The 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games Semifinals start…now!

May 19   |   POWERED BY

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Semifinals are here, check out all the details and stay up to date below
• Amanda Wright, owner of CrossFit Lanier got sober and is now paying it forward
• And, is the Concept2 SkiErg for you? We think so, but learn more

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all-time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.” - Vince Lombardi

The 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games North America East Semifinal in Orlando, Florida kicked off its team competition on Thursday, with individuals starting their competition today. Full details on that are included below.

How to catch up: 

• Prediction: Who will qualify for the Games from North America East?

Resources to stay up to date:

• North America East content hub
• How to watch and schedule of events
• Leaderboard
• Roster

Leaderboard

The competition starts at 9:00 AM ET, but here are the top 10 seeded athletes and teams coming out of Quarterfinals.

1. Jeffrey Adler | Danielle Brandon | CrossFit East Nashville PRVN
2. Roman Khrennikov | Emma Lawson | CrossFit Mayhem Independence
3. Jayson Hopper | Emma Cary | CrossFit OBA
4. Dallin Pepper | Brooke Wells | CrossFit Krypton
5. Samuel Cournoyer | Paige Powers | TTT CrossFit Black
6. Saxon Panchik | Alexis Raptis | CrossFit MFLH 247
7. Noah Ohlsen | Amanda Barnhart | CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus
8. Alexandre Caron | Paige Semenza | CrossFit Future of the Brutes
9. Tyler Christophel | Carolyne Prevost | 12 Labour CrossFit Lions
10. Spencer Panchik | Feeroozeh Saghafi | 8th Day CrossFit

Full leaderboard

Workouts, Schedule and How to Watch

Friday’s schedule of events: Below is the broadcast schedule. You can watch all events live on our content hub.

• Team Event 3 — 6:00 AM PT | 9:00 AM ET | 2:00 PM BST
• Individual Event 1 — 6:55 AM PT | 9:55 AM ET | 2:55 PM BST
• Team Event 4 — 11:00 AM PT | 2:00 PM ET | 7:00 PM BST
• Individual Event 2 — 12:30 PM PT | 3:30 PM ET | 8:30 PM BST

Want to see the schedule in your local time zone? Our schedule will automatically update to where you are on MorningChalkUp.com.

The REBEL Renegade Games, an official 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games Semifinal in Johannesburg, South Africa began in the early morning hours for those of us in the US. Full details on that are included below.

How to catch up: 

• Prediction: Who will qualify for the Games from Africa?

Resources to stay up to date:

• Africa content hub
• How to watch and schedule of events
• Leaderboard
• Roster

Leaderboard

The competition starts at 3:00 AM ET, but here are the top 10 seeded athletes and top 5 teams coming out of quarterfinals.

1. Kealan Henry | Michelle Basnett | CrossFit FBDV Mayhem Africa
2. Darren Zurnamer | Christina Livaditakis | Cape CrossFit Wolfpack
3. Jason Smith | Gemma Rader | CrossFit Tijger Valley Synergy
4. Ruan Potgieter | Mariska Smit | CrossFit 10 Stars Hybrids
5. Conrad Winnertz | Tanha Bouffe | CrossFit Juggernaut Unstoppable
6. Daniel Griesel | Dina Swift |
7. James Van Dongen | Anneke Spies |
8. Ross Low | Mary Jamieson |
9. Dutoit Botha | Laura Hume |
10. Ruan Conradie | Gilmari Reyneke |

Full leaderboard

Workouts, Schedule and How to Watch

Friday’s schedule of events: Below is the broadcast schedule. You can watch all events live on our content hub.

• Team Event 1 — 12:00 AM PT | 3:00 AM ET | 8:00 AM BST
• Individual Event 1 — 1:29 AM PT | 4:29 AM ET | 9:29 AM BST
• Team Event 2 — 5:51 AM PT | 8:51 AM ET | 1:51 PM BST
• Individual Event 2 — 6:47 AM PT | 9:47 AM ET | 2:47 PM BST

Want to see the schedule in your local time zone? Our schedule will automatically update to where you are on MorningChalkUp.com.

Born Primitive Enters the Shoe Arena // Meet the Savage 1

You’re already a savage at the gym. You need shoes to match. Meet the Savage 1 by Born Primitive. Their team designed their debut shoe to be:

• Breathable with lightweight air mesh
• Better for balance and comfort with a wide toe box
• A double threat being denser at the heel for lifting, softer at the forefront for running
• Versatile in five different colorways

The Savage 1 will have a 72 hour pre-sale window coming soon that you won’t want to miss. Get on the pre-sale list now!

CrossFit Lanier Owner Amanda Wright Gets Sober, Gives Back to Help Others do the Same

After CrossFit Lanier helped Amanda Wright get sober, lose weight and regain her health, she purchased the gym in Cumming, GA in 2021.

Most recently, Wright decided she wanted to give back and help others get sober, so she hosted a fundraiser competition—the Spring Thaw Throwdown—which raised $3,500 for No Longer Bound, a local charity that helps men get sober “and reconnect with their family through counseling and bonding and healing,” Wright explained.

The event was such a success she’s planning on turning it into an annual event to raise money.

• “For the first time in a really long time, it felt like every moment of my struggle was worth it to be able to pay it forward,” Wright said.

Wright’s Story

For a long time, Amanda Wright had a drinking problem that “progressively got worse,” but she managed to remain “functional” in her life for years.

Then in 2016, she found CrossFit while “sitting on the couch, hungover, scrolling through Facebook,” said Wright, who now owns CrossFit Lanier.

While scrolling, an ad popped up calling “women who are out of shape and looking to change their lives,” she remembered.

• “And I was like, ‘Ooooh, that’s me,’” she added.

CrossFit Lainer was a 30-minute drive from her house, but Wright decided to take the plunge anyway and signed up for their six-week challenge.

She “loved it immediately,” started going regularly and managed to lose 30 pounds.

Wright’s drinking slowed down as her priorities changed, and she was on “a decent path” for a while. She even stopped drinking entirely for three months, but couldn’t sustain it.

Soon, she started to find ways to manage her drinking around her CrossFit schedule. She continued to drink “until there was none left” or until she was blackout drunk any night she wasn’t going to CrossFit the next morning.

• “I was navigating the problem rather than quitting,” she said.

And then, after going through a divorce, in 2019, “alcohol won.”

The Story of the SkiErg

For CrossFitters, the Concept2 SkiErg is a household name. The cardio machine is in every box, in every competition, and — whether you love it or hate it — known as a great way to get a full-body workout.

But, rewind about 15 years, and this wasn’t the case. Before 2009, the Concept2 SkiErg didn’t exist.

The Creation of the SkiErg

“[The SkiErg] grew out of the fact that we were skiers,” said Judy Geer, Concept2 Founder and former Olympic rower. “Just like the rowing machine became handy in the winter, the SkiErg was perfect for the summer when you had no snow.”

Geer ties the first-ever version of the SkiErg back to 1981. It was very makeshift: A rower was hung on the wall so an athlete could pull down on the handles, like the motion of a SkiErg today.

• More serious prototypes started in the early 2000s, Trevor Braun, longtime Concept2 engineer, said, but the engineering team knew it would need more refining if it was going to be a product.

But around 2005, Geer’s daughter was recruited for a ski team and sprained her ankle. “She put a rowing machine on the wall and did a lot of intervals on that semi-SkiErg. That was a driving force [to create the SkiErg], realizing it was a great way to train when you couldn’t use your legs or be on the snow.”

“When you see the need for the product itself, and you’re going to use it yourself, that’s just like the best way to create a product,” Geer added. “The same thing happened with the rowing machine. It’s grown out of a need that you personally recognized, you’re going to use it, you’re going to train on it yourself, you’re not making something just to sell.”

• “We were going to sell it because we want to share it, but that’s an interesting thing about our products. They grow out of our own passion and recognized need,” Braun added.

From there, it was a mix of different prototypes and technology that got Concept2 to their first iteration of the SkiErg, SkiErg1, released to the public in 2009.

The Engineering Behind the Erg

A big step in taking the SkiErg1 from prototype to public was rope technology.

• “I’m not sure it would have been feasible to do something like the SkiErg the way it is now any earlier, with the ropes that were available in the 80s and 90s,” Braun explained.

• “In the 2000s, there was a new rope material that was available, and it allowed us to have a machine that could last a while. Customers weren’t going to be replacing the cords every two months.”

• “When we found that, we realized the [SkiErg] was something that could really work,” he added.

The first version of the SkiErg only allowed for double-poling in Nordic ski terms, which meant you had to pull both handles at once. The SkiErg2 allows for single poling, meaning you can use both hands independently.

1 – Test 2 was the 1st AMRAP for a Team event since the new Semifinals format was introduced in 2021
2 – Two teams finished under 20:00 in Test 1 (PRVN: 19:15) (MFLH: 19:37)
3 – The 3rd round in Test 1 had the most lead changes
4 – The number of cups of coffee the Morning Chalk Up team averaged today
5 – The number of thrusters added per round in Team Test 2

Here are a couple more:

5’10” and 199# – Average height and weight for men in the North America East Semifinal 
5’3″ and 148#  – Average height and weight for women in the North America East Semifinal

“Photo Credit: Ava Kitzi”

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