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Dani Speegle Dominates in Her Titan Games Debut

June 2, 2020 by
Photo Credit: NBC
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It didn’t take long for Dani Speegle to make her presence known in her Titan Games debut on primetime television on Monday night. Billed as a “social-media star” she proved she was more than that and showed the world what the CrossFit community already knew, that she’s one of the fittest women on the planet.

Event 1, “Nuts and Bolts:” Speegle would take on NCAA women’s basketball referee Nadi Carey in her best-of-three showdown. Their match-up was the final for the women’s side of the Central Region. The women’s version of the event featured a wall with 1,200 lbs of weight that they had to remove before attempting to pull the wall down, releasing a lever. The first athlete to pull the lever wins.

  • Right from the get-go, Speegle showed her strength as she had no issue removing every plate from the wall while her competitor struggled. Speegle became the first athlete in the competition to remove every plate and the result was little effort used to pull the wall down. She pulled the lever to claim the victory. Speegle – 1, Carey – 0.

Event 2, “Lunar Impact:” Starting on opposite ends of an elevated, crescent-shaped platform, each athlete had to scale a two-story ladder and then run atop the platform to a metal wall located at the middle and push against their opponent on the opposite side of the wall until one is forced off the platform.

  • Speegle beat Carey up the ladder and made it to the wall first and held the early advantage, coming within a foot of eliminating her. Carey rallied and pushed back at Speegle and turned the tide to her favor. Both athletes came to a standstill at the middle of the platform. Speegle found her second wind and slowly pushed back at Carey before finally pushing her off the structure for the victory and securing a chance to compete on Mount Olympus. Speegle – 2, Carey – 0.

Mount Olympus: The final event featured the same structure from last week’s season premiere. Ten obstacles that test each athlete’s strength, speed, stamina and heart in a head-to-head race through the structure. Speegle took on the reigning Central Region Titan Chantae McMillan who won in her two trips to Mount Olympus.

  • McMillan, a two-time Olympian, held the advantage in both speed and familiarity with the event but Speegle kept even with her through the first three obstacles. McMillan made a costly error in the fourth obstacle, the “Log Lift”, giving Speegle a lead she would not relinquish. She had no issue with any of the remaining obstacles and showed her strength in the “Ball and Chain”, dragging the 250-lb wrecking ball with ease and smashing her way through the “Titan Tomb” with her sledgehammer to secure the key and turn the lock giving her the title of Titan.

What’s next: Speegle takes over the mantle as Central Region Champion and now advances to next week’s Regional finals to defend her title once again on Mount Olympus against other Regional competitors before moving onto the final..

  • In the men’s competition, former NFL great Joe Thomas continued his dominance over all his challengers as he once again defended his Regional Titan title by defeating sports medicine physician Kaleb Redden on Mount Olympus
  • Redden will be one of the two athletes that CrossFit legend Matt Chan will face off against next week for one more shot to upend Thomas for the Regional crown.
  • The Titan Games broadcasts every Monday at 8:00 PM EST on NBC.

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