CrossFit Games

Teenager Emma Lawson Takes Early Lead at the Atlas Games

June 10, 2022 by
Photo Credit: Training Day Media
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Less than a year since she was crowned the Fittest Teen on Earth, 17-year-old Emma Lawson is making the transition to the elite division look easy at the Atlas Games at the Sports Complex Claude Robillard in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Lawson leads all competitors after Day 1.

The details: Lawson started her day with a second place finish on an event featuring the Ski Erg, parallette handstand push-ups and a heavy front rack lunge, saying she took an aggressive approach to the event.

  • “I changed up my plan a little bit just because the deficit here seemed not as deep as I had practiced, so I took a few risks…I went a little bit aggressive in the beginning but that’s what competitions are all about,” Lawson said after Event 1.
  • Two hours later, Lawson found herself in a league of her own when it came to her toes-to-bar prowess in Event 2—an event with 96 toes-to-bar and 48 100-pound sandbag cleans—finishing with an event win.

Worth Noting: Lawson isn’t the only youngster sitting pretty in Montreal after Day 1. 20-year-old Freya Moosbrugger is tied for second with Games veteran Carolyne Prevost, and 19-year-old Paige Powers—another former teen CrossFit Games medalist—is currently in fourth thanks to her event win on the first event of the day.

  • Powers told the Morning Chalk Up the biggest challenge in transitioning from the teen to the individual division in the last two years has been a mental one, and is something she has dedicated a lot of effort to this year.
  • “Obviously training plays a big role, but everybody here is training hard and I know how to do that, but my mindset gap and my spiritual gap I filled in a lot in the last year, and I think that’s going to help me tremendously this weekend,” Powers said after her event win.

The big picture: With two-thirds of the competition remaining, a lot can still change, but there’s a chance the Atlas Games could field two teenagers in Madison, WI this summer, both of whom are remaining humble but optimistic.

  • “I’m still working on my confidence, but I’m just trying to remind myself that I’m as prepared as I can be coming into this weekend,” Lawson said.
  • “Before every workout the score goes back to zero-zero, so I’m just going to try to execute as well as I can for each workout, and have a game plan before and just try to stick to it,” she added in a post-Event 2 interview.
  • As for Powers, her main goal is just to “do the absolute best I can,” she said, adding, “And hopefully that punches a Games ticket.”

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