Wodcelona Sees Growth, Introduces New Adaptive Divisions in Second Year
The largest inclusive CrossFit competition in the world was held last weekend, amidst palm trees and the Mediterranean sea.
The second annual Wodcelona, held in Barcelona, Spain was host to hundreds athletes competing in over 36 categories, consisting of “able-bodied” individuals, teams and masters, as well as over 20 adaptive categories, many of which were new this year.
Some background: Founder of the non-profit, Limited Edition Athletes and 2017 Wodapalooza champion Marc Gil, began the fitness festival last year, as he envisioned a competition held in the city of Barcelona that was fully inclusive: categories that offered competition to “able-bodied” athletes as well as multiple categories of adaptive athletes.
Held in partnership with Nike, in just its first year, the 2022 event hosted over 800 athletes over 16 categories and over 10,000 people attending the festival over the course of the weekend.
- “Our goal is not to be like the biggest competition… We just want to make sure that everybody has a chance to go there and have fun and participate and be part of this.”
- “One of the things that we definitely realize is that we have athletes who might be in a quadriplegic situation, being absolutely impaired. Here they have the chance to compete,” said Gil.
As the adaptive categories and roster availability are becoming more limited at the CrossFit Games, a competition like Wodcelona is all the more significant. 2022 Winner Amalia Ortuno, in an interview last year, shared how much it means to her to compete on such a large stage.
- “Wodcelona had a lot of spectators. In the Games, there’s not so many spectators because [adaptive athletes] still aren’t given that importance,” said Ortuno.
- “For me, competing is everything. I love the competition. I love the three, two, one. That part is my favorite, it’s a lot of rush. I love training but I have a more powerful mind when I am competing than training,” Ortuno continued.
Gil, along with LEA, has worked in conjunction with CrossFit, helping to develop their adaptive division for the CrossFit Open. Additionally, LEA has worked with Spartan Races as well as the 2022 Wodapalooza event, advising and helping to improve adaptive programming and accessibility.
The 2023 Event: Regardless of the division, athletes all completed six workouts over the course of three days, and on Sunday afternoon, the podiums were set. The following teams and individuals walked away with gold medals, some of whom medalled twice:
Teams:
- Crazy Frogs | Grit Programming B23 | Van Girls | Los Papini Gorditos
- Crossfiperras | Unexpected Team | Green Girls | Project 3 Limoni
“Able- Bodied”:
- Djordje Djuric | Arnau Sabaté | Marina Chrismariu | Carla López | Marta Brichs
- Krys Sergey | Miriam Brichs | Joan León | Mar Coca | Nejc Rudel
- Fiona Nuñez | Henry Sollier
Adaptive:
- Jedidiah Snelson | Emily Saler | Raquel Oliver Campos | Charlotte Burnett
- Amalia Ortuño | Thibault Dupré | Lorenzo Casadei | Camilo Pardo | Fiona Pinar
- Chris Fair | George Simonds-Gooding | Lichen Du Plessis | Alex Belot
- Cerrato Piergiorgio | Thomas Green | Sabrina Daulaus | Anneka Allen
Check out the full leaderboard to see the full roster of competitors and how they all finished.
In 2022, as the event was unfolding for its inaugural year, Gil shared his enthusiasm, after formulating his plan for the event for years.
- “And after four years, pandemics in between. Lots of talks, discussions, and people coming in, we’re going up now. … I couldn’t be more stoked and more excited about it. It just is like a dream coming true,” said Gil.
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