Tia-Clair Toomey Heads to Rogue Invitational

September 21   |   POWERED BY

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr has entered the chat (er, uh, the Rogue Invitational field)
• Kriger Training Co-Founder, Joakim Rygh, talks about training intensity and volume
• Learn more about Fort Worth, TX, the new home of the CrossFit Games
• James Sprague to be featured in Reps Ahead match, a new competition format

Don’t forget to hit us up with story tips, highlights, quotes of the day and more.

“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” - Wayne Dyer

Tia Toomey-Orr Rounds Out Rogue Invitational Roster

While the Rogue Invitational has been trickling names onto the leaderboard for the last several weeks, just today, we finally learned of the final name on the roster. None other than six time CrossFit Games champion, Tia-Clair Toomey.

Remind me: After racking up her sixth win at the 2022 CrossFit Games, fans were uncertain if the competitor would be returning for another season. When asked if she’d be back, her answer was vague and there were indicators that she may be taking some time off due to injury.

She was invited to Rogue in 2022, and reported considering the Legends division, as she was battling some back pain, and needed more time to recover, as the elite individual division began earlier and consisted of more tests.

In November of 2022, she was planning on competing in the Down Under Championship, on a team with fellow Aussie Games athlete Ellie Turner, but pulled out due to what we know now was her pregnancy.

On May 9th, Toomey gave birth to her and partner Shane Orr’s daughter Willow. Since then, Tia has been seen training with her PRVN crew in Nashville, and attending the Games to support her fellow athletes.

The bottom line: Much speculation has been made as to when the champion will return to competition and today our guesses have been verified, the Aussie will head to Dell Diamond in Austin, TX this October. It will be the first time Toomey has competed since the 2022 CrossFit Games.

The Taste of Fall: Apple Cider Donut

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Built for Athletes x PRVN: The UK premium fitness brand specializing in bags for those who are passionate about fitness are partnering with PRVN to create a limited edition backpack for the training platform.

• Shane Orr, Managing Director of PRVN Fitness: “Here at PRVN, we prioritize utilizing brands that offer the highest quality products and constantly strive for better, Built For Athletes is a perfect match for us. They understand not only our need for peak performance on competition day, but everything involved in the build up to that point. Durable and comfortable training equipment is such an important part of our lives in CrossFit, and Built For Athletes delivers the goods with their top-class product line.”

How Affiliates can Accept HSA as Payment: Earlier this week, the Morning Chalk Up published an article about an informational session being run by the North East CrossFit Affiliate Team and TrueMed. The Midwest CrossFit Affiliate Team is doing the same. Check it out.

Reebok Swags Up 2023 Victory Grips Pit Teen Throwdown: The fourth annual Victory Grips Pit Teen Throwdown Sept. 1-3 in Three Rivers, MI, challenged more than 120 athletes ages 14-22 to a weekend of workouts for just their peers. As one of the primary partners for the event, Reebok provided shoes and athlete kits, as well as shirts and shorts and other gear for the volunteers at the event.

• “This swag was an amazing offer from Reebok,” said Stephanie Price, Pit Teen Throwdown event coordinator. “Being able to outfit all of these kids and many of our staff? It’s such a huge blessing.”

ICYMI: Brooke Wells makes off-season jump to HWPO Training.

Have a Speed Read you think we might like? Hit us up.

Kriger Training Co-Founder Joakim Rygh on Intensity and Programming

A new European programming camp is on the rise, and besides their star-studded roster, a novel ethos is helping them differentiate themselves.

Kriger Training–meaning warrior in Norwegian–was founded by eight-time CrossFit Games athlete Kristen Holte and her coach Joakim Rygh as she was concluding her tenure as a competitive athlete. The long-time pair knew they had something special with Holte’s training and they decided to share it with the world.

Don’t Mess with Texas: More About Fort Worth, the New Host of the CrossFit Games

Don’t mess with Texas.

It was announced on Tuesday that after six years in Madison, the CrossFit Games are making the move to Fort Worth, TX. The Games will be held at the Dickies Arena from August 8-11, 2024, and many people are wondering what we can expect from this new location and how its hometown charm will be woven into the identity and programming of the CrossFit Games.

Some Quick Facts:

• Fort Worth is the fifth biggest city in Texas in population and was originally established in 1849 as an army outpost.
• It’s the center of the Texas longhorn cattle trade.
• The city is full of universities and college life–home to Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan, and more.

A City of Cowboys and Culture

• There is a twice-daily cattle drive at the Historic Stockyards downtown.
• The city has a total of 263 parks and a total park acreage of just over 11,000.
• The local Trinity River has over 100 miles of trails.
• It is considered the museum capital of the Southwest.

Dickies Arena – The Main Venue

The Dickies Arena will be the home base for the Games, replacing the 10,000-seat Alliant Energy Center. Dickies Arena has 14,000 seats and opened in 2019, hosts concerts and events, and is the home base for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s Stock Show Rodeo.

• By the numbers:

• There are three standard levels of seating (plaza, suite, and gallery) plus floor seating.
• There is also a 98,000-square-foot exhibit arena attached.
• An almost five-acre outdoor plaza is nearby, which can accommodate around 2,000 people.
• The arena houses the second-largest contiguous indoor center-hung video board, so no matter your seat, you will be able to see the action.

The arena is part of the Will Rogers Memorial Center Campus, which is located about three miles from Fort Worth’s Downtown District. The Campus is about 120 acres and includes the Will Rogers Coliseum, Will Rogers Auditorium, another exhibition hall, and an Equestrian Center. This gives the CrossFit Games tons of space to play with.

Other Potential Venues

But wait, there’s more. Outside of Dickies Arena and The Will Rogers Memorial Center Campus, Fort Worth has plenty of other spaces that could be great for fitness.

• Farrington Field

• A full-size football field located a 20-minute walk away from Dickie’s Arena with bleacher-style seating.
• Tons of nearby parking.

• Trinity River Trail System

• Farrington Field is connected to the River Trail System and is a great starting point for a biking or running event.
• There are several launch pads along the river for paddle boarding.
• The system includes Marine Lake, a small urban lake that allows fishing, swimming, kayaking, and sailing.

• TCU
• A 10-minute drive from Dickie’s Arena, the TCU Campus spans 302 acres.
• The Campus is home to many athletic facilities, including both an indoor and outdoor aquatic center.

James Sprague to be Featured in Upcoming Reps Ahead Match: A New One-on-One Competition Format

Since its inception, the allure of sport has based itself, at least partly, on the showmanship of athletes pushing themselves and each other to their physical limits. We see it in the bright lights of the coliseum every year at the CrossFit Games and beyond the sport of fitness itself, in major sporting events like the Olympics and the Superbowl.

One big thing: Reps Ahead founder Phillip Thomas is looking to take that showmanship and excitement to the next level with his new competition format “Reps Ahead”.

The details: This revolutionary new competition format for functional fitness pushes athletes to not just beat their opponents, but beat them by a specific number of reps.

• This knockout-style workout gives the essence of a one-on-one UFC-style fight. According to their website, the competition “is a one-on-one competitive format where one person tries to get a set number of reps ahead of the other person.”
• “As soon as someone gets the specified number of reps ahead the match ends. Any combination of movements and reps can be used. It is the knockout version of functional fitness.”

According to Reps Ahead founder Phillip Thomas it’s “UFC CrossFit, it’s MMA CrossFit.”

Remind me: This isn’t the first alternative competition format to the Games the sport of functional fitness has seen.

• In the mid-2010s, the National Pro Fitness League (formerly known as the Grid League) sought to create a more fan-friendly experience of fitness racing.
• While the NPFL no longer exists, amateur leagues still draw hundreds of spectators down in Florida.
• Similarly, the International Functional Fitness Federation (IF3) has also sought to create a format of functional fitness that would be eligible to become an Olympic sport.
• More recently, functional fitness fans have seen the massive growth of the sport HYROX, as Games athletes like Ricky Garard show off their talents during their off-season from the CrossFit Games.

All in the experience: The goal of this new format is to give functional fitness fans a more spectator-friendly experience.

• Because of the one-on-one style competition format, fans are able to be more engaged with the individual athletes they are cheering for.
• Not only that, but the fact that athletes must overtake their competitors by a certain number of reps brings spectators to the edge of their seats as competitors fight to knock each other out.

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Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise. Send us a tip.

• 🍼Congratulations to Games veteran Kara Saunders and partner Matt on the birth of their new baby.
• ⭐️Congratulations to Adam and Michael of CrossFit Raw Appeal in Las Vegas, NV for completing 32 Benchmark WODS in one single day.
• Congratulations Lita of Invictus Seattle in Seattle, WA for completing an Ironman 70.3.
• Congratulations Matthieu of Matt’s Garage in Laval, Canada for completing his CF Level 4. 
• 🤸‍♀️Great job to all the kids of Sawed Off CrossFit Kids in College Station, TX for getting after it every week.

To celebrate his 10 years of owning CrossFit Federal Hill in Baltimore, MD, Geo Rockwell is attempting to run 100 miles in 24 hours in a loop course around his gym. He will not only be doing this as a celebration, but to raise money for the non-profit, The Community of Strength Project, which gives youth of inner city Baltimore access to free CrossFit classes. Visit his blog post to learn more about this challenge and how to donate.

See all upcoming events