That’s a Wrap on the 2018-2019 Season

Good morning and welcome to the weekend edition of the Morning Chalk Up. This is Justin LoFranco, your Editor-in-Chief to bring you a quick wrap-up of the major news items throughout the week.

Today’s edition is brought to you by Kettlebell Kitchen.

What do Tia-Clair Toomey, Noah Ohlsen, Kari Pearce, and the Invictus teams all have in common? They all ate Kettlebell Kitchen during the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games!

Designed to take your performance to the next level, KBK’s meals are perfect for those looking to crush their goals, no matter the season. For this week ONLY, KBK is extending their Games offer for Morning Chalk Up readers. Take advantage today and save 20% on your first three orders (ending on 8/14)!

Use code “GAMES2019”.

“If you want to look good in front of thousands, you have to outwork thousands in front of nobody.” — Damian Lillard

Last week, Morning Chalk Up set up shop in the FITAID lounge for the Morning Chalk Up Show live from Madison. We hosted a live show, hosted by Tommy Marquez three times a day, with guests like FITAID’s co-founder Aaron Hinde, Annie Thorisdottir, Chris Hinshaw, and Jason Carroll. We even snagged a live sit down with Mat Fraser at the end of the day, when Nike revealed their gold boxed gift to him for winning his fourth straight title as Fittest on Man Earth.

Field reporters Luke Duffy and Brittney Kleyn flew all the way from Australia to be on the ground with our team. The two ran all over the Alliant Energy Center, and the better parts of Madison, to get you on the ground interviews from Pat Vellner, Noah Ohlsen, Dave Castro and Sammy Moniz, amongst others. They made their way out to the Reebok Fit Barge, to CrossFit Connex, to the ROMWOD Warrior Course, and through a WOD with WIT and adaptive athlete Logan Aldrige. Our photographer, Patrick Clark, was all over the field of play to get the best possible shots of athletes in motion.

We met literally dozens of readers that came up to us asking to buy shirts (We’re sorry! We’ll bring some next year, we promise.) and to take pictures with us. As we walked around the venue, readers stopped us to say thanks for publishing their PR or spreading the word about their event, or being their trusted source for all things CrossFit, and for helping them keep their head above water with all the changes this season. (P.S. Sara Sigmundsdottir and Candy Fraser, Mat’s mom, were using Morning Chalk Up to discover the workouts!)

Thanks to our sponsors — FITAID, Nike, Kettlebell Kitchen and Black Rifle Coffee — and to CrossFit for giving us a shot to cover something this big with our team. It was an honor and a privilege to be your go-to trusted source during the CrossFit Games. And if there is something we missed, or you think we can do better, shoot us a note and let us know.

But there’s no rest for the weary friends. The CrossFit Open kicks off October 10, and you know what that means. Morning Chalk Up is getting right back to it, bringing you comprehensive coverage of the upcoming season as well as what is going on in and around your local community, to provide you all with the best CrossFit coverage we can.

It was great meeting you all in Madison. For those that we missed, we’ll see you again next year when we return with even bigger and better coverage.

In health and fitness,
Jessica Danger
Managing Editor

History repeated itself again in Madison, WI at the 2019 CrossFit Games as Tia-Clair Toomey and Mathew Fraser were once again crowned Fittest on Earth in this new Games era. With Mathew Fraser’s fourth straight victory, he ties Rich Froning as the winningest CrossFitter of all time and Toomey is now arguably the greatest female CrossFitter of all time. 

When Courtney Donmoyer took a year-long contract with the U.S. Army at CrossFit Arifjan in Kuwait, she thought she would just be coaching. Donmoyer had no idea she would wind up training dozens of Army soldiers to leave Kuwait as new CrossFit coaches themselves, as well as meet her future husband. 

Adrian Conway called the winners of the CrossFit Games in July, before day one of competition. In this guest, post he explains how he knew the podium would look the same, and outlines six reasons why the team component works or doesn’t work, regardless of what the roster looks like 

The last individual appearance Cheryl Nasso made on the CrossFit Games floor was in 2011, where she placed 42. Since then, Nasso has been trying to get back to the Games for seven years, making her the athlete with the largest gap in time since her last individual appearance competing in Madison last week. 

Heber Cannon announced on Talking Elite Fitness that the Buttery Bros are making a movie of the 2019 CrossFit season. A contract from CrossFit and a distribution deal from Gravitas Ventures is helping the two CrossFit documentarians seal the deal.

There is a lot of content to catch up with this week. Here are some of the big things you don’t want to miss. 

1. The Open kicks off October 10. 

2. There is still time to dial in your gymnastics before then. 

3. Kara Saunders is back at it, getting her first muscle-up since having baby Scotti. 

4. We sat down with the champ, Mat Fraser, as Nike awarded him a gift for being named the Fittest on the Planet for the fourth time. 

5. Here’s what it was like for Sammy Moniz this year, as she supported Mat through the Games from the stands. 

6. Now, Sammy and Mat are taking some time off at the lake to celebrate his win and her birthday. 

7. Tia-Clair Toomey and husband Shane Orr are taking time off in Peru to celebrate her win and also Shane’s birthday.

8. Feed your family like Mat Fraser with this recipe for Brunswick Stew and go heavy on the meat my friend.

9. Here is a behind the scenes look at Morning Chalk Up at the 2019 CrossFit Games.