CrossFit Games

Madrid Championship Kicks-off Exciting Offseason Competition Schedule

September 7, 2022 by
Photo Credit - Madrid Championship
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The 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games completed just over a month ago but fans don’t have to wait long to see elite athletes on the competition floor. The Madrid Championship takes place this weekend September 9-11 in Caja Mágica in Madrid, Spain. The three-day CrossFit licensed competition, programmed by HWPO and presented by Loud And Live Sports, is one of the first major offseason CrossFit competitions, featuring some of the top stars in the sport.

What’s on the line:

The total prize purse is 170,000 Euros ($168,215 USD) which includes payouts to the top three elite individuals in both the men’s and women’s division as well as the top three elite teams.

Elite Individual Payout

  1. 30,000 Euros ($29,685 USD)
  2. 15,000 Euros ($14,842 USD)
  3. 6,000 Euros ($5,937 USD)

Elite Team Payout

  1. 20,000 Euros ($19,790 USD)
  2. 12,000 Euros ($11,874 USD)
  3. 6,000 Euros ($5,937 USD)

Men

Over 70 men from all over the world will be competing in this division. Ten athletes who have appeared at the Games are among that field highlighted by two-time top-10 Games finisher Lazar Đukić. The Serbian is fresh off an 8th place finish at the Games. 

Eight-time Games veteran Travis Mayer makes the trip across the pond to give the field an American contender. Mayer placed 18th at the Games in August.

Guillaume Briant and Giorgos Karavis each placed 26th and 37th respectively at the Games to round out the athletes from this past season.

Four-time Games athlete Adrian Mundwiler leads a group of past Games qualifiers looking to push the recent athletes for podium finishes. He’s joined by Alex Kotoulas, Bronislaw Olenkowicz, David Shorunke, Elijah Muhammad and Luka Đukić.

Aleksandr Plyushkin competed at the Games this year as a member of the KT CrossFit team from Russia.

The field also includes 11 additional athletes that competed at a Semifinal as an individual this past season including American Leonel Franco and Brit Zack George.

Women

The women’s field doesn’t include as many individual Games athletes as the men’s but they more than make up for it with quality. Four-time Games veteran Emma McQuaid leads that group. One of the fittest women in Europe, she placed 12th at the Games this past season for the second-straight year.

Swede Emma Tall was a favorite to qualify for her third-straight Games but had to withdraw from her Semifinal prior to the competition due to an injury. Using the competition as her Games, she’s one of the favorites for the top of the podium.

Julie Hougård qualified for her lone Games appearance in 2019, placing 72nd as Denmark’s national champion.

Lena Richter, Rebecka Vitesson and Aizhan Zharasova have each made appearances at the Games on a team. Richter is most well-known as a member of the CrossFit Oslo team that has finished second in the Affiliate Cup the last two seasons. Madrid will be her first test for the upcoming season as she plans to compete as an individual.

Among the 15 women in the field that have a Semifinal appearance this season are such notable athletes like Oihana Moya, Aimee Cringle, Linda Keesman and Kyra Milligan. Moya advanced to the Last Chance Qualifier for the second-straight season, finishing 9th. Cringle at just 23 years old is considered one of the rising stars of Europe. Milligan is the only American competing in the women’s field.

Two athletes to watch as serious contenders are teenage Canadian phenom Anikha Greer and Belgian powerhouse Manon Angonese. Both athletes failed to advance to the Semifinals this year due to score submission errors and look to make up for that with a busy offseason. Angonese won the Rogue Invitational Qualifier and Greer placed fourth, each will receive an invite to the prestigious competition at the end of October.

Teams

As stacked as the individual divisions are, it’s the teams division that could steal the show with its collection of talented athletes and some of the top Affiliates in the world.

Going by the name of CrossFit Oslo HSTL, the two-time Games runner-up from Norway will show off their possible new line-up for the 2023 Games season. Returning are team staples Eivind Ringard and Ingrid Hodnemyr. Matilde Garnes competed as a rookie this past season, placing 19th as an individual. Henrik Negård made his Games debut as well but as a member of the CrossFit Oslo Purple Red team.

With two of their teammates competing as individuals in the competition, the KT CrossFit will use their Games alternates Aleksandra Buzunova and Ivan Kukartsev to field their Kolesnikov team. They will join Games holdovers Kseniia Trubetskaia and Grigoriy Gribenyuk to challenge their counterparts from Norway.

The CrossFit Zarautz team is also bringing back half of their Games team for the competition. Going by Training Culture, Pablo Cazalis and Alexander Anasagasti added Fabian Beneito Selles and Metty Greneron.

As good as those teams are, eyes will be on the Krypton team. This team features the husband-wife duo of Jamie and Elliot Simmonds joining Mia Hesketh and Kristof Horvath after Dani Speegle and Alec Smith elected not to compete.

The South American team, Mayhem Libertad will showcase a team that includes Argentinian Games veterans Melina Rodriguez and Agustin Richelme. They will be joined by young Brazilian Luiza Marques and Santiago Comba from Uruguay who have each made Games appearances.

JST Compete and Butcher’s Lab are two affiliate names known throughout Europe and will make a push for a podium finish. Both teams feature athletes who have competed at the Games on a team. Butcher’s Lab will have four different teams in the field.

Crooked Lake CrossFit, Nordur and Frenchips are teams to keep an eye out on as each team includes Games athletes or in the case of Frenchips, have been teaming together in the European CrossFit circuit for a while. A notable name on the Nordur team is Bjork Odinsdottir who makes a return to the competition floor after four years away.

Morning Chalk Up coverage:

The Morning Chalk Up will have Lauren Kalil and Preslie Hirsch onsite to provide daily recaps and athlete interviews on our YouTube channel. Subscribe and sign-up for alerts for the latest from Madrid.

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