneath all that is an absolute monster.
And she was the woman that was consistently
able to navigate the waters of Tia's wake of dominance.
So we saw just this carnage behind Tia
when she showed up to the games.
And Laura was the one that was
the most comfortable in that chaos.
Stand by.
Cross the country.
Let's ride.
There is Laura Horvath, who is now
starting to pull away.
She has stood on the podium before
at the CrossFit Games, including the last two years,
but this year she's looking to stand on top.
Katrin Davidsdottir was able to close the gap
significantly on Laura Horvath.
Katrin Davidsdottir is out front now.
She has overtaken Horvath for the lead.
I think I'm comfortable on the bike
because I like it, um.
So my plan was to go out aggressive and--
and see if I could hold.
And I think I went out too aggressive.
I was leading the second lap
and then I was-- I fell behind,
I'm like, "Oh. Oh, shit."
Great transition from Emma Lawson as she is
now on the run portion of this third lap.
Emma Lawson, another former teenage competitor.
Last year she made her individual
debut and finished in 6th place overall.
I went super, super hard on that event,
basically 'til my legs cramped.
She is all by herself right now.
I basically destroyed myself.
I was thinking, what a rookie mistake,
even though I've been here before.
So Emma Lawson, 100 points as she wins Ride.
Just like the women, all forty men out on the course.
Pat Vellner, he's towards the back here.
He just has Day One, Test One woes.
He's got a 36th, a 35th, a 35th and a 20th.
That 35th place finish in 2021 effectively was
the reason why he didn't win.
Pat just can't get out of his own way, can he?
It wouldn't be a Pat Vellner performance
without a couple punts into the stands.
Pat Vellner is going to
once again have to dig out of an early hole here.
Justin Medeiros is back in the pack.
Your two time defending champion.
Definitely a lot of nerves
the first event of the weekend.
Like, it's kind of let in a recipe of disaster for me.
Medeiros gasping for air.
We're just past the halfway point here.
I came out hot,
trying to maximize, try to draft off people,
trying to like, take corners sharp.
Something happened
between lap four and lap five.
He was about mid-pack on lap four and almost
dead last after lap five.
- Are you OK, man? - Yeah, I'm good.
What happened out there?
Just got cut off twice.
I, like, tried to take the inside cut
on somebody and then I think they tried to squeeze the turn,
so I didn't. Just caught up.
Eatin' it, like, getting the wind completely knocked
out of you, having to restart.
You're obviously throwing off your mental game and now you're
battling from behind and it's event one of the weekend.
Yeah, it wasn't the best start to my CrossFit Games.
Okay, so...
You finished your first CrossFit Games test,
how was it?
Yeah, I was super nervous.
But, um, probably went away within like
two or three minutes.
So I'll probably be nervous before most of the events.
Olivia Kerstetter is a savage.
You know, competing at the teenage division,
winning her division. But you never really quite
know when you step onto the big stage.
Olivia Kerstetter
will be in lane eight.
Her goal was for her to carry on this weekend,
create this fun environment,
allowing her to comprehend, absorb it,
and just take one event at a time.
Well done, Olivia! Take a breath!
This year, I think it was like five
of the top ten athletes last year
weren't here, so there was a lot up in the air,
and I think that kind of might have brought
a little bit of the pressure off of me
because everyone had a chance of winning.
The crowd was insane.
I mean, I competed in the teenage division for two years,
and it was never like that.
Good job, girl.
Olivia Kerstetter
continuing to work here.
Come on, Oliv! Come on!
Let's go, Liv!
Come on. Come on, run it through.
Run-run-run-run-run-run-run!
I think that's one of the things I love most about CrossFit.
The crowd is part of the big community,
and me as a rookie, sometimes I would run
by and they would know my name, and I'm like, that's crazy.
My legs were a little tired on the--
Forearms? How were they?
Surprisingly good. They were just sweaty.
- Any rips? - Nope.
Okay, so we'll dry them off too, just so they don't get soft.
Yeah, I need to, like, shave 'em down.
Okay.
The goal is to be on the podium.
It was my rookie year,
so the chances of that were really slim.
But that's definitely what I was shooting for.
I wish I had a PB and J.
Annie Thorisdottir is now
neck and neck with Laura Horvath.
Thorisdottir, a two time champion,
won the CrossFit Games in 2011 and 2012.
I couldn't win that event.
I thought people would maybe be ahead of me going to the Pig.
And then I was like, I'll catch them on the Pig.
'Cause, like, it's so easy for me.
And then on the way back,
my calf cramped on the very first rep.
Laura Horvath is leaving
everybody behind right now.
So it was just very, very unfortunate.
That was, like, one of my events.
So that's frustrating.
But I hate saying that I could have done better,
because then I should just do better.
But something like this is out of my control.
One final rep for Laura Horvath.
Looking to pick up the test win here
in the Pig Chipper, and she will do it.
100 points for Laura Horvath.
With a smile on her face.
Does this feel awesome right now, or is it
just like, "You gotta do it"?
This is not awesome, ever.
Afterwards is awesome.
It's not bad, but it's not something I love.
It's something you have to do.
Justin Medeiros,
your two-time defending champion,
he had a slow start.
27th, this is the worst finish of Justin Medeiros Games career.
He had two crashes, but it has nothing to do with his fitness.
It just could have been a bad break.
But then he got to the second test and just looked gassed.
And now Justin Medeiros is the last man on the wall balls.
That's a Justin event.
And Justin Medeiros
is gonna get time-capped.
And then he gets 37th,
his now worst finish coming off his previous worst finish.
That was the first time we've seen him
not look superhuman.
And that was the big question of,
is this a product of pressure?
Is this a product of maybe what happened
in Test One with the bike wreck?
Or is it something else that we don't know?
It's none of our business.
It's not for me to go asking, "Hey, Justin,
what's going on?" Like, no, he's doing his thing.
And if I'm thinking this is a four day event
and there's plenty of points on the table,
then two-time champ Justin Medeiros
also thinks it's not done.
Roman Khrennikov,
who made his in-person debut at the CrossFit Games last year,
finished second overall, off to a strong start.
Khrennikov coming off a fourth place finish
in the opening test ride.
We're standing underneath the sun right here,
and we're not doing anything. And it's hot.
Khrennikov underneath the pig.
Dukic slamming it down there, going rep for rep.
His uh, his saying is always,
he goes, "Just endure. Just endure. Come on."
15. 16. 17. 18. Be patient a little. Just a little more. Come on, give one more. Come on!
Come on, come on, three more!
Three more. You got this. You got this.
Come on! Come on! Roman, Roman!
Let's go, let's go! Two more!
Let's go, let's go! Come on, come on, come on!
Come on, Roman, another one!
Come on!
Ladies and gentlemen, a big round
of applause for Roman Khrennikov.
Holy crap.
Does Roman still need you for the interview?
My heart, oh, my god.
I want to give him a hug, but I won't.
I'll wait until the end, but I've got my bananas.
It's just... cool!
He is very excited.
So it's cool. But there's a lot of work to be done.
It's a four day event.
How do you make sure you save energy?
Lots of food, stretching and good sleep.
A lot of food, mobility, sleep. Lots of food.
Bananas?
Bananas.
What's up with the bananas?
Have you ever seen a very weak monkey?
That's what Roman says all the time.
Like the big giant, like orangutan.
Have you seen a weak one?
There you go. They eat bananas.
That's hard. It's hot out there.
Yeah. You know what's terrible is the sun came out right
- on time for your heat. - Ah.
And when I got to the flips at the end,
every single one was like, my planting foot in the front,
my calf would cramp up. So you just try to, like,
I was, like, all arms at the end
because I just couldn't pop off my feet.
So you, I don't know, you just do what you can
until you get to the end.
I thought you were gonna get Roman
in that last set of chest-to-bars.
I was like, aw, looks like he's racing.
I could have caught Roman the chest-to-bars if the workout
- ended there. - Yeah.
- I was what? Sixth? - Sixth.
Yeah. Should have been top five.
We have two tests in the books.
The competition heads indoors for the first time
at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
As we have relocated to the coliseum.
It's time to get inverted.
I'm looking forward to this,
it's a little bit of a change up.
Our legs have taken an absolute kicking, too.
So I'm excited to not have to use my legs, literally at all.
The athletes are going to be upside down
doing pirouettes, pullovers on the bar.
You got to be able to keep your bearing straight.
The control it takes to balance,
come down to your head, kick back up
and move to the next mat.
It's really hard to keep your balance
in this inverted position.
Roman Khrennikov,
your overall leader in the white jersey,
looks to continue his great Day One.
He leads here going into the final section.
And Roman Khrennikov will be the first man to the pullovers,
as Pat Vellner takes a spill.
The first event just breeds
catastrophe every year.
But he's like the comeback kid.
It's fun to watch 'cause then you get to watch
him just kind of claw his way back up.
Justin Medeiros just went unbroken.
No one. No one has done that today yet.
This is Justin's time to chip back
out of that hole.
As Medeiros manages to save that.
Oh! Hold on!
That is big.
He ain't dead yet.
And Roman Khrennikov with another solid performance
here in Test Number Three.
Roman Khrennikov, our leader.
How does it feel to have that white jersey
finishing Day One?
Good performance. Okay, everything's great.
He doesn't think he's dominating. And I'm like, okay.
And now Noah Ohlsen gets safely
through that final section.
That will be good enough for 12th place in Test Three.
I swung and I hit it,
but didn't make it over the fence.
Sometimes if you take a chance and swing for the fence,
you strike out, but sometimes you hit a big home run.
I think Danielle Brandon, she's kind of the punk rock of
CrossFit. Sort of on the outside,
kind of metaphorically given and sometimes literally giving
the middle finger to people.
Is this a friendly atmosphere for you,
or is this competition-- is there a fierceness in this?
I'd say more fierce. Like, I'm not--
Even if I'm friends with you before this,
we're not friends now.
She's got a little bit of an edge to her.
She's got a little bit of a chip on her shoulder.
But very popular in the community
because of that attitude.
I just think I'm never satisfied.
I truly am not.
Like, I remember winning gymnastics meets or
track meets and I would throw away my medal.
'Cause I'm like, it could have been better.
Danielle Brandon,
she has been waiting to get to this test.
This is where she made a name for herself,
and she does need it with those two 21st place finishes.
I was calling that test, and I remember it
started, and I looked down to check something,
and I looked up, and she was halfway down the floor.
Daniel Brandon, shot out of a cannon,
is already on her freestanding handstand pushups,
and she has yet to kick down.
Sean, that's called rage walking.
She's already way out in front and still
has yet to come off of her hands.
It's like, I have all the things.
I can be strong, I can be fit. I'm a gymnast. I can run.
Like, I can do essentially everything.
I think this was the first year, I, like, truly
wanted that to, like, win and podium. Right?
And she's gonna head back down the floor.
As she gets up.
360 spin, and down the steps.
That is kind of one of the cool things about
the CrossFit Games is that you can take
men and women and put them through the same test...
One more rep to go!
...and oftentimes, women will beat the men.
She is going to absolutely
demolish the top time.
Danielle Brandon takes Test Number Three
in convincing fashion.
The fastest time by more than 30 seconds.
By 30 seconds is, like,
ridiculous. That's--
I don't know. She wasn't even competing against us. She was--
She was just playing.
What does it do for the rest of
your competition weekend, having this win under your belt?
Yeah, and ending the day on a win is amazing,
but it's a really long weekend
and I'm here to fucking fight, so.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Smiling, though!
That event, we were very excited about.
Tears, cheering. Thought we were gonna lose
our voice that very first few minutes.
And we just had this knowing. We just-- we knew.
We're like, later, boys. Later, gals.
You about to see a show.
I've been so lucky, like,
every walk of my life, like, I've had family
that, like, are my friends.
The best is when we're like, "That's our family."
And they're like, "Oh, Danielle Brandon's your family?"
We're like, "Yes." And they're like, "Okay, super fans."
We're like, "We are."
My parents weren't around.
I was raised by my aunt and uncle.
It was kind of like a chaotic situation.
It wasn't necessarily, like, the best home environment,
but I was really lucky, and I was doing gymnastics,
like, eight hours a day at the time.
So I really found, like, that solace in gymnastics.
A lot of the anger probably came after and later, you know?
When I was like, dang, like, you know,
I have, like, sort of some of these issues. And I'm like,
I wish-- you know, like, I wish I didn't have to go
through that, but, like, I'm glad I did because
I really am, like, a fierce competitor,
and a lot of the qualities that I have now are because of that.
I wouldn't take those away.
So it's like going on the CrossFit floor
and struggling with something like, that's easy.
Like, that's so easy compared to some
of the stuff that I've been through.
Yes. Yeah.
Whoa.
"Butterfly".
You put your Russian music on.
In 2017, my husband asked me to go to
the CrossFit Games.
That's when the CrossFit Games came to Madison.
In 2018, a Russian athlete wins the regionals
in Germany, and that was Roman.
He didn't get his visa and he didn't come,
which was like a big shock to everybody because most times
people were able to obtain the visa and come compete.
Then comes 2019. Roman qualifies again,
doesn't get the visa again, and then 2020, 2021,
I turn to my husband, I go, I know how to get the visa.
We should contact the guy.
His life is exactly the same.
He wakes up, works out, eats, sleeps,
wakes up, but just location has changed,
and now he's able to compete in the United States,
which was his dream.
Any elite athlete, they moved to a different state, maybe, right,
but there's guarantees. So you sign a contract.
He moved to a different country without a guarantee.
So I think part of his drive and willingness to succeed is,
he has no other choice.
Three tests are down,
one day in the books.
It's day number two here at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
You got this, Justin!
Overall standings after three tests,
Roman Khrennikov has yet to finish outside the top 5.
279 out of a possible 300 points.
We are kicking things off with a test that we were
supposed to see in its entirety last year.
It's the Alpaca.
Running it back,
Alpaca sled, push down.
No missed rope climbs.
There's no room for that here,
and there's no rest for the grip.
And make sure the clean and jerks are
quick, crisp and fast.
You don't want to hang on to those
longer than you need to.
And Khrennikov is in the lead here.
Roman won Alpaca last year,
which is the beginning of his campaign
to get that second place position.
Roman has had a very tough time
getting to the CrossFit Games.
He left his home country
under difficult circumstances.
He left his young family behind. He missed the birth of his son.
All in the pursuit of this dream.
This last climb is so important
between Fikowski and Khrennikov.
When to go? Are you going to go?
There goes Roman Khrennikov.
Everyone had been looking forward to seeing him
because he had home run potential.
And when you have a guy like that who can
win events and win tests,
that's someone who can really affect the competition.
He is leading everybody who is immediately
behind him in the overall standings and now looks to
tighten his grip on that top spot on the leaderboard.
Here we go. Now is the a pedal to the metal.
Come on, Roman.
Now we're going to go over there
and just start screaming at him.
Let's go.
Let's go, Roman. You can.
- Khrennikov... - Ready to scream?
...is halfway through his final set.
Roman, who we thought could be one of those athletes
to unseat Justin...
Right now Medeiros is taking another break
on this sled push.
His family in the crowd here, trying to urge him on.
You're so close!
Pat Vellner, meanwhile, has just run into
just all kinds of problems here on this rope climb.
That's his third attempt that he has failed.
And Roman Khrennikov is halfway home.
Oh, my God, he might do this again.
Come on, Roman. Push, push, push!
Takes a break.
Come on, come on, Roman! Come on!
Almost, almost. Let's go! Come on, come on, come on!
Well done! Push, push, push!
Roman Khrennikov,
- Well done! - second win in three events.
And Roman is reigning right now.
Excuse me. Sorry. Jeremy!
Jeremy, can you give him this? Thank you.
Another 100 points,
he'll have 379 out of a possible 400.
Give me the banana.
Roman Khrennikov has a giant lead
and I think the question was, okay, not, you know,
"Was he gonna win it?", but, "By how much?"
If we're trying to find
the fittest man and woman on earth,
to back that claim up, is a lot of pressure.
Here you go.
Drive, drive, drive, drive, drive. You're almost there.
Come on. Come on, babe.
Drive, drive, drive.
There you go.
- Let's go, Danielle! - Let's go!
Just gotta be smart on these, you know?
No, she good. She good.
Get up there. Yeah.
Come on, girl.
Oh, fuck.
Just a little rest.
No rep. Yeah, she just lifted up her leg.
Oh.
Oh, no!
It's all right. That's all right. It's all right.
She's mid pack. She's mid pack. It's okay.
Mentally, I was just going through it.
Like, it was really hard just cause I'm so competitive
that I think I'm just really hard on myself.
So you convince yourself, right, that, like, you know,
whatever you're going through, like, I almost convinced myself
that, like, you know, I didn't deserve to win or something.
It's okay, it's okay. It's okay.
It's okay. It's okay.
Yeah, DB!
Like, I'm suffering, like,
immediately out there.
Yeah.
We didn't prepare. All those times I said,
"I need to do more" I needed to do more.
Like, I'm not just being a bitch. Like, for real.
I'm not prepared for this.
Like, last year was so easy.
This year I'm, like, fighting for my fucking life right away.
How do you feel after that?
Like, shit. Yeah.
I don't know.
It just seems like my body's
working against me right now, so...
I don't think a lot of athletes, at least in our sport,
are very vocal about how difficult what we do is.
I think it's evident that the training
for CrossFit is very difficult.
Everybody can see that and understands that.
But talking about the emotional and psychological side
of being a high-level competitive athlete
doesn't get spoken about much.
And it is really tough.
I think that I've dealt with doubt, nerves,
the discomfort of the unknown.
Many times. I've felt so uncomfortable that I'll think,
I don't want to put myself through this again.
I learned this the hard way.
You know, I just always thought that in order to be
a CrossFit Games athlete,
you just have to be physically fit and physically athletic.
But the CrossFit Games, even though it's titled,
The Fittest on Earth", it should be titled,
"Who's the mentally strongest."
The CrossFit Games is a wild ride,
and competitors have to be comfortable with reality.
And the reality is that you will not win every event.
If you can't stop
the roller coaster from plummeting,
it's going to consistently be a thorn in your side.
Above everything else, it's the mental aspect.
It's not physically the fittest will win.
It's the person that's mentally prepared to
go beyond what their physical limitations are.
And now, Chandler Smith,
top of your screen,
moving up to challenge Roman Khrennikov
for first place in this heat.
Watch out for Chandler.
Chandler Smith looks like he has a faster pace.
And it's Chandler Smith.
Chandler Smith gets the heat win.
I thought I was catching somebody because they started
to get a little bit louder, so I was like,
maybe this is the time to push a little bit,
go a little bit faster, and I did and worked out well.
Did you know that it was Roman?
No, I had no idea.
When I finished, and I was like, oh, that's pretty cool.
You were right there--
Did you know I was right on top of you?
He was like, his ears popped.
That's what-- I felt like ringing like, you know.
That was solid.
That was really loud. A lot of fun.
Tell Roman thanks for letting me
have one moment for the weekend.
God, Chandler's the best.
The only ability that matters is durability.
He's humble, he's charismatic.
It's not true, but it rhymes. It's one of those things.
He's just a genuinely good dude.
I think the big win for today would be getting this glove on.
I feel like you could do it. I did it pretty easily.
He's dealt with some adversity, too.
Having to deal with trying to compete while being deployed.
His finger got cut off by a tank.
Dude, I wonder if I can play a trick on the new guys.
"Can you help me pull this part down?"
He's just one of those guys that you just
gravitate and pull for.
You can't help but want the best for him.
And I think you're going to move the dumbbell
better than most in this heat.
I keep telling everyone that we are going out
swinging for singles.
We've hit a few doubles.
For me, I'm just a first year coach, and we've proven
a lot of methodologies in the last couple of days.
Not gotten too high, not gotten too low.
And I think that's what's carried us here.
Last year, Chandler Smith had
a really bad asthma attack
during semifinals that kept him from even qualifying.
But then he qualifies again this year,
gets to the CrossFit Games. And he was pretty incredible.
Chandler Smith working his way
towards the podium like we have been waiting
since he started competing in the games.
That's points on the board!
I don't know if a lot of people
expected him to be there.
And I think it is a little bit of a Cinderella story for him.
Chandler Smith comes in in third place overall.
This is very transitory.
I missed it last year.
Like, I know that there's going to come a time where my body's
not gonna allow me to do this in front of, like,
these type of crowds and these sorts of arenas.
So I know this is only part of my life, but, like,
the memories I make and the connections I make
with folks that I meet here, like,
that's gonna last me for the rest of my life.
I actually don't think I could win.
I have to block here.
Make sure you guys get this. I'm about to win this game.
No!
- I concede. - You tried your best.
- I did. - That's what counts.
It's been really cool because I was a fan of Noah from
way before I even got the chance to meet him.
And then in 2016, when I was first starting
to compete, he was able to help me
out through my first big time competition.
And we've been training partners since then.
You're a natural, kid.
He's really the one who taught me...
Make sure you lock your arms.
...pretty much everything I know, I guess,
about being a Games athlete,
and obviously there's a training aspect to that.
Like how hard you needed to train, what training
needs to look like, what the outside forces
around training need to look like.
The first couple you, like, rolled
- through like that without... - Without punching,
...doing the extension, which--
just make sure on game day, you do it.
And Noah Ohlsen,
making his 10th straight appearance here
at the CrossFit Games.
What I've learned from him more
than anything else, is how to navigate
and be an athlete worthy of,
or at least I hope that I'm as worthy as he is of,
like, of respect.
And looking to improve on that here in 2023.
And he will be the first man back.
I think his legacy that he's developed in the sport
goes way beyond
the results that he's had.
Because he's chosen to position himself as
a person who influences people with his personality
just as much as he does with his physicality.
And so I've kind of just always been following his footsteps,
and it's been cool to transition from, like,
fan to competitor to friend, and couldn't ask for
a better guy to have learned everything from.
Dude, is that a "Noah" sign?
Let's go!
It's, uh...
it's been really tough for me to come to terms with
the last couple years.
I think I'm a little bit past my prime.
And it hurts to admit that, and I've been through,
like, a mental battle, but I think it's the truth.
I'm not as good as I was back in the day,
and so this year, I'm just trying to embrace
the fact that this is such a cool opportunity.
Like, maybe I'm not gonna win the CrossFit Games overall,
but I can win by making it an amazing experience for me,
for my family, for my friends, for the fans.
So that's what I'm trying to do.
Day Number Three of competition for
the individuals kicks off here on Saturday morning
at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
Saturday, Day Three of the CrossFit Games
is moving day.
We've already completed
six events up to this point.
After the first two days,
pecking order is kind of established,
but Saturday we're just starting the halfway point.
So this is where you really start to see people
either climb up and establish
some dominance on the leaderboard, or,
some of the early leaders may start to fall off.
And we're only taking 20 forward into Sunday.
It's a turning point in the weekend where
now fatigue gets in, and with the cuts,
the point table changes,
so you can gain some more points easily.
If you have a good Saturday,
like, you're moving up the leaderboard.
It's an interesting moving day
because the events are very singular.
Like, we run a straight up 5k.
We do a straight up Olympic weightlifting total.
So you're gonna see a bit of a spray where the people
individually who are successful in those events
will get a huge bump, maybe in the run.
Cause they're really aerobic, really lean guys,
and they're gonna take an ass kicking in the weightlifting.
So, you know, it's gonna level off.
The most well rounded athletes are gonna be probably moderately
successful at both, so it'll be an interesting day, you know.
I blundered, like, spectacularly,
tore my hands up pretty good,
and now I'm trying to claw my way back out.
Won't bug me on the 5k.
Roman is a specimen,
so he's in the zone right now.
He's one of those guys. He's seeing the ball.
Maybe we start talking around the back.
We start working together, trying to get in
his head a little bit, but...
hard part, he doesn't speak much English,
so it's like I can't even trash talk the guy.
- 5k. - Roza.
I'll make you die on the 5k.
I didn't see him, that's why he won.
Uh, he-- he hasn't seen you. That's why--
He hasn't seen me?
I'm coming, bro, I'm coming.
- It's four days. - Yeah.
You start like this, finish like this.
I do the opposite. I'm good.
Athletes, this way! Let's go, athletes
It's a beautiful day for a run.
All the athletes, men and women, will be running this together.
And right now, Roman Khrennikov has really separated himself.
He's the only guy who has every finish in the top ten.
He has a 100 point cushion on Jeff Adler,
who sits in second place.
The 5k, I think, was a big turning point
in the competition,
because it was like starting
from all over again from the bike ride.
Stand by.
Two, one...
That's what the programming felt like,
a long cardio piece that's going to put a toll on your body.
Roman's got this giant lead.
He's not making mistakes. And all of a sudden,
Jeff Adler starts to reel him in a little bit.
I volunteered at the CrossFit Games
in Carson in 2016,
and then I volunteered a second year in 2017,
the first year here in Madison.
And I was able to see all these athletes do crazy things.
And I saw if you can strategize somehow
to gain an advantage,
every competitor is going to do it.
I want to point out what I just saw.
Jeffrey Adler is coaxing Roman Khrennikov.
I know Roman has a huge engine. He's a great runner.
So I was like, well, I gotta bait him
to go a bit quicker than he wants to.
And it was a gamble for me, too, because baiting someone
to go fast that's already fast
means I have to go ham on the first K.
Adler looks very comfortable.
Conversely, Khrennikov,
just gulping air, looks very uncomfortable.
And we're seeing distance between Adler and Khrennikov
start to spread out a little bit of which is key for Adler to try
and chase down Khrennikov over these final two days.
And it caused Roman to kind of crash a little bit in that test.
Just look at Roman and the heaviness
of every step that he's taking.
It's lethargic almost.
That was the only trick I had up my sleeve, honestly.
And then I finished before him.
Now here comes Annie Thorisdottir
making her way. Former two time champion.
Has competed in three different decades at the CrossFit Games.
2009 to 2023.
No one has spanned that long.
You have people that--
you have broadcasters that competed with her in 2009,
talking about her in 2023.
It's absolutely incredible.
I do think it's a little crazy.
I think time has flown by.
It's funny to think back, because
ever since 2013, when I had a pretty serious back injury,
I actually thought I had maybe one more year in me,
maybe one more year.
And then I did that one more year,
and then I felt, I have more in me.
That's absolutely incredible
that she's been able to accomplish that.
We're gonna get some carbs
and then we're gonna go
straight over all the way to the hotel.
Okay?
I'm gonna swear.
Fucking run.
Warning. Warning.
I haven't quite hit stride this weekend.
Ready, sir. Let's fix this.
I've done my very best in most of the events,
but it hasn't quite gone the way I wanted it to.
Like, some things have come up and so on.
That's life. That's competing, right?
I've done it for multiple years, and I'm not
doing it for the experience of doing it anymore.
I'm doing it because I want to show
how good I am, and I haven't quite--
I-- I'm better than I've been able to showcase here.
I obviously want to do my best and win.
But I have an amazing life, no matter what.
Man, I mean, I actually have goosebumps
just thinking about Annie and what she is done
for our community, but also for athletes.
And she's really paved the way.
Abracadabra!
And if we had a Hall of Fame,
Annie is definitely one of those athletes that is
- leading from the front. - Rabbit.
And, you know, she is a mother.
Her daughter has grown up so fast.
And if I can be half the mother that she is,
you know, showcasing that anything is possible...
Oh, man, I would be so proud.
I find it so nice
to go a little bit away from the competition.
Hello.
It's obviously a little bit distracting, right?
And she, like, wants me to play with her, and then she,
like, wants me to do, like, movements and dance.
And I'm like, oh, my god, so stiff.
But it makes me see what life's about.
I get to be here and be me.
And then I go out and I need to put on, like,
now I am Annie the competitor.
Oh, my god, I'm excited for the new
generation in CrossFit, but I want them to fight for it.
Not gonna just give it to them.
They're supposed to beat me.
Emma Lawson is a stud. Like,
I don't know what they're doing in Canada,
but they're doing something great.
Your overall leader, Emma Lawson.
What we're seeing this day and age is these
young teenagers coming into our sport.
Our future of our sport is very bright.
Emma Lawson's performance is tremendous,
but not entirely unexpected.
There has been a theme in the last couple of years
of these former teenage competitors,
particularly on the women's side,
making the jump up to the adult individual divisions early.
I likened it to the Bannister Effect when Roger Bannister
broke the four minute mile for the first time.
Once people saw it was possible,
there was this belief that I can do that now
and I can emulate that.
And we saw that with Emma carrying that forward
last season as the rookie of the year and finishing sixth.
I had put a lot of pressure on myself coming into this season.
Because I felt like I needed to place sixth or better.
We are back inside the coliseum for
Test Number Eight.
Test Number Eight is intervals.
Lawson trying to get some more breathing room
when it comes to the battle for
the top spot in the overall standings.
I've just always had so many doubts about myself.
I was never naturally the smart kid.
I was never naturally the flexible kid.
So I just felt like I always had to work a little
bit harder than other people to be at their level.
But just because I work hard doesn't mean
I'm necessarily gonna win it.
Emma Watson will be done,
and she, once again, leading the way.
I always just try to remember back to why
I started doing CrossFit in the first place,
and that was just because I loved it.
Lawson is getting set
to finish up here, and she's looking to get
her second test win of the CrossFit Games,
and she will do it in convincing fashion.
It just makes me feel happier.
I'm just a happier person because I get to do it.
Are you pleased so far?
I'm very pleased, yeah.
I mean, I am surprised, I'm happy.
But I'm just gonna try to go each way,
one event at a time, execute the best I can in each of those,
and then whatever happens after that happens.
What I think is,
the box jump-overs have become a major factor.
Yeah.
So you have to control that portion.
So they're gonna-- to get off the rower,
you have one last stroke, and you get off the rower.
That's the difference, it looks like.
The men will be up next.
All right, Patty, Now or never.
Patrick Vellner,
who has a history of digging himself
an early hole here at the CrossFit Games,
did it again.
But right now he's making slight work of
these burpee box jump overs, looking very smooth.
We've seen other athletes be able
to climb out of that hole before.
Vellner does that as well as anyone else.
There's plenty of time, but it has to change now.
Pat Vellner continues to attack this test.
He is in the lead here.
Roman Khrennikov ran past the box and got himself on the rower
and everybody in this building is waving him back,
and that is a big mistake for Khrennikov.
Oh, Roman. Poor guy.
He ran right past it. Buddy.
In a test where every second matters,
that could be huge for our overall leader.
It is Vellner.
Come on, Pat!
Let's go, Pat!
Final rep for Pat Vellner,
he'll be the first man
to his second and final 15 calories.
And Pat Vellner is leaving everybody behind him here.
Go Pat! Let's go.
I'm so sorry.
- No apology needed. - Sorry.
Roman Khrennikov is towards the back.
He is in last place.
But Pat Vellner, as the crowd comes to his feet,
is getting set to win this test.
Woo! Woo!
Vellner is done!
And Pat Vellner is going to stroll across
the finish line and put 100 points in his pocket.
How important is your veteran status,
all the experience that you have in managing
the highs and lows of a competition?
I think it makes a big difference,
just knowing and having the experience
that it's a long weekend and you can climb back out of a hole.
And, you know,
I've unfortunately made a bit of a habit of it.
It takes me a few days to get rolling
now that I'm getting a little older.
But once the young guys start feeling sore,
that's where I thrive, you know. That's how I live every day.
So in the CrossFit Games,
recovery is a bit of a myth almost, like, nobody's fully
recovering any time, but it's just,
it's eating, sleeping, it's doing all the things--
I was telling my wife this morning.
Saturday, it starts to be tough to eat, you know?
I've been shoveling it in my face.
Whether I want it or not.
It's all me. It's all me.
And on Saturday and on Sunday, that's where it pays off.
Well, moving day today,
and you're moving closer to the podium, Pat.
- Congratulations. - Thank you very much.
Hope to see you here again soon.
Catch a little bit of a break
with the athlete you're chasing making a mistake
and you pounce on it.
And sometimes at the games, for an athlete
to have that little momentum shift like that is all you need.
Did you not realize you had to do it?
What happened there?
You missed the obstacle. This jump...
Yes, I forgot about it.
I didn't pay attention and ran on.
To the rowing.
Uh, he uh-Uh, he, forgot there was twenty-one.
He thought it was fifteen.
So, like, he just, like, just a mistake on his part, for sure.
Sometimes you make mistakes and they cost you.
Final rep for Roman Khrennikov.
And start printing the leader's jersey
with that man's name on it.
Roman Khrennikov. Second win in three events.
Roman, for the first
two and a half days of this event was probably as dominant
as we've seen anybody be in the CrossFit space.
Fourth in the Ride,
first in the Pig Chipper,
fifth in the Inverted Medley.
As that was happening, we were like, wow,
we're witnessing something really special.
And right now, Roman Khrennikov
has really separated himself from his fellow competitors.
Big weights in a big pressure situation.
You gotta love this setting on Saturday night,
as Day Number Three of competition for the individuals
comes to a close with Test Number Nine, the Olympic Totals.
Saturday night, I felt great.
And we get to Jeff Adler,
who's going to 340 pounds.
And Adler is good.
He only trails Roman Khrennikov by 59 points.
The crowd was insane.
Like, the vibe in the Coliseum was very electric.
Now, Jeff Adler at 360 pounds.
This is a big lift for him.
At that point in the games, anything can happen.
Like just one miss on one lift and everything changes.
And that is good for Jeff Adler.
Yeah!
Jeff Adler is in the lead right now.
Now we go to Brent Fikowski, 343 pounds.
Okay, now the field
kind of has to look around.
They're gaming the field and figuring out
how much more do I need to add.
- How much do I need to take off? - Chandler!
Forty-six.
This puts him five pounds ahead of Pat.
And that's, I think, who he's trying to create space on, so.
Now we go to Chandler Smith at 335.
Little split-clean action.
And that is good for Chandler Smith.
Trying to hold off Vellner for that third and
final spot on the podium.
He says to his coach,
I should've gone up to the crowd.
And the jerk is good for Noah.
Great lift by Noah.
Test number nine is in the books,
and Jeff Adler is going to take a tie for fourth,
unofficially. Khrennikov listed at 16th.
And the race for the top of the podium
just got really interesting.
Dude! No, man, I needed one more pound, guy.
- Huh? - We lost two spots, there.
I needed one more pound.
I thought you were trying to go over, uh, Vellner
No, I was try-- If I have one pound, just hang with Brent,
that's two spots, man.
I literally thought you were
- pointing to Pat. - If it's one pound we need,
we needed that pound. I thought you were tracking it.
That's why I asked, like, if this was okay.
I-- I thought you were asking me if you were ahead of Pat.
We-- we haven't done this before, so that's good.
- I apologize. - Oh, we're good, man.
We're last, probably like 14 or something?
- No, tenth. - Tenth? Really?
- Yeah. And you would've needed-- - ...fucking seventh, man.
- Nice lifting, kiddo. - Thanks, dude.
Olivia Kerstetter
currently sits in 21st place overall.
Needs to get into the top 20 to survive the final cut.
- Okay, let's go, Liv! - Let's go. Liv.
237 now for Olivia Kerstetter.
- This is 107 kilos. - Come on.
And that is good.
It's Olivia Kerstetter that will move up into
third here in the heat.
This one might have been the most nerve wracking,
just because you have to make the cut.
This pretty much assures that you are...
We did it!
Give Olivia a hug.
Okay, we don't know yet.
No, we did the math.
He said that it's, like, guaranteed.
Oh, absolutely. We're good.
- We're golden. - Yeah, you're golden.
Annie Thorisdottir,
back to back champion in 2011 and 2012.
225 on the barbell for her.
And Thorisdottir makes it.
And here's Katrin Davidsdottir who started CrossFit in
Iceland because she was inspired by
what Annie Thorisdottir did.
It's just really, really special
to be able to make a friend
at the same level as you, at being the best in the world.
Our platforms ended up being
right next to each other.
So it was her lift, and then right away, me.
When she hit her lift, the crowd went roaring.
Thorisdottir is good.
The crowd goes wild, and that just...
it gives me the--
And suddenly I can't even feel the weights anymore.
And that is good for Katrin.
And it was just the greatest thing in the world
to then get to turn around and just, like, high five her.
She is my competitor,
yet she is my very best friend,
and having someone that you can share that with,
you can't take for granted.
I'm standing out on this floor
with my best friend in the entire universe,
and we get to do this together.
Like, that's badass.
Annie Thorisdottir keeps herself in fifth place
right now in this heat.
Now we go to Laura Horvath.
This will give her the overall lead if she hits it.
At 245.
And there is a lot more in that gas tank.
245 is good. Horvath has the lead.
Laura Horvath, she has a skill that is
tough to quantify in that as the weekend goes along,
she seems to be gaining steam.
Now Laura Horvath, 265.
Laura already had won the event at that point in time,
but she decided to add a 20-pound onto the barbell.
And that is good for Laura Horvath.
Let's go!
For me, watching Laura do that,
it's incredible, you know, like, it's...
That's sheer dominance.
Laura's all about the psychological warfare.
I think she understands very well
how to win, and I think she also understands very well
what message that sends to some of the other field.
I think she's one of the few athletes that relishes
making those statements.
I'm not just gonna beat you,
I'm gonna blow you away in this test.
Laura Horvath is gonna get the test win,
and looking to move inside the top three.
Yeah, one more day. Here to fuck shit up.
That's always the motto. Just here to fuck shit up.
Yeah, a big stash over here.
We have nice cookies...
- Rosie Joes. - ...apricots, peanut butter.
That's one of the biggest traps we have,
is you never really feel like you want to eat.
But when you're exercising all day
and putting out pretty hard, you have to,
like, you have to keep fueling.
I got to get all this in,
and then I got to lay down for a bit,
and then I gotta eat a whole bunch more again, so.
It's, like, been a roller coaster,
but it's cool to feel like he's still in the game and
still shooting for the podium, which is
kind of a fun spot to be in,
going into the last day.
I have a huge amount of respect for how--
this sounds bad, but he's-- he's a good loser.
We joke. He's pretty-- He's pretty even-keeled,
which is why I think he can get away
with weekends like this,
where he's had just onto the next thing.
You know, it's a big day tomorrow,
like, where I'm 16 points back from third.
Things are tight in the top five.
Roman, he obviously, he blundered a little bit today,
and there's blood in the water. That's the thing.
So it's, uh, gonna be very exciting tomorrow, I think.
There's gonna be a very exciting hunt for first place.
- Roman! - Hey.
That's my man.
Here you go, my man.
- Morning, buddy. - Go get him, buddy.
Get 'em, buddy.
The tone of the men's competition
shifted on day three dramatically.
Roman looked like he was comfortable,
but some mental mistakes on his part
in the middle of Saturday, I think,
started to turn the tide a little bit.
Jeff Adler, he was 100 points behind.
He made up 83 points in one day.
So Jeff Adler had all the momentum.
Front row out towards me.
We are three tests away
from crowning the Fittest On Earth.
Test number ten, it's Muscle-Up Logs.
The workout that was announced on Sunday morning,
I knew I could do really, really well on that workout.
That's two Canadians leading the way,
Pat Vellner and Jeff Adler.
Let's go, Jeff! Let's go, Jeff!
I felt like I was in control of that event,
and that's a very good feeling to have.
Let's go! Woo! Come on, babe, come on!
So Adler is now in front.
Roman Khrennikov right now is in fifth place,
tied with Pat Vellner.
Adler has the bag up.
Yes! Come on, come on, come on, come on!
And Jeff Adler is going to win
and possibly lead with two tests remaining.
Woo! Yeah!
Woo!
Roman Khrennikov actually should be getting
a top five finish here. So that is a great finish.
That was better than expected.
He wanted top five.
He won, so we can't ask for any more than that.
And we get to wear the white leader jersey, and that will be
checking off one of Jeff's goals this year.
So, at a good time.
Good job, babe.
Jeff Adler's now in the lead with two points
and two tests to go.
And we're like, this is everything
we hoped Sunday would be.
Roman has a history of battling back
and digging deep, and so to see two athletes,
like, at their peak and in the tightest point
spread we've seen in probably eight years, I think,
was kind of what you play the game for.
Sorry, boys.
All right, well, I wanted to
release your climbing test of the weekend.
One parallel bar traverse,
30 weighted up unders,
pull sled one section.
Where's Roman?
He was standing on the side back there with
his crutches and ice pack on his foot.
Sunday morning, we have the muscle up log test,
which looks like it's in Roman's wheelhouse.
Gets the final bag, gets it over the log,
comes down on his left foot awkwardly.
We get word from one of our producers
that it's possible Roman broke his foot.
It was all speculation at that point.
I didn't know anything
until we got back to the Coliseum
and I saw him with his leg wrapped up,
and I was like...
He's in crutches. He's got ice on his foot.
I hear that he broke his foot.
You have two events left,
and this happens so close to the end?
It's just heartbreaking.
Here's the ice and crutches.
Are you okay? What's going on?
Landed bad-- poorly on the sandbag.
Like, rolled the ankle, a little fraction on the bone,
and, like, in ligaments.
...maybe you can finish these events?
Do you think you can handle it?
We'll see. He doesn't know.
Maybe adrenaline rush
will carry him over.
We're all trying to move up
that leaderboard the best you can,
but there's no one there that wants to see that.
The next test involves double unders,
which is a bounding jumping movement,
where you jump in the air,
spin a rope twice on your feet,
do that 30 times for eight rounds.
You can't do that on a broken foot.
Test eleven is the parallel bar pull.
Emma Lawson and Laura Horvath still battling for the top spot.
Lawson has a 23-point lead over Horvath.
Horvath was able to shave 25 points off
of that deficit in the prior test.
It's very rare that the jersey
changes hands on Sunday.
I think there's this feeling when you enter Sunday
and you have that on, that this is my opportunity.
I'm on the doorstep of my ultimate goal,
and anything less is maybe a little bit of a failure.
And especially for an athlete that's so young,
it's really tough to mimic that adversity.
Emma Lawson is one of the last women done
with her first of eight sled pulls here.
She struggled on the turn of the traverse.
Sit up. Keep moving, keep moving!
Laura Horvath is, once again,
on the war path here.
Think about what she did last year,
making the late charge to get herself onto the podium.
She is dominating so far here on the final day
to try to put herself on top.
Laura Horvath is very much a home run hitter,
especially on the final day on it.
She has a killer instinct, and I think she knew that
the title was within reach coming into Sunday,
and that just fueled that fire.
There are people that compete not to lose
and there are people that compete to win.
She came in to win.
...giant pull.
Horvath all by herself,
working her way down the floor.
She wants that white leader jersey, Shawn.
I can see the look in her eyes.
And Laura Horvath, two for two on Sunday
and will be number one with one test remaining.
Emma Lawson finished in 10th place.
Laura, that is two wins,
200 points on the last day of competition.
How do you find the strength and the energy
after four days of competing
to continue to charge up the leaderboard like this?
I love Sunday. That's my favorite day of the week.
I love it.
Given what Laura's history at the games has been,
it maybe felt like the door was closing for Emma.
Good job.
Make yourself proud.
Don't worry about the podium. Make yourself proud. Okay?
Yes, but that's okay. You're still in the fight.
Hey, hey. Come on, let's go over here.
Hey. Hey. Look, this doesn't define who you are.
You're still in second place. You still have a fight.
Hey...
She's okay. She's okay.
Hey, [indistinct]. It's not over, baby.
It's not over. All right? You got this. You got this.
Hey, you have been freaking showing
how big of a champion you are all freaking week.
Anything can happen, Emma.
You got this, girl.
It's not over. Come on. You got it, guys.
We got it. Yeah. Let's go.
Being a young athlete, you know,
obviously she's been leading for so long,
and for that second last workout,
not to go her way, it's a little emotional.
But what she's got to realize is,
hey, she could do this still.
You know, I think at the end of the day, what is
consistent about CrossFit is the heart that all the athletes
do put on the floor, and it's absolutely incredible to watch.
I think everyone was
feeling for Roman in that moment.
'Cause you just recognize someone's down and out,
and there's some empathy there.
He was in the position
to win the CrossFit Games
and having that accident, it's...
It's hard as an athlete competing
not to get emotional about it.
The question just became, was he gonna continue?
Were they gonna let him continue?
From the event side,
it's really difficult because he's an athlete.
He knows his limits. He knows his body.
We have our medical staff. They have their recommendations.
What happens is it hurts right here.
It doesn't hurt anywhere in the ankle whatsoever.
Roman came here to win some money.
He really wants some money and--
Let me just go out, and that's it.
Please allow him to compete.
The points that he had at that time would have held.
Now he wouldn't have earned the points for 20th
without taking the field there.
So arguably, that would have bumped him out of position.
This is why he moved his family from Russia
to the United States, to be a CrossFit Games champion.
And he's two points away.
Two tests to go,
and now something out of his control
is taking that away from him.
The question is, if you let him take the floor or not,
and if he takes the floor, can he do some stuff?
- It's against medical advice. - It's against medical advice.
He's taking it into his own risk.
As long as everybody is aware of it.
At the end of the day, we decided that it would be
his choice to compete, knowing the risks involved in that.
Khrennikov, he has a 150 point cushion
as far as staying on the podium is concerned.
So if he can just do some damage control here,
finish these tests, he still has a chance.
There's the left foot of Roman Khrennikov
wearing the lifter.
We'll see how he can get through this.
First parallel bar traverse comes over,
and he picks up his jump rope, and I think everybody just
kind of held their breath.
Roman Khrennikov in the middle.
He's going to be able to do this on one foot
Oh, Roman. Oh, my goodness.
There was that pop of the crowd because
they recognized what was about to happen
and the effort that he was going to put in no matter what.
These are the loudest cheers we've had
all weekend, Shawn.
He goes out there and starts doing these on one leg
while everyone else just starts to blow by him.
Brent Fikowski and Jonne Koski are currently
battling for the lead here.
Pat Vellner and Dallin Pepper rounding out the top five.
- Woo! - Go Pat! You got it, pull!
Roman Khrennikov is still on
his first round of double unders.
And he's able to get through it.
The dude was pushing himself in that workout
and obviously, like, he was...
There was no way he was not gonna get last.
I mean, he's competing against guys that are
fully healthy, and just to see the drive
that he had, it was a pretty crazy special moment.
Come on, Roman. You got it!
That leaves Chandler Smith and Roman Khrennikov
the only two men left on the floor here.
Roman Khrennikov is on his third of those eight rounds.
Just trying to gut through this thing.
And Smith is across.
And here comes the crowd behind Roman Khrennikov.
I've never seen a stadium
chant someone's name like that.
It's that moment when you see, like, a fighter get off the mat
and it looks like they're beaten
and they're just gonna keep pushing forward.
Everybody in that arena has been probably
in that situation that Roman was in.
You're struggling, you wanna quit.
You don't wanna do this anymore.
And the people around you rally to get you through it.
What he did was incredible.
Everybody was cheering him on, me included.
Now Adler trying to get the crowd
behind Roman Khrennikov.
I've always said that we speak a universal language
in CrossFit, and it's effort.
Roman's performance, in some ways, can directly
impact not only my performance with the rest of the fields
by, like, being inspirational and,
like, setting a new standard for toughness.
It kind of makes you question, like,
dang, would I, like, would I do that?
Like, I don't know.
I would have done the exact same thing.
I love that they allowed him to fight.
Watching the fans cheer for him
louder than any cheer
anyone has gotten all weekend long,
because they know what that means to Roman
and how close he was to winning the CrossFit Games.
Roman, this is one of
the most emotional moments I've ever seen
on the Coliseum floor at the CrossFit Games.
What was it like coming out here with your injured foot?
I just want to be a hero for my son. For him to see...
He wants to be a hero for his son.
He just wants him to see him fight till the end.
That's every dad's dream, right?
Every dad wants to be the hero for their child.
That's our opportunity to be superheroes.
And for him to put himself out there
through pain, both physically and emotionally...
it's my favorite moment of the CrossFit games,
Really, what Roman did
embodies everything that we hold dear
in the CrossFit community as a whole.
One final test remains here
at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
I think that you want to get better every year,
so now that I know where I'm at,
I just want to keep going up from there.
Olivia Kerstetter.
What a way to finish out her 2023 Noble CrossFit Games.
Olivia, her event win to finish off the competition,
just showcased what her true potential can really be.
This year's rookie of the year is...
-Olivia Kerstetter!
For her to be standing there at the age of 17,
the rookie of the year, top 20 in the world in a sport,
is unfathomable.
From a budding superstar
to the original superstar, Annie Thorisdottir.
It is special to get to compete after this many years,
and I am so grateful that I am still able to do this,
and I am so grateful to all the people
that have been supporting me for so long.
Annie Thorisdottir has the barbell back overhead.
And, like...
...I don't think people realize.
Give it up for Annie Thorisdottir.
Just hearing them every single time I took the floor...
It's special.
Here comes Justin Medeiros.
And the two-time champ is across.
Obviously, after winning it twice,
the goal was to be on top of the podium.
Every day when I'm training, like, that's what's on my mind,
and I don't think that's who I was
when I started CrossFit,
and I think that has kind of consumed me
just a little bit too much.
And I think the realization came that that spot on the podium
might not mean as much in reality.
So I'm excited for the rest of this year to kind of
not have that outside pressure, like, affect me.
And Noah Ohlsen, looking to close out
what he says will be his final time here as an individual.
It was really, really special knowing that I was taking
the floor for the final time, I kind of felt like all
ten years of doing this rushed back to me in that moment.
Make some noise for Noah Ohlsen!
Hearing all the noise from the fans,
and I felt like I was going to explode with gratitude.
I just felt full of energy and passion and love.
I have heard people say that I've given a lot to
the CrossFit community, and I'm honored by that sentiment.
But I feel like I've gotten back even more from them.
You guys, this sport has changed my life completely,
and it will have changed it forever.
I'm so grateful to all
of you, to all these people in the front row.
That's my family, my best friends, beautiful wife.
I felt like in that moment, I had won.
CrossFit has helped me
realize you can get through a lot.
No one enjoys it while they're in it,
but when you look back on the experience,
it's a pretty cool feeling to know that I didn't quit.
Sunday morning, I straight up, I was sitting
in the hotel room, like, what's the point?
Like, just going through it, like, a mental battle.
Like, I had such a trash weekend.
Like, physically, I cannot explain what happened,
but, like, you know, I still have
that capability to one day win.
But my goals just drastically changed to,
like, I was just trying to have fun,
To be, like, more in the moment and enjoy myself.
And I remind myself my friends are going through it with me.
- Atta girl, rebalance. - Yes!
There's such a bigger purpose to this than, like,
just myself.
Come on. She's off. She's off.
Yeah! Let's go get it!
Without people, I could have just easily gone
down this rabbit hole and not finished inside the top ten.
Make some noise for Chandler Smith!
I had a tough day on Sunday from a standings perspective,
but having that time off last year
and being able to watch things from the outside
kind of was a good reminder to experience it
as it's happening, but also be ready for things to change.
Being in podium position was awesome, and I was very grateful
for it at the moment, but I'm just grateful that I had
the chance to be back here at all.
There is no tomorrow for Emma Lawson.
Laura Horvath just needs to finish in fifth place or better,
and there's nothing anybody else can do.
Emma Lawson,
she was leading for a very long time
throughout the weekend and showcasing all of her hard work.
Emma Lawson is in.
As the youngest competitor to stand on the podium,
what does this moment mean for you?
Thank you.
Sometimes I just get so caught up in the moment that I'm not...
fully realizing what I just did.
Like, it hasn't sunken in yet.
And to be honest, I don't know that it ever will.
But, I mean, at the end of the day,
I wasn't surprised to see Laura standing at the top.
Now, if there's one person I wouldn't want on
my back, chasing me down for overhead walking lunges,
it's probably Laura Horvath. She has no problem lifting
- heavy weight across... - Laura is a force, you know?
And Laura did Laura things this weekend to be a champion.
Today, the woman from Hungary
is Superwoman.
Laura Horvath!
Ladies and gentlemen,
introducing the Fittest Woman on Earth, Laura Horvath.
You are a role model for athletes,
for women, and especially for young girls.
How does it feel to you to be a role model for all of them?
It's a little pressure, but...
I just very happy that I'm not looking
at the new Barbie movie.
"Oh, I want to look like that."
I want to look like what I look like.
And I'm just very excited that little girls look up to
all these amazing girls that are here, because it's
amazing what our bodies can do if you put the work in.
I feel very good. It feels very good to win the CrossFit Games.
That's been my goal for the past ten years of my life.
She definitely deserves the spot this year.
But I'm back in the gym training as hard as I possibly can be.
Not just to participate at the 2024 CrossFit Games,
but to win the 2024 CrossFit Games.
To be honest, I haven't even think about tomorrow or an hour
from now, so I don't really think about next year right now.
But whoever comes comes, it doesn't really matter
if it's Tia or anyone else.
We are ready to crown the Fittest Man on Earth.
Jeff Adler, he has an 86 point lead
over Pat Vellner for first place.
Let's go, Pat. Come on, Patty. Come on, babe.
Jeffrey Adler looks to be the first Canadian man
to win the CrossFit Games since 2007.
Let's go, Jeff!
There is a new king in the north.
Come on, Jeff. Let's go!
His name is Jeff Adler
and he is the Fittest Man on Earth!
The feeling's quite weird to be called the Fittest Man on Earth.
It's-- I don't know. It's something I...
I didn't think I would call myself one day.
Jeff, back in 2017, you were at the CrossFit Games
as a volunteer on the event team.
Six years later, you're the CrossFit Games champion.
So what would 2017 Jeff's reaction be to this moment?
Keep pushing barbells, man. Why not?
My journey is very exponential.
Every year, just a little bit higher, a little bit higher,
a little bit higher.
Now, we've done first, so...
it's either first or don't come back.
You want to earn every point and,
you know, with Roman being injured,
he was putting up a show the whole weekend.
So I think he got robbed a little bit.
So next year will be a fair fight.
I think some people would feel like
Adler's victory is dampened. I don't think so.
Sure, it may have been a battle, and we don't know what have
happened in those last two, but he was the leader.
He took the white leader's jersey off of Roman.
That's the thing. It's like, Roman was so good
up until that point and so consistent
and had built such a big cushion.
The fact that he could go out and finish dead last in the last
two tests and still wind up on the podium is pretty incredible.
Next year,
we're gonna demolish everyone.
These guys don't have a chance.
- I'm old. - Yeah, he's old,
he's falling apart, his fingers are off...
You're gonna win this.
We have an award that they give out at the CrossFit Games
every year called the Spirit of the Games award.
It's really kind of a way of exemplifying the best of us as
a community, not just from what you can do on the floor,
but how-- how you carry yourself as a human being.
This year's Spirit of the Games award winner
is Roman Khrennikov.
When you watch
what Roman Khrennikov went out and did,
a man who basically is losing everything
that he's trained for for years,
but appreciate still the opportunity to go out there
and not waste a single second of that
and to still come off smiling,
to still be the man he is on the floor as he is off the floor.
That encapsulates the depth behind what we do.
I think it shows that the athletes
are more than just machines, that we have hearts,
and we care a lot about what we do.
As Roman showed, athletes don't quit, never quit.
I remember in 2016 when I volunteered,
I have my picture with Pat with his medal on his neck,
and now this year, he's right beside me on the podium.
Like eight, seven years ago,
he was light years ahead of me.
That felt pretty great. I was really happy
to share the podium with Pat.
Uh, I could be better, but you can't ask for much more.
I finished second place overall in the end,
and Jeff Adler had an amazing weekend.
I think he deserved to win.
So, you know, trying to focus on some targeted aggression
and taking some lessons back home.
Maybe, uh, let my hands heal up and get back to it soon.
Well, this got serious really fast.
Yeah. Anyway. I know,
I feel like we need music or something.
Yeah, don't you have, like, three bottles of wine or
- something like that? - Did I?
I came in here and I ate my entire fridge.
You just been not eating all week?
I haven't eaten past probably noon for most days.
- Why? - Because you're stressful.
Over the seven years that I've coached him,
it has never once not been like that.
Like, it's always been Pat climbing
his way up every single year.
If you come back next year, you will see that probably...
...something will happen. He's gonna climb way up, and--
and it wouldn't be a Patrick Vellner games,
and it wouldn't be this sweet if he didn't.
Keeps all the family and friends on their toes.
Makes it very exciting for everybody.
Oh, yeah. Super exciting.
I mean, veggies and stuff I'm kind of into.
I haven't really eaten a good vegetable in a few days.
- Cheers to another year. - Another one.
The 2023 CrossFit games will be remembered
for the opening of a new era.
And you see that in the stories that get told.
There's gonna be
one winner at the CrossFit Games.
There's gonna be three podium finishers.
There's gonna be highs, and there's gonna be lows,
and there's gonna be battles,
but there's so much more.
All sports and communities have those stories.
But we like to root ours in things that
go beyond just working out.
Stories up and down the leaderboard,
like Laura Horvath and Jeff Adler.
And to see the Roman Khrennikovs,
and the future of the sport, like Emma Lawsons.
The unwavering, won't-ever-go-away Pat Vellners,
this is who we really are.
We are a worldwide community of people that want the best
for everyone more than we want for ourselves.
And that's the spirit of CrossFit.
I think he's ready for his big giant bone.
Yeah. Ready-ready.
Look at that.
Let's go, start eat, bro.
Yes. Let's go start, please.
He's quite sad. The reason why he's still
feeling happy is because he has a team
around him and friends of all of us here.
Roman, not the outcome you wanted, right?
But you're gonna come back.
If anyone can do it, we know you can.
And proud to call you a brother.
We love you and come back next year.
Thank you. Thank you, Pat.
The only goal he has
is to come back stronger and win.