Meanwhile in California …
Amazing performances all around.
Rich Froning made his way back to the top and won his 4th Consecutive CrossFit Games Title.
Check last year’s Games post here.
And it’s been 4 years in the making, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet is 2014 CrossFit Games Champion!
Update: 90 minute Documentary about the 2014 CrossFit Games.
Behind the scenes: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5
Rich’s and Camille’s Results After Each Event
What was Your Favorite Event and Why? Vote ->
I think I have to vote for the Speed Clean Ladder. Even though I enjoyed the “pure” Crossfit events a lot as well. Hard to choose one.
Overall I liked this year’s games a lot. Probably better than last years.
Very entertaining selection of events that made it interesting until the last second of the last workout.
Prize Money: Both cyborgs take home $275,000.
- 2nd – $75,000 for Annie Thorisdottir and Mathew Fraser
- 3rd – $45,000 for Julie Foucher and Jason Khalipa
… and it doesn’t stop there. Even 20th place gets some cash.
Recordings
- are embedded below or on games.crossfit.com
- (US residents Install Zen Mate Chrome Extension, set country to UK to watch them)
Useful Links:
If you want to comment on a specific event, look out for the top level comment (like “Overhead Squat Event”).
On Comments: If you don’t enjoy watching CrossFit, don’t comment. You can still critique the events, of course, but as usual I won’t tolerate useless hatred.
Other Observations
Crossfitters are strong! 171kg Overhead Squats (377 lb), 202kg Deadlift (445 lbs) by Ayo Anise during the Deadlift 1RM event for the teams. There was also Sam Dancer who got a 297 kg Deadlift (655 lb).
Final Day: Midline March + Thick’n Quick + Double Grace
Final Women’s Heat Starts at 2:10:00, Men’s at 2:40:00.
| Event Results Thick’n Quick: |
- Rich Froning
- Mathew Fraser
- Ben Smith
- Jenn Jones
- Annie Thorisdottir
- Emily Carothers
Final:For time:
- 4 rope climbs
- 3 overhead squats (245 / 165 lb.) 111 / 74 kg
- Time Cap: 4 minutes
Double Grace:
- begins 2 minutes after the time cap of Thick ‘n Quick.
- 60x Ground to Shoulder to Overhead for time
- 135 / 95 lb. = 61 / 43kg
- Time Cap: 7 minutes
Event Results Double Grace:
|
|
Changes of Overall Standings after Each Event
The Charts show the changes in Overall Standing over time. (lower = closer to first place)
Midline March
That looked Brutal! Rich won that suckfest… by over a minute!
Event Results:
|
3 rounds for time of:
|
Day 3 Saturday: Muscle-Up Biathlon + Sprint Carry + Speed Clean Ladder + Push Pull
… and just like that Rich Froning is in first place again (5pt lead).
Push Pull
Event Results:
|
Push Pull For time of:
Each round the deficit for the strict Time Cap: 11 minutes |
Speed Clean Ladder
I am glad they had another weightlifting ladder this year. This was as exciting event!
This was a race. Definitely NPFL / NPGL inspired. Competition is a beautiful thing.
Here is Dmitry Klokov’s recording of the event.
Event Results:
Froning 9th. Didn’t advance to 3rd round. |
Quarterfinal, Semifinal and Final Format:Athletes will be ranked by their time to complete each ladder, or by the heaviest weight cleaned. Quarterfinal Round: For time:
Time Cap: 2 minutes Top 24 athletes advance Semifinal Round: For time:
Time Cap: 3 minutes Top 8 athletes advance Final Round: For time:
Time Cap: 4 minutes |
Sprint Carry
Event Results:
Froning 15th. |
Sprint Carry For time:
|
Muscle Up Biathlon
Event Results:
Froning 13th here
|
Muscle Up BiathlonFor time:
Each time the athlete breaks a set |
Day 2 Friday: Triple 3 + Sprint Sled 1&2 + 21-15-9 Complex
21-15-9 Complex
Even Results:
Overall Placing after Day 2:
|
For Time: (7 min Time Cap)
|
Sled Sprint 1 & 2
Event Results: Sled 1 (Sled 2)
Froning got 15th (27th) here.
|
For Time:
|
Triple 3
Oh boy, is Rich human after all? He takes some walking breaks.
He finishes the event in 38:31.38—37th place.
Event Results:
Overall Placings after Triple 3:
… Rich Froning now in 6th place
|
For time:
|
Day 1 Wednesday: Beach Event + 1RM Overhead Squat
Rich Froning finished in 8th place here. |
Beach Event – For time:
|
Overhead Squat Event
Athletes got 3 attempts to establish a 1 Rep Max Overhead Squat.
Event Results:
|
Overall Results After Day 1
|
I think it takes a workout like “don’t be Rich Froning, for time” in order for this guy not to dominate the sport. But there are still plenty of workouts to go. and it only takes one really bad one to throw things of (like the Handstand Walk in regionals).
Overhead Squat Event
Klokov will be there and he likes to try Crossfit things… Wonder if he will try the OH squat event at the Again Faster tent.
he did – got a 180kg OH squat on his instagram feed
Beach Event
Rich Froning wasn’t in the top 30 last year in the swimming event and got 8th this year. Not only does that mean the contest for 1st is over for Men, it also shows how quickly great athletes can fix a weakness.
I dunno, theres a lot of running left to do. Rich isn’t the strongest there.I don’t think it’s over
? He was 7th in the Burden Run and 2nd in Naughty Nancy last year. Both had running
The run on the burden run was the least impactful of all the parts – an he came in middle of the pack there.
Naughty Nancy was shorter intervals.
Not saying he’ll do poorly by any means, but the 3 miles straight is a different animal.
He bombed today pretty hard. At least for Rich. Not looking too good for him with even more running events
Anyone heard anything about why Rich walked so much? So weird to see!
According to him, he sucks at running.
yeah seemed a little strange. For an athlete who kills the longer wods I don’t understand why he was completely crushed.
yeah, like JP said, 3 miles is a whole different animal. and day three is going to favor the better sprinters. Which if I remember correctly from the zig zag event last year he isn’t one of them.
Too many high-aerobic events for my liking. Could have a bit more strength events in it. Without the overhead squat, the muscle-ups and the lunges it’s basically a “multi-discipline endurance marathon” – at least for me. I’ll still watch the recordings though.
I agree with you there. Although I am not sure if the events that have been announced so far are all there is.
So there is a slight chance we will see some better workouts (for example I would love to see another variation of last year’s zig zag sprint)
Gregor is right. Not all events have been announced. You can bank on a couple heavier lifts put in metcons. However most crossfitters would agree that they would like to see a few more strength based contests. They are fun to see. That is probably why so many have become interested in olympic weightlifting.
I agree these events tend too far toward aerobic capacity and think a better balance of barbell work is missing. In fact, given the choice, I’d put the men/women through the masters events.
This is a little conspiracy theory-y, but events seem to be tailored towards who headquarters wants to win – especially for the women. Over the years they have focused media on the hottest competitors (Camille, Annie, Tovar…) while overlooking some of the more dudular women (Clever, Briggs) even though they outperform their sexier competition. For example, this year’s regionals were heavily weighted toward gymnastics events, not strength. That got rid of some of the “bulkiest” competitors. Now, they are focused on endurance which favors the lighter athletes. This is in CF’s interest sine the winner is essentially the face of the “sport” for awhile. If that woman is a she-hulk it doesn’t appeal to the soccer mom crowd as much. As for the guys – doesn’t seem like this is as much of a concern since all the guys are evenly at the top of the hotness scale. It’s either this or they want to move away from so much lifting since it can be intimidating to people new to CF. Something is going on.
I’ve been saying this for a while. I think the reason Crossfit has been such a huge success across the board is that the people at the top of the sport still look “normal” to a degree.
I think this is much more difficult than you suggest, however the biggest reason I disagree is that Crossfit doesn’t need someone to win to promote them. Lauren Fisher has arguably been the face of Crossfit for the past 6 months or so despite not qualifying before these games. (I do 100% agree that they promote the women who look the “best” though.)
They don’t need someone to win to promote them, yes. But the winner still reflects on the sport. If the winners look unnaturally bulky, especially the women, it would unavoidably reflect on the sport, and could shatter the whole Crossfit image as being a sport that produces well-rounded, natural-looking athletes.
Oh I get it. Yeah, I would agree with that.
I just noticed, for people in the US who can’t watch it for free, Klokov filmed the first day and put it up on his channel.
Maybe the “Hola Better Internet” Chrome extension I mentioned in the commonwealth games post can unblock the CF games site too. Might be worth a try
Couldn’t get it to work.
Triple 3 Event
Speed Clean Ladder
Really fun to watch. Audience friendly format – short and quick.
Agreed. That was my favorite event this year. Really cool idea and format. Would enjoy seeing some top weightlifters trying it too (with more weight though).
clean ladder was a blast too watch but it also scared the hell out of me. Given it is a competition I totally understand why they push through some of the lifts but I really thought someone’s spine was gonna blow out
Froning porves for the fourth straight year… the best way to be good at Crossfit…
Do very little Crossfit.
and lots of PEDS
That’s of course very over generalized. He doesn’t do CF HQ Crossfit.com programming, but his training is definitely “Crossfit” (constantly varied… yadadada) with weeks of strength / technique focus.
So to make your statement correct: “Do very little Mainsite Crossfit WODs”
The speed clean.. Do they really have to squat down like that even when they could power clean it? Its dumb if thats the case. Seriously.. One squat in the clean when one has to, because the weight is big. If one has the strenght to power clean it, they should be allowed to.
do one for 2015 crossfit games 🙂
please hehe