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Annie Sakamoto: One of the Original “Girls” on Two Decades in CrossFit

May 8, 2023 by Emily Beers

Photo Credit: CrossFit Games (instagram.com/crossfitgames)

Annie Sakamoto remembers that day at the end of 2005 well.

She was one year into CrossFit and founder Greg Glassman told her he wanted her to be in a video attempting a new workout he had created.

“We had no idea what the workout was going to be,” Sakamoto said of the day they filmed what has now become the iconic Nasty Girls video, a workout featuring three rounds of 50 air squats, seven muscle-ups and 10 power cleans at 95 pounds.

“Back then, so much of this stuff we had never done. Seven muscle-ups, three rounds. ‘I wonder what that will be like.’ I don’t think any of us had ever done that many muscle-ups in a workout,” Sakamoto remembered, laughing.

Up to the challenge, Sakamoto—along with two other original CrossFit girls, Nicole Carroll and Eva Twardokens—set up their barbells, waited for the “3, 2, 1 Go” and attempted Nasty Girls for the first time.

“When I go back and watch that video, I’m like, ‘Maybe I didn’t even warm-up,’ because the first rep at that 95 pounds I look completely shocked,” Sakamoto said.