The Open is officially done, and the leaderboard has revealed who performed best over the last five weeks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mat Fraser sits at the top for the men, followed by Alex Vigneault, Willy Georges, Jean-Simon Roy-Lemaire and Patrick Vellner. The one and only Rich Froning isn’t far behind in 10th, Scott Panchik is 12th and Mitch Sinnamon is in 39th.
The women’s division proved to contain some seriously stiff competition. After an amazing Open, Cassidy Lance-McWherter finished in first, followed by Kara Saunders, Carolyne Prevost, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (shoulder surgery? what shoulder surgery?) and Annie Thorisdottir in fifth. Two-time fittest woman on earth Katrin Davidsdottir is in eighth, 2017’s champ Tia-Clair Toomey is 11th and Jessica Coughlan finished in 20th.
As we’ve seen time and time again, the Open leaderboard doesn’t guarantee what will happen come Regionals or the Games, but it’s certainly an indicator of who was best prepared for this grueling five-week challenge. Congrats to everyone who competed!
Another exciting week has passed in the Open, and the leaderboard is updating with all of the last score submissions to be entered in. Mat Fraser isn’t playing games, because he’s once again in the number one spot, followed by Alex Vigneault, Willy Georges, Patrick Vellner, and Jean-Simon Roy-Lemaire.
The women’s leaderboard saw one big change, welcoming Brooke Wells into fifth place. Cassidy Lance-McWherter is currently in first, followed by Kara Saunders in second, Carolyne Prevost in third, and Annie Thorisdottir in fourth. (We’ll see her compete at the 18.5 live announcement with the other two Dottirs!)
It’s here! It’s here! The submission deadline for 18.3 has passed, and it kind of feels like Christmas. Or our birthday. We can’t quite tell yet. Either way, we’re excited. As expected, the leaderboard for the CrossFit Open has changed drastically since we last reported to you. It’s still shuffling around a bit but currently sitting in first place for the ladies is Cassidy Lance-McWherter, followed by Kara Webb, Carolyne Prevost, Mekenzie Riley and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet. Not far down the leaderboard, we see other very familiar names: Annie Thorisdottir in sixth, Katrin Davidsdottir in ninth, Jessica Coughlan in 11th and Sara Sigmundsdottir in 21st.
To nobody’s surprise, the leaderboard for the men saw a major change once Mat Fraser entered his score, and he’s currently ranked first. Behind him is Alex Vigneault, George Sterner, Willy Georges and Jean-Simon Roy-Lemaire in fifth. Patrick Vellner is not far off in eighth and Mr. Richard Froning, Jr., is in 19th. BTW, special shout-out to Josh Bridges, who FINISHED the darn thing. Yes, that’s right. The workout Dave Castro thought no one would be able to finish, Josh Bridges finished it. And if the leaderboard is accurate, he did it in 13:59.
Is it just us, or does anyone else think the Open is flying by? As the submission deadline for 18.3 scores quickly approaches, all eyes are on the leaderboard. Expect changes, as the numbers continue to trickle in. Joe Scali is back in the top five, coming in second after Travis Mayer. Even with his incredible performance in 18.3 with a whopping 921 reps, Noah Ohlsen is currently in sixth. The suspense is killing us, as we wait for more scores to come in (we’re looking at YOU, Mat Fraser).
As for the ladies, to the shock and surprise of no one, Katrin Davidsdottir is back in first place, after a seventh-place finish for 18.3 balanced out her 93rd and 209th place finishes for 18.2 and 18.2A respectively. Laura Horvath, Bethany Shadburne and Jessica Schwartz are not far behind, and good ol’ Margaux Alvarez is currently resting in fourth overall.
We’ll check back in with you later with another update, once the deadline has passed. Who do you think will make the top five at the close of 18.3?
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The submission deadline for 18.2 and 18.2A scores has officially passed, and the CrossFit Open leaderboards for men and women are currently fluctuating like crazy. We’re not saying that we’re glued to our screens, constantly refreshing the page or anything weird like that.
… Okay, we totally are…
Can you blame us?! As of this moment, here are the top five women:
Not far below that is Camille Leblanc-Bazinet in ninth, Jessica Coughlan in 11th, and Katrin Davidsdottir in 12th. We spy with our little eye Brooke Wells in 15th, Kristin Holte in 23th and Tia-Clair Toomey in 33nd.
While Mat Fraser’s rankings have fluctuated a bit over the last couple of weeks, he’s wrapping up the second week of the CrossFit Open strong and at the very top of the leaderboard.
Patrick Vellner, who competed with Noah Ohlsen at the live announcement for 18.2 and 18.2A, is currently sitting in 12th. Speaking of Ohlsen, he’s currently ranked 80th — but we all know how much will change by the time the Open comes to a close.
We’re not sure what to expect over the next couple of hours, as there are still notable names missing. For instance, Annie Thorisdottir, who was in second place after 18.1, hasn’t yet entered her latest scores. Neither has Margaux Alvarez. (Ladies! The suspense is killing us!)
Did any of your favorite athletes make it in the top five?
There are many reasons Mat Fraser has found himself on top of the podium multiple times, one of which is because his training truly embodies the idea of “constantly varied” — perhaps the biggest CrossFit philosophy. Fraser knows the importance of switching things up and shocking the system; so let’s talk about that one time he trained with Olympic trampolinist and coach Steven Gluckstein. We always knew Fraser was talented, but this just takes things to a whole new level.
Would you ever dare to challenge CrossFit Games podium regulars Mat Fraser and Rich Froning in an epic battle? If you answered yes (or maybe), you were probably delighted to see that they gave athletes a chance to beat their times in a workout they programmed and challenged whoever dared to go up against them.
These were the rules: if you were the first to beat Fraser and Froning’s time with a partner and proved it with video evidence, you would win a pair of Nike Metcons.
Don’t forget you also get major bragging rights.
So, if they ever threw this challenge again, would you do it?
We all have our own way of warming up. Some of us like a light jog; others have a stretching routine. Sam Dancer likes to take a 455-pound front squat for a spin. No big deal. Then there’s Mat Fraser. In a recent Instagram post, Mat shared his warm-up while at CrossFit Mayhem, and his friends even got in on the action. We spy with our little eye Rich Froning; and Lindy Barber, is that you?
Mayhem knows how to make fitness fun. Need to get warmed up before a big WOD? An hour and a half of handball should do.
Mat Fraser recently sat down with Rich Froning, Elly Kabboord-Kearcher and Jimmy Hensel for the fifth episode of Froning and Friends. In the episode, Mat talked about his life since moving to Cookeville, as well as his beginnings in CrossFit. Mathew Fraser earned the title of Fittest Man on Earth at the 2016 and 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games.
In the show, we got to learn a little bit about Mat’s roots — including his parents. His parents were skating partners, and they seemed to have gone on quite an adventure together. They each endured their own injuries, from his dad’s broken rib to his mom’s broken hip. Nothing got in their way, though. His parents went pro and did their fair share of competing. When they retired from skating, Mat’s dad became a coach while his mother went to medical school and became a doctor.
Of course, his recent move to Cookeville came up. Moving has been a positive experience for Mat. He’s made friends with his neighbors, and one of them even does CrossFit.
Mat’s Beginnings in CrossFit
Rather than starting out with CrossFit, Mat started out in Olympic weightlifting. CrossFit was something he stumbled upon by mistake. As a weightlifter, his parents were very supportive. His dad brought him to the gym to train and watch his son in action.
Although his parents were encouraging, Mat shares they told him to make sure he had an education. They wanted him to have something to fall back on in case his career ended earlier than planned, especially considering injury is always a possibility. “I took my college education seriously,” Mat reveals. He took up a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Vermont.
Asked how he became an engineer, Mat said, “At the end of high school, I realized I was good at math but I can’t read.” When someone mentioned engineering to him, he decided to go for it. As an engineer, he expected to be working 9-5 but ended up getting opportunities to travel and do fun things as a CrossFit athlete.
“Incredible Gratitude”
For Mat’s first CrossFit competition, his old gym owner signed him up. “I didn’t have $50,” he shares. The gym owner did it with one condition. Mat had to use the competition prize money to buy real CrossFit shoes. The entire time, he was trying to do lifts and train in Air Max 90s. For his first competition, he won a cash prize of $500.
When Mat started CrossFit, he said it created a life for him that he never even dreamed about. From not having money to register for a competition, he’s now traveling the world, experiencing amazing things and seeing great places.
Elly noted, “You seem to have incredible gratitude for what the sport has allowed you to do,” and Mat agreed. When asked about the future, however, he does not see himself owning a gym or even coaching. When his time comes to pull back from his competitive life, he wants to be ready to do it. And certainly, Fraser wants to avoid forcing himself to compete because he doesn’t know his next step.
When it comes to what he’ll do next, Mat only said, “If you asked me five years ago, I would have never dreamed of this… In five years? I have no idea.” As for now, his main motivation it that he loves training. “It’s a great job and it makes money.”
For the rest of the show, Mat talked about his favorite moment from the past Games where he saw himself improving and dominating new workouts. Fraser has come a long way; and we’re guessing that with his recent move to Cookeville, there are even bigger things to come.
Since 2012, Cookeville’s Crossfit Mayhem, owned by Rich Froning, has opened the doors for many top-level athletes, including Sara Sigmundsdottir, who trained for a long time in Cookeville before recently moving to California. Last month, Sammy Moniz, Matt Fraser’s girlfriend, officially announced their move to Cookeville. And now, we are seeing pictures of Froning, Fraser and Jason Khalipa working out together — something that definitely caught our eye. What’s going on here?
A few days ago, Froning posted on Instagram suggesting two teams — Team Independence and Team Freedom — from Mayhem, given Dave Castro’s latest announcement that teams going to the CrossFit Games will now have four athletes instead of six. Based on this and Matt Fraser’s recent move, could we speculate they might be teaming up for some squad madness? Possibly! But more than likely, they are probably just getting in a good sweat sesh together.
Just as Mat Fraser was moving to Cookeville, Tennessee, Sara Sigmundsdottir was leaving to head to California, making her the next CrossFit Games athlete to switch regions. Last year, Sigmundsdottir moved to Tennessee to train with Games champion Rich Froning at CrossFit Mayhem; she’d actually planned on going west sooner (for the 2017 season) but it never happened. Now, in her third move in the last few years, Sigmundsdottir can officially call herself a Californian.
And apparently, the process of getting to her new home wasn’t too smooth. In an Instagram post, Sigmundsdottir shared the crazy story about how she just barely made her flight.
When we first learned that Mat Fraser might move to Tennessee, we of course first thought about how he’d be neighbors with fellow CrossFit Games champ Rich Froning. At the time, Fraser had said it was a possibility; but possibility has officially turned into reality: Fraser and his girlfriend have made the move to Cookeville.
Sammy Moniz shared a rather adorable photo of her and Fraser in front of their new home, and the lovebirds look like they couldn’t be happier.
Was Froning peeved to hear about Fraser moving to his neighborhood? Not even close. Fraser said in an interview that when he mentioned the idea to Froning, the CrossFit king was all for it.
Good news for Fraser. Bad news for all the men in the area trying to get to Regionals.
