CrossFit Signs a New Health Partner

September 1   |   POWERED BY

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• CrossFit signs a new health partner.
• Mat Fraser, Heber Cannon and Marston Sawyers launch a supplement company.
• Key takeaways from the Butcher’s Classic.

“One day, you might look up and see me playing the game at 50. Don't laugh. Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” - Michael Jordan

In March 2020, two guys from Texas reached out to filmmakers Heber Cannon and Marston Sawyers—commonly known as the Buttery Bros—and asked them to help them build a sports nutrition company.

“I was immediately interested. I’ve got an entrepreneurial heart and like the hustle of it. This just sounded fun, and I kind of had a fascination with supplements for years,” Cannon said.

And when he looked into who these two Texan CrossFit enthusiasts were— Jeremy Osborne and Paul Haverland, both of whom have experience building supplement companies whose products Cannon liked—it quickly became a no-brainer to join on their mission to build a sports nutrition company designed specifically for CrossFit athletes.

A year-and-a-half later, their company, Podium Nutrition, launched its first products in the United States today, including a protein powder, a pre-workout, and a BCAA product.

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Airrosti was named the official Rapid Recovery Provider of CrossFit. The Texas-based preventative care provider will now offer CrossFit affiliate owners and members a special version of treatment through Airrosti’s remote digital healthcare solution, Airrosti Remote Recovery.

WHOOP there it is. After raising $200 million in new funding, WHOOP is now valued at a whopping $3.6 billion dollars, roughly tripling their valuation from a previous round raised just last October. The company said it plans to use the money to continue developing their tech to compete with the largest wearables in the world: translation Apple and Google.

• Get a free strap and first month’s membership.

Saying Goodbye: The CrossFit community lost Navy Corpsman and member of Custom Fitness, Max Soviak, was killed in action in Afghanistan.

• “Max never wanted to be a hero, but he will always be ours. Thank you for letting us be a part of your PRs, growth and accomplishments. We will NEVER forget your sacrifice- we will never forget you.”

The Make PODs Great Again Podcast has officially changed their name to Kettlebells and Cocktails.

🤔 Thought starter: When COVID forced boutique fitness studios like CrossFit Novem in Philly to shut down last March, it spurned the creation of the PA Independent Training Facility Coalition, a small group of fitness studios that banded together to lobby Governor Tom Wolf to let gyms stay open.

NOBULL continues their expansion outside of CrossFit, signing New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones. This is now their fourth non-CrossFit athlete and second NFL player, joining Carolina Panthers backup WB Will Grier.

• Marcus Wilson, co-founder: “We feel strongly that before long, we will have great athletes in all major sports.”

Four Takeaways from the Butcher’s Classic

The first major offseason-sanctioned CrossFit competition concluded inside Ballerup Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark on Sunday afternoon with the star-studded Butcher’s Classic giving fans a look at what the future may hold for the sport post-CrossFit Games. The two-person team event was filled with excitement throughout it’s three days and here are four takeaways from the competition.

1. Europe finally goes live: This is the first major live competition held in Europe since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. From a Games athlete standpoint, the only live competition for the European-based athletes has been for those who qualified and traveled to the United States to compete at the Games. The Europeans saw their Semifinals revert to an online competition due to the pandemic. Those same athletes took full advantage of the opportunity to compete against others on a competition floor as the line-up was a who’s-who of European CrossFit stars including Frederick Aegidius, Andre Houdet, Phil Hesketh, Giorgos Karavis, Emilia Leppanen, Julie Hougard, Jacqueline Dahlstrom, Mia Hesketh, Christina Agerbeck, Rebecca Vitesson and Ella Wunger. The organizers made sure that even with the pandemic still looming that they took all the necessary precautions to make sure the athletes were safe. This event and the protocols they set in place can be a model for other competitions in Europe to use so they can return to live, in-person events that allows even more of the top European athletes the ability to compete during the offseason and hopefully for the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games Semifinals.
2. The Russians dominate: In what was supposed to showcase European athletes it was the duo of Games veterans Roman Khrennikov and Alexandar Illin teaming up to represent their native Russia that finished on top of the podium. They finished in the top-3 in eight of the ten events including three wins. They ended the competition by winning the final two events and finishing ahead of the runner-up team of fellow Games veterans Giorgos Karavis and Simon Mantyla by 70 points.The victory by the Russians only fuels the discussion of how Khrennikov would have performed at the Games if he’s ever allowed to compete live. He has certainly shown that he has the capacity to do well at the Games in other live competitions but we will never know until he can get his travel Visa issues figured out.
3. Thunder From Down Under: If there are any two CrossFit athletes that need a reality show it’s in my opinion Khan Porter and James Newbury. If you have been keeping track of the two Australians social media since their reunion as members of the Games Demo Team you know those two are the living embodiment of the phrase “living their best lives”. With the difficulties of getting back into their home country well documented, these two Games veterans look to be in no hurry to return down under and are content with trying to get as much traveling and fitness in as possible.Both athletes just missed out on qualifying for the Games this season but there’s no question that they are amongst the fittest athletes in the world and they are looking ahead to the 2022 season to prove that. The Butcher’s Classic was just the first stop. Inspired by their trip to Las Vegas after the Games, they competed under the team name of Thunder From Down Under and placed fourth. However, there wasn’t a team who had more fun while competing than these two Aussies as they would also win two events during the weekend.
4. A new European hotbed of fitness? Iceland has long been considered the standard-bearer of European CrossFit. But this past season has shown us that Norwegian athletes, specifically in the women’s division, are preparing to step up and take the mantle despite their most well-known athlete Kristin Holte retiring from Games competition. The winners of the women’s Elite division further added fuel to the fire as Martine Solheim and Ingrid Hodnemyr represented Norway on the podium. The two athletes teamed up to win four events and finished 30 points ahead of Team Vanilla Thunder.Hodnemyr, fresh off a run with CrossFit Oslo who took second at the Games behind CrossFit Mayhem, is part of this Norwegian run of athletes that started with Holte and continues with mainstays Dahlstrom and Matilda Garnes. I expect the country and its athletes to make itself known during the 2022 season.

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