Lifestyle
A complete recap of the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games
Well before the first athlete stepped onto the field for the 2012 CrossFit Games, buzz was in the air that this year’s mega-event was not going to disappoint. Spectator tickets for the Carson, California Home Depot Center (capacity: 27,000) were sold out by June 1st, and in what seems to be a trend, the Games drew yet another record-breaking crowd. From over 69,000 athletic hopefuls, 46 men and 45 women had won themselves the right to play in the big league.
As anyone who knows the difference between a kipping pull-up and a double-under will already have heard, Annie Thorisdottir (Reebok CrossFit, Reykjavik, Iceland) and Rich Froning (CrossFit Faith, Cookeville, Tennessee) held fast to their titles of Fittest Woman and Fittest Man on Earth, which they both first earned at the 2011 Games. It’s a first for the Games to have a repeat champion (let alone two in the same year, much less two who also came in second the year before they won – you get the idea), and both Rich and Annie commanded serious r-e-s-p-e-c-t for not only winning, but doing so by a comfortable margin – Annie by 85 points and Rich by 114.
From the first day the athletes arrived in Los Angeles, there was that now-familiar suspense in the air. Everyone knew that just like in Games past, the actual events wouldn’t be revealed until shortly before the competition. What the athletes didn’t anticipate was that the diabolical mind of CrossFit’s training director, Dave Castro, had brewed up a scheme to add an extra two events on Wednesday, two full days earlier than the athletes had planned to start.
SURPRISE! THIS AIN’T NO SUMMER CAMP.
At the U.S. Marine Base Camp Pendleton, competitors would face several different trials: a 700-meter swim, followed by an 8 km bike race and an 11 km run. “And oh,” Castro must have thought to himself with a maniacal chuckle, like a chef adding an extra pinch of habanero to the salsa, “why not finish up these preliminary races with an obstacle course, courtesy of the Marines’ School of Infantry?”
The athletes jumped to attention. Australian Chad Mackay (CrossFit Active, Sydney, Australia), ironically the heaviest of all the competitors, finished first among the men, with a combined swim-bike-run time of 1:57:33. American Julie Foucher (CrossFit Ann Arbor, Michigan), winner of the 2012 Central East Regional and one of the favored women in this year’s Games, showed that she came ready to play by outperforming the other women (and beating all but eight of the men, too) with a time of 2:05:12.
The obstacle course was no letdown, either. Athletes competed in heats of four, and only the winners in each round were sure to go forward to the next round. At the end of 3 rounds, the four winners of the second round and the four fastest non-winners (wild cards) advanced to the final round. For the men, newcomer Spencer Hendel was the surprise of the day, coming from nowhere to take the event. Talayna “Spider Monkey” Fortunato (CrossFit Real Fitness, Naples, Florida) lived up to her nickname by log-running, wall-hurdling, and bar-swinging to edge out next-best Kristan Clever (Valley CrossFit, Valencia, California), winner of the Fittest Woman title in 2010, by .6 seconds. “Iceland Annie” Thorisdottir, who had bagged a wild card entry to the final round, placed third.
FRIDAY HIGHLIGHTS: Handstand surprise, and a shoving match with Big Bob
Friday morning saw the individual competitors broad-jumping, then moving to an afternoon of arm-grinding, leg-melting events that included throwing medicine balls for distance, performing a track triplet (8 bar snatches, 7 bar muscle ups, and a 400-meter run), then a final med ball lift and handstand push-up event. The men’s track triplet was full of surprises, when favored bets like Ben Smith (unaffiliated) and Dan Bailey (CrossFit Faith, Cookesville, Tennessee) didn’t make the top 20. Matt Chan (CrossFit Verve, Denver, Colorado), who has placed in the top 10 at three of the last four years’ Games and was sitting in 3rd place going into this event, took a beating in the handstand push-ups to finish 24th in the event and 4th overall. Similarly, it was this final event of the morning that tore open the women’s competition. Foucher, who had been in the lead after Wednesday’s events, floundered on the handstand push-ups, didn’t finish within the time cap, and saw her lead over Fortunato drop from 59 points to 2. Thorisdottir also took her first win here on the bullet train to her Games victory.
Meanwhile, the teams were having some fun of their own, beginning with a 6 X 415-meter sprint relay, then a chance to dance with Big Bob (100 yards up the field, then back, for time). In the afternoon, the merriment came in the form of front squats (2-rep, max load) and a team triplet, in which three male-female pairs completed rowing, burpees, and thrusters while holding pre-specified weights.
SATURDAY: Ladders, Chippers, Ropes, and Yokes
Saturday morning was no sleep-in-and-munch-croissants experience; it began with a shuttle sprint, which put Froning in the top position, where he would stay for the remainder of the Games. Matt Chan’s hurt-fest continued here, as he tied for 42nd place. On the women’s side, the sprint was the perfect opportunity for Fortunato to eclipse Foucher’s lead, which she did handily – not too shabby for a woman who fractured ribs and sprained her elbow in a boating accident the day before the Open began. Fortunato credits CrossFit “for preparing me for not only the unknown and unknowable WOD, but also for life’s unpredictable mishaps. I’m not only stronger physically and mentally than I was 2 ½ years ago, but I’m also damn sure harder to kill!”
Next up was a combination rope-sled event, with one run up the 20-foot rope and one 20-yard drive of the Big Bob(sled). Matt Chan finally regained his lost ground by not only taking first in the event, but laid a margin of almost a minute ahead of second-place finisher Jason Khalipa (NorCal CrossFit, San Jose, California). Kasperbauer just hung in with a 20th place showing in this event. Becca Voigt, third-place finisher from last year, nailed the top spot for the women, but Iceland Annie was already knocking on the door of Fortunato’s lead overall, closing a 100-point gap in the space of only three events.
The clean ladder event, which came next, would break down that door when Thorisdottir’s split clean of 225 pounds propelled her to first overall, with Fortunato in second, and Foucher in third. But the real crowd-pleasers in this event were Lindsey Valenzuela and Elisabeth Akinwale. Valenzuela made the crowd roar when she was first to finish what some thought would be an impossible ladder, with its final 235-pound clean. Valenzuela added two dead lifts to garner partial points, but it wasn’t enough to keep Elisabeth Akinwale from moving ahead by achieving the final clean and then cranking out five dead lifts to take the top spot for the women in this event. For the men, Neal Maddox prevailed with a 365-pound clean, while Khalipa placed 2nd with 355.10 pounds, with Marcus Hendren (CrossFit New Albany, Ohio) a close 3rd at 355.06. Rich Froning set a 10-pound personal record at 345.07, just behind Nate Schrader’s (Iron Forged CrossFit, Fayetteville, North Carolina) 3rd place lift of 345.09.
Saturday’s excitement was rounded out with a chipper event, in which competitors worked for time to complete specified reps of overhead squats, box jump overs, fat bar thrusters, power cleans, toes-to-bar, and burpee muscle ups. Chan kept pace with Froning until the final set of thrusters, and when all the chips had fallen on Saturday night, Froning was in the lead overall, Matt Chan had moved from 3rd place to 2nd, and Kasperbauer was holding on in 3rd. These would be their podium stations when all was said and done. On the women’s side, Thorisdottir was still in the lead, with Foucher in second and Fortunato in third. Like the men, the ladies had established their places on the podium by the end of Saturday, but Kristan Clever, the 30-year-old winner of the women’s 2010 title, hung in at fourth place, anticipating a chance to move up in Sunday’s final event, in which athletes would perform WODs Elizabeth, Isabel, and Fran, collectively nicknamed “The Girls.”
SUNDAY STARTS WITH A (DOUBLE) BANG
The athletes warming up for Sunday’s first event were intrigued to see staff from Rogue setting up tracks with blocks nested inside them and sledgehammers at the ready. The new event, dubbed “double banger,” interspersed rounds of double unders with sledge-hammering the heavy block through the length of three different tracks, each set at a different height. Kasperbauer banged out a win in this event, and shrank his gap behind Chan from 43 to 14 points. Akinwale muscled her way to a win in the women’s competition. Thorisdottir easily held on to her lead with a 5th place showing.
Finally, it was time for the final event – the Girls – beginning with Elizabeth. Froning had a spacious lead of 86 points going in. Not one to let things slide, he took an impressive unbroken run at the 21-15-9 reps of cleans and dips, finishing in 2:33, 11 seconds ahead of nearest competitor Chan. Froning, now with a 91-point lead going into Isabel, didn’t miss a beat as he tackled this workout, scoring a winning time of 1:20.
On to the final challenge, Fran, where the champ could have sat on his hands and still won the title. Instead, Froning racked up 80 more points with a 5th place showing, widening his margin even more. When asked why he bothered to go the extra distance, his answer was short and to the point: “Leave no doubt.” And, true to these words, Froning has left no doubt in anyone’s mind that his rightful place is still at the top of the podium. Panchik won the event with a time of 2:41; Kasperbauer and Bailey placed second and third. Chan, who had placed in the top three for both Elizabeth and Isabel, came 10th on Fran, which didn’t jeopardize his 2nd place standing overall. It was Chan’s fifth trip to the Games, and the first time he’d enjoyed the view from atop the podium. Kasperbauer’s capture of silver left him feeling “absolutely ecstatic.”
Meanwhile, in the women’s camp, Clever used Elizabeth to narrow her gap behind third-place Fortunato to just nine points, and things only looked worse for Fortunato after Isabel, where Clever closed the gap to four. Even Foucher’s second place standing was in doubt at this point, because a win by Clever in the final event, Fran, could shake up both second and third places. The deciding factor turned out to be pull-ups, where Clever faltered and came off the bar, allowing Fortunato to keep chugging right into a third-place finish, and kept fans guessing until the last minute who would occupy the podium with Annie.
TEAM COMPETITION
Teams competed on Friday and Saturday to earn one of six places in Sunday’s Affiliate Cup event. Although repeat performances were the theme for the individual champs, none of the six qualifying teams were repeaters from 2011. The qualifiers were SPC CrossFit (Kent, Ohio), Hack’s Pack Ute (Salt Lake City, Utah), Diablo CrossFit Anejo (Pleasant Hill, California), Invictus (San Diego, California), RAW Training (Wildwood, Pennsylvania), and TJ’s Gym Mill Valley (Mill Valley, California).
One of the highlights of team competition was the yoke event, which occurred on Saturday. Many CrossFitters are familiar with the Rogue yoke, either from seeing one at their own CrossFit box or (perhaps more sanely) watching any of the numerous YouTube videos that demonstrate it. Basically, it’s a weight rack that’s been modified so that plates can be stacked onto each of its four supporting legs. An unwieldy piece of equipment, to say the least, but the Games took unwieldy-ness to a new level: the apparatus looked like a giant version of one of those colorful toys you’d expect to see hanging from an infant’s crib, but instead of virtually weightless colored discs floating harmoniously around a central hub, there were two pendulous stacks of iron (think primitive water-carrying with a pole and two buckets) that bounced and bobbed as the athletes did their best to ferry the contraption from one end of the 100-yard course to another. Just getting to the end of the field still upright and with femurs intact was a triumph, as many teams couldn’t do it. Team Adrenaline’s T.J. Menerey summed it up nicely when he said, “The yoke sucked.”
SPC CrossFit looked like a force that might have what it would take to overpower 2011 team champs CrossFit New England, having turned in the best performance in cross-regional comparisons. But New England was knocked out of the running on Saturday’s rope-clean event, where SPC managed to squeak out a win, so it was anyone’s guess who might take the team honors this year. Meanwhile, team Hack’s Pack Ute was looking like a slightly dark horse, in spite of having three individual Games competitors (Tommy Hackenbruck, Mary Lampas, and Taylor Richards-Lindsay) among its ranks. But Hack’s Pack quickly showed what it was made of, dominating the team competition before Sunday’s final round began, besting their nearest competitor, CrossFit Diablo Añejo, by 47 points before the scoreboard was erased and the teams started fresh on Sunday with “The Girls.”
Each female completed Elizabeth (cleans, ring dips), Fran (thrusters, pull-ups), and Isabel (snatches), while males wrestled with Grace (clean and jerk), Diane (deadlifts, handstand push-ups), and Karen (wallball shots). The same events were used in last year’s team competition, and Ute blasted New England’s 2011 time by two minutes, proving that they were no flash in the pan. In the final event, Karen, Hackenbruck stole the show by completing a first-ever: 111 unbroken wall ball shots. In the end, SPC finished 2nd overall, just four seconds ahead of Diablo.
MASTERS HIGHLIGHTS
As is often pointed out, the performances of the Masters athletes not only offer a bright perspective on the possibilities of life in the middle years, they also put the vast majority of younger gym rats to shame. With four separate age divisions each of men and women, the Games wrap-up for Masters could easily fill an entire issue. A few moments deserve special mention, though, like three-year Games veteran Scott Olson’s (Front Range CrossFit, Denver, Colorado) domination of the 60+ division’s events. Olson had placed 2nd in his (55-59) division last year, then had back and knee surgery and roared back into the competition this year with a first-place finish, nearly 5 minutes ahead of the next competitor. On the women’s side, Marnel King (CrossFit San Jose, California) gave new meaning to “women over 50” when she pumped out not 10, not 20, but 26 pull-ups in Sunday’s competition. King won three of the seven Master events in her division and clinched the gold.
Competitor Charles Sullivan (CrossFit Vero Beach, Florida), who finished in 5th in the Master men’s 55-59 division, probably spoke for athletes of all ages when he said, “Just to be here is one of the most exciting things in my life.”
