“Be happy! It drives other people crazy!”- A random Splenda sweetener packet
NEWS
BREAKING: Roman Khrennikov Gets U.S. Visa
Four-time CrossFit Games qualifier, Russian Roman Khrennikov, has received a visa to enter the United States. It grants him the opportunity to travel for any competition in the country for the next five years.
In a statement sent to Morning Chalk Up, Snorri Baron, who manages Khrennikov, explained how happy he is to finally have the chance to compete at the CrossFit Games after having his visa denied three times. Khrennikov was able to compete in the 2020 CrossFit Games because it was online due to the pandemic, where he came 13th.
“Ever since Roman burst onto the scene by winning the Europe Regionals in Berlin in 2018, he has been unsuccessful in securing a visa to travel to the USA to compete amongst the best of the best at the CrossFit Games,” said Baron. “This story has been widely reported and has touched a lot of hearts. Various people have approached me or Roman directly to offer their assistance and for this he is eternally grateful.”
One big thing: Khrennikov is widely considered to be the fittest athlete to never have competed at the CrossFit Games in person, despite qualifying for the Games four years in a row. In 2020, he was able to compete in the online portion of the Games, finishing a respectable 13th. His in-person match-ups against similar Games athletes, however, have been much more impressive.
How this went down: Baron said last summer Khrennikov, who won the 2021 Dubai CrossFit Championship this past December, adding to a long list of impressive victories outside of the US, was approached by gym owners Pat and Roza Giles, who run Pat’s Gym in Madison, Wisconsin. He said they took a “special interest Roman’s story and offered him a helping hand. A friendship was formed and the process that today proved fruitful was started.”
The journey for Khrennikov is a long and storied one within the world of CrossFit and is the culmination of four years of frustration for the athlete.
Khrennikov has tried multiple routes in the past to obtain a visa to attend the CrossFit Games, including applying for both a tourist visa and an athlete’s visa. CrossFit LLC has provided assistance on his behalf, writing letters detailing his role as an athlete and intent to compete at the CrossFit Games.
Khrennikov’s addition to the CrossFit Games season is big news as many pundits believe he is, and has been in the past, a podium threat in the men’s elite division. His best finish in the CrossFit Open was 10th in 2020.
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Interested in having someone with a posh British accent explain the CrossFit Open to you? WIT Fitness is ready for the madness, and are offering 25% off sitewide too with a promo code.
Also, in case you missed it, our nutrition columnist Meredith Root joined Lauren Kalil on The Bottom Line to talk about how to get your food game ready for the Open too.
VIDEO
Roman Khrennikov Gets His U.S. Visa and Why It’s Such a Big Deal | The Bottom Line
Mat Fraser and Other CrossFit Games Athletes Offer Tips on Embracing the Pain Cave During the Open
Every CrossFit Open has at least one of them: a workout that’s all about how badly you want it.
It’s the workout where you know you can always get one more rep, where you can always go one second faster, and where your fate on the leaderboard—and more importantly the feeling you will have after the workout—depends largely on how much you’re willing to make yourself hurt in the moment.
In CrossFit we often refer to these workouts as “pain cave” workouts—like the seven minutes of max reps burpees from the 2012 Open, the descending ladder of thrusters and burpees in 2014, or the 15-minute rowing and wall ball AMRAP of 2019—and the Open is notorious for them.
Syndicate Crown Emerges as Second Semifinal for Wilson Pak, Says He Plans to “Over-Deliver”
Last week, CrossFit announced the last two semifinal events to round out the 2022 season. Included in the list, a new event – the Syndicate Crown – operated by the same team organizing the MACC semifinal.
“The CrossFit Games reached out and proposed whether or not we could pull off another semifinal and we went back and forth to figure out what the best plan would be and for our situation,” said Wilson Pak, the event director of the Syndicate Crown and Mid Atlantic CrossFit Challenge.
“We thought it would be best to stay in an area that we thought we’d be optimistic to run a live event and that was going to be back to back weekends in Knoxville, Tennessee.”
Just two weeks prior to the Syndicate Crown becoming a semifinal event, CrossFit released a partial list – raising questions as to why the list was not yet complete – but Pak said conversations with CrossFit to host a second semifinal only began a few weeks ago.
The MACC and Syndicate Crown will be held in back to back weekends, making logistics on the events team and securing the venue, the Civic Coliseum in Knoxville, feasible. But running two semifinal events comes with its challenges, especially when looking to make each event stand out while ensuring to send the fittest through to the CrossFit Games.
Depending on who you talk to, carbs are your best friend or your greatest enemy...but which is it? Check out some science to see how it varies for each person and while they are integral for performance, doing a WOD three times a week doesn't mean you need to start carb loading.
The R.A.D® ONE became in instant hit after launching at Wodapalooza this year. Now R.A.D are preparing to drop new colors and you can be the first to see them at the link below. Extremely limited quantities will be available so sign up to their mailing list to know when they're live.
You might not be making major strength gains between now and next week, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make some last-minute tweaks to start crushing skills you struggle with. And these wall walk tips are a game-changer for a movement that threw us all off last year.
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