The Freakest Challenge 2022: Everything You Need To Know
What do you get when you mix two days of fitness competition, the top athletes from eight European countries, the five-time fittest man on earth, and an Olympic arena packed with fans in an atmosphere resembling a Barcelona nightclub?
You get the 7th edition of the Freakest Challenge, one of the more unique competitions in the CrossFit space that kicks off this weekend. This year the event has expanded and rebranded to the Fittest Freakest Challenge Weekend, and now boasts two separate competitions on Saturday July 9, and Sunday July 10, each with a unique format as athletes battle it out for 25,000 euros in prize money.
- Both competitions will take place at the Palau Olímpic de Badalona, which during the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics hosted the basketball competition and famed United States basketball squad dubbed the “Dream Team.”
- The Challenge is a four person team competition open to squads from all over Europe that in past iterations has been the centerpiece of the Freakest Challenge, and will take place on Saturday. Similar to years past it will feature eight teams going head to head in an elimination style format until one team is crowned the champion.
Just in case you needed a refresher on the event, in 2020 the Morning Chalk Up was on the ground at the event and had the chance to document our experience as well as some of the action going on behind the scenes with the athletes.
New to this year’s event is The Cup, a competition featuring male/female pairs from the eight fittest countries in Europe going head to head in the same elimination style format as The Challenge to eventually crown one country as “European Champion.”
- Using the results from the CrossFit Games season, eight countries from Europe were selected to compete with one male and one female each selected to represent their nation in the event.
- Denmark, Spain, France, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, and Finland will be the countries represented and the athlete list includes individual Games athletes Sam Stewart, Casper Gammelmark, and Julie Hougard.
Each year some of the sports biggest names come as guests in support of the competition and their involvement has ranged from coaching each team, to determining the elimination brackets and even taking at go at the DJ turntables.
- This year Mat Fraser, Gabi Migala, and Amy Bream headline the guest athlete roster that in the past has also included the likes of Laura Horvath, Sara Sigmundsdottir, Thuri Helgadottir, Lukas Hogberg, Willy Georges, and Lauren Fisher.
How to watch: Fans interested in watching the event live will be able to tune in via the free live stream that will be hosted on the Morning Chalk Up YouTube channel and will feature commentary from long-time CrossFit Games commentators Chase Ingraham and Bill Grundler of Get With The Programming Podcast.
- The Challenge, Saturday event times: 4:00 PM – 8:30 PM GMT+2 (Local Barcelona time), with doors opening to spectators at 2:30 PM GMT+2.
- The Cup, Sunday event times: 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM GMT+2 (Local Barcelona time), with doors opening to spectators at 9:30 AM GMT+2.
If you’re interested in making the trip to Spain, spectator info including venue location, ticket purchases, and travel recommendations can be found on the spectator information page of the event here.
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