It’s here.
Most people wait all year for the Super Bowl, The World Cup (when it’s happening), The Stanley Cup, and the rest of those popular sport championships. CrossFitters, we wait for The CrossFit Games.
As we build up to the opening of the CrossFit Games this Thursday (For the Pro Individuals and Teams), the Vegvisir Team is gonna catch you up on what this competition is, how you actually are already a part of it, and some background on popular athletes at the top of the spots!
What Are The 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games?
The CrossFit Games is an event hosted in Madison, Wisconsin by CrossFit HQ.
Every year since 2007 the CrossFit community has together in one location to watch the top 40* men, 40* women, and 20* teams compete to find out who is the “Fittest On Earth!” (*These numbers have changed over the years due to different qualification standards). On top of this, the weekend is now also set to find the Fittest men and women in multiple age and adaptive categories in a competition that takes place concurrently with the “Open” competition, that isn’t as popular but still super fun and inspiring to watch!
This year is no different as all the athletes who qualified are currently in Madison getting checked in for their week of competition.
Starting on Thursday, athletes will compete across events ranging across all different types of time ranges (anything from an Olympic Weightlifting Total to a 5k run to a Gymnastic Skills Showdown has been announced already on the CrossFit Games Instagram). Each day will have any multiple events that could take place anywhere from the capitol steps of Madison to the basketball arena at the University of Wisconsin.
The events will be just like the workouts that you do here at Vegvisir, except that the weights will be ridiculous, the distances massive, and the tasks will be all over the place in terms of skill.
To top off the whole whole thing off it is also a fitness festival filled with CrossFitters from all over the world who come to spectate the pinnacle of CrossFit competition. Making the events an absolute ruckus and propelling athletes to new heights with the energy from their chants and cheers!
To see what CrossFit has to say about what The CrossFit Games are, click HERE
You Actually Already Competed In This Competition! It Was Just Early On!
Believe it or not, if you have been with us since the last couple weeks of February, you actually were a part of the process that helped set this whole thing up!
Back in February/March, we all competed in the Vegvisir Intramural Open which some athletes on your team also signed up for The CrossFit Games Open that did the same exact workouts. 400,000+ athletes from around the world actually did the exact same workouts as you and submitted their scores to the Open Leaderboard.
After those 3 weeks, the top 10% men, women, and teams all qualified for the Quarterfinals, Adaptive, and Age Group Qualifiers (of which 2 Vegvisir Athletes competed in)!
The Quarterfinals and AGQ were weekend long events that whittled the field down to the top 60 in each region to go compete at the CrossFit Semifinals (and the Torian Pro for the Aussies).
Those athletes who made it through that stage competed in the in-person Semifinal Competitions which are like mini-CrossFit Games events that shrink the field down to the top 2-11 athletes depending on the semifinal (North American East, North American West, and European semis awarded 9-11 spots for men and women while continents like Africa received just openings for the 1st place athletes). The athletes and teams that had scored enough points to beat the cutline in their respective regions (North America West was 10 Teams, 11 Women, and 9 Men) earned a spot to the CrossFit Games in Madison Wisconsin (Age Groups and Adaptive Athletes compete in an online semifinal where the top 10 advance).
The top 3 athletes who weren’t awarded spots from each of the in-person semifinals, got a last chance online qualifier that lasted a weekend. The top 2 men and women from that competition were awarded spots to The Games.
There you go, that’s how we came together and go the fittest men, women, and 20 teams ready for the CrossFit Games and a very brief description of the competition!
I Want To Learn More!!!
This week we will go over so much more about the games, but if you want to get started watching The Games how many of your fellow athletes did, it’s time to go down the rabbit hole of CrossFit Games documentaries:
Fittest On Earth a Decade of Fitness (Free on YouTube)
Redeemed and The Dominant (Free on Youtube)
These documentaries actually helped me get into the sport when I was up in Minnesota starting my CrossFit career. They are incredibly well put together and all they make me want to to when I watch them is go do the Workout of The Day as soon as possible!
To talk with a coach today, click the link found HERE to schedule your No Sweat Intro