Going to CrossFit Games in Consecutive Years


What are your chances to make it to the Games two years in a row?

To state that making it to the CrossFit Games is an achievement is an understatement. You start at the Open with over 250,000 of your fellow CrossFitters, then through multiple stages 40 men and 40 women step onto the competition floor in Madison. What about making it to the CrossFit Games in back to back seasons, how difficult is that?

Looking back: At the 2022 CrossFit Games, we saw 26 men and 22 women return from the 2021 Games. The 26 men who returned was the highest number of men who returned in back to back seasons over the last 10 years. The collective 48 athletes, which represented 60% of the field, was the second highest number of back to back appearances we have seen at the CrossFit Games over the past decade. In 2017 49 athletes from the 2016 Games returned for another appearance.

Over the past decade on average 21 women and 20 men make back to back CrossFit Games appearances. For 2023, that would be just over half the field returning from 2022.


What does 2023 look like: As we take a look at the 2023 Semifinals we are already without 8 women and 7 men from the 2022 CrossFit Games.

When looking at the 2023 Semifinals

  • Only Copa Sur has all of its 2022 Games athletes returning this year.
  • In the new mega-Semifinals only North America West Men have the same number of Games spots available as 2022 Games athletes competing.
  • All other Semifinals will have an athlete that didn’t compete as an individual in Madison.

In terms of sending repeats Copa Sur men(Guilherme Malheiros and Agustin Richelme) and Torian Pro women (Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, Kara Saunders, Ellie Turner) were the only 2022 Semifinals where all qualifying spots were earned by 2021 Games athletes.

Back to Back to Back(and then some): Last year we saw 48 out of 80 athletes returning from 2021. If you roll it back another year, only 26 athletes made it to the CrossFit Games in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Going back even further, only 11 athletes (4 women and 7 men) have been to every CrossFit Games since 2018 as an individual.

Becoming a CrossFit Games athlete is hard. Staying at that level for an extended period of time is nearly impossible.


As we look at Semifinals this year it’s tough to highlight which Games athletes won’t be making a return trip to Madison this year. History shows us however that another 24ish athletes will have their hopes in a return trip extinguished. I guess we’ll need to watch to find out.

instagramspotifyyoutube

PO Box 36068 Lakeview PO, Calgary, Alberta T3E7C6
Unsubscribe · Preferences

Welcome to Fran Lung

Sign up for a weekly dose of stats and analytics in the world of CrossFit

Read more from Welcome to Fran Lung

How have the CrossFit Games winners done on the max lift event the year they won? Big lifts under the lights in the coliseum are some of the most iconic moments from the CrossFit Games. The energy, the excitement and the unexpected. While winning the max lift events brings a lot of publicity, how does it translate into winning the CrossFit Games? Today we take a look at the Fittest on Earth since 2015, and how they did on the max lift events during each of the years they won. Justin Medeiros...

Justin Medeiros finished 5th at North America West Semifinals. It’s the lowest finish for him at Semifinals. In fact, it’s his lowest finish at an in-person competition since the 2018 West Regional where he finished 7th. Looking ahead to the CrossFit Games, can he go from 5th at Semifinals to Fittest on Earth? To see if history was on his side, I looked back to past champions, and their Semifinal/Regionals finish leading to the CrossFit Games. Men’s CrossFit Games Champions Justin Medeiros,...

For the Love of the Game Competing at the elite level in CrossFit takes dedication, consistency and a love for the process. With the 2023 Semifinals complete, we saw nearly 600 individual athletes on the competition floor, who have all put in years of work pursuing excellence in the sport. Some of these athletes will only compete at this level once, while others return year after year. Of the 596 individual athletes at Semifinals this year, o309 competed as individuals last year as well. Only...