CrossFit Games

Chaos During “Bike to Work” as Multiple Athletes Appear to Miss Laps, Questions About Judging Arise

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography
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The 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games got off to a shaky start as multiple athletes on both the men’s and women’s side appeared to have skipped laps on “Bike to Work.” 

  • The event included 75 toes-to-bar to start, followed by a five-mile road/off-road bike ride, then 75 chest-to-bar pull-ups and another five-mile ride.

On the women’s side, it appeared that Danielle Brandon may have skipped a lap, as she mysteriously came from way back after lap three to finish 8th overall.

  • Adams started her second bike circuit at 21:37, and finished at 38:23, which works out to about 3:20 per lap. Adams lapped Brandon at 25:22 according to CrossFit’s livestream of the event, and at that point was roughly 3:20 ahead of her. Brandon then “finished” in eighth place overall at 39:38, which means she would’ve had to have made up almost two minutes on the final lap. 
  • Matt Torres, the head coach at the Brute Strength where Brandon did her final prep for the Games said that he asked Brandon about the situation and “she said all the women were confused on what laps they were on so when she was entering into the stadium she asked if that was the final lap and the judge verbalized ‘yes’ and waved her to go towards the finish line.”
  • Torres also said that he is “confident that she completed five laps on the second circuit” and concluded “we trust that the decision of that particular judge is accurate and that’s all we can do.”

On the men’s side, Jonne Koski had what appeared to be a decisive lead on the final bike circuit, but Spencer Panchik raced to the finish line. Lazar Dukic turned around and joined him after his judge pointed to the finish line. 

  • The confusion continued as Ricky Garard beat Koski in a foot race to the finish line despite being 45 seconds behind his fellow competitor earlier in the lap. The remainder of the men began to trickle, including defending NOBULL CrossFit Games champion Justin Medeiros, but none knew where they had actually finished. 

Based on the CrossFit live feed, Koski should have won the event, his fourth career event win at the CrossFit Games. It also marks the second consecutive year that he won the opening event after he captured the one-mile swim and three-mile kayak in 2021. 

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