Day 1 Recap

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How it started...rain began to fall as the individual athletes lined up for the first event. Brent Fikowski entered the water in 9th place and was the first to emerge from Lake Monona never to relinquish the lead. Both Kristi Eramo and Tia-Clair Toomey exited the water at the same time and would continue running side-by-side until the final sprint to the finish just a few steps behind Fikowski.

FUN FACT: Brent Fikowski notched up his 5th career event win in only 16 career events at the CrossFit Games.

FUN FACT: Kristi Eramo recently finished the Boston marathon in 3:10, and three women were in the first five finishers overall: Tia-Clair Toomey, Kristi Eramo and Sam Briggs.

CYCLOCOURSE…turns out that where athletes finished in the time trial was a good indicator of how’d they perform come Tuesday. Four of five top female finishers from the time trial and three of five males ended up in the top five. UNCHAINED…Travis Mayer, Kari Pearce and Casey Campbell all experienced issues with their bike chains requiring assistance before being able to get back out to race.

Tim Chan on how Cyclocross made it into the Games…“CrossFit athletes are really diverse. We prepare for the unknown and the unknowable. So you’re trying for general physical preparedness. Taking something like cyclocross isn’t just saying ‘Here, ride a bike.’ We know you can ride a bike. We know you can swim. We know you can run. We know you can do all this stuff. What happens if we throw some obstacles in there. How do you handle it?”

FUN FACT: Sam Briggs is only one event win away from becoming the third athlete with double digit event wins. Annie Thorisdottir and Rich Froning are currently the only two.

The history of this event is important. Amanda is named for Amanda Miller, a 2009 Games athlete who died of cancer in April 2010. Dave Castro created the workout for the 2010 CrossFit Games as a tribute to her. It was also the first event to ever held in the Tennis Stadium in Carson, CA.

FUN FACT: 13-11-9-7-5 is 45 total reps, same amount as 21-15-9 rep scheme.

FUN FACT: What does it take to beat Mathew Fraser in an event? You have to do it all unbroken, which is what Army Vet Dakota Rager did through all muscle-up sets for a time of 8:01.56.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, who dislocated her shoulder and tore her labrum two weeks ago, fell and dislocated her shoulder again during the Cyclocross event. After finishing the event she decided to withdraw. “I fell on it and it just came out…I kind of wanted to puke. The adrenaline kicked in and I just put it back in. Now it feels really unstable.”

Carleen Mathews on withdrawing from the 2017 Games after being unable to complete minimum work requirement in Event 3…”And just like that my 2017 CrossFit Games is over…Tuesday night I flew into Madison and woke up Wednesday with what I thought was just a knot in my back…got it worked on but no relief…by Friday I realized my left arm was not locking out and feeling dumb. I knew something was NOT right with my body. I was trying so desperately to be positive and be myself and fight through it… but I did not feel comfortable in my body…warming up for the snatch event I was able to snatch and my warm up kip swings for the muscle up felt great…I went to do a muscle up and could not dip out. I was telling my body to do something and it would not respond…This is NOT the end of MY journey. I am mad, I am sad, I am disappointed… however this too shall pass. This does not take away from the phenomenal year I have had… the end result is just a part of my journey… but the reality is…there is so much for me to be proud of, to celebrate, and to cherish.”

Chelsey Hughes withdrew after Event 2 due to an injury, but we don’t know any more.

Something looks off with Josh Bridges. We ran into Dan Bailey last night and he said Josh has been unable to keep food down for the past two days.

While the individual and team athletes were playing outside, the teenagers were lifting heavy, really really heavy. Athletes were given six minutes to establish a 1RM snatch and PRs were going up all over the place. Taylor Babb won the 16-17 division with a 195 pound snatch. Babb currently holds three American Youth Records in weightlifting and is the reigning National Champion in the 63kg class.

Seventeen-year-old Guilherme Malheiros from Brazil snatched 291 poundsto win the event with Angelo DiCicco hitting 267 pounds.

CF GAMES BY THE NUMBERS