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

May 8, 2023 by
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.

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