Dani Speegle is back and being amazing like always, here comes the Mayhem Classic, and the CrossFit Open is officially official.
Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.
My name is Ben Garves and today is Tuesday, the 7th of January, 2020.
I’m thrilled to announce Reebok has sponsored this episode with an epic deal for you – it’s an additional 60% off sale through the 9th. Link to that in the show notes or at WODDITY.com.
Reebok Exclusive: Extra 60% Off Sale, use coupon code “NEWGEAR” through the 9th.
Who is Dani Speegle?
BarBend Magazine took the time to chat with Dani Speegle and talk about her impending second CrossFit Games appearance. You can take a look at our bio on Speegle here at WODDITY. She was a Regionals athlete typically ranking near the top-200 in the CrossFit Open, so she talks with BarBend about what it took to overcome and grow from those placements, what it meant to qualify for her first CrossFit Games last year, and how she’s training to target weaknesses this year. Link to that in the show notes. Also – they spelled Anna Fragkou wrong. But that’s cool.
Where Can I Watch the Mayhem Classic?
If you’re into this “CrossFit” thing. I’m kidding. We all are. If you’ve been following, the first Sanctional of 2020 and the fifth of the 2020 CrossFit Games season is this week, and it’s one we’re all excited to watch. Athletes are flocking to Cookeville, TN to compete at none other than the CrossFit Mayhem at the first ever CrossFit Mayhem Classic. Programming has been put together by Rich Froning, the man with four fittest individual and four-time fittest team on earth record titles. Because Froning and his Mayhem Freedom team are still competing this year, the Mayhem Classic will not be holding team competitions.
Individual athletes headed to compete in Cookeville on a CrossFit Mecca include three-time defending champion Tia-Clair Toomey, along with Saxon Panchik, Tola Morakinyo from Invictus Boston, Will Moorad, Becca Voigt Miller, Danielle Brandon, Steph Chung, Brooke Haas, Fee Saghafi, Spencer Panchik, Kristi Eramo O’Connell, Chandler Smith, Ben Smith, and Cheryl Nasso. To name just a few.
The place to watch will be Mayhem’s YouTube channel, where competition will start at 9 AM Eastern on Saturday. They’ve hinted that they’ll have some “Good Dudes Action” on Friday, but we’re waiting on details as to what they’ll be releasing with their cohort of Rich Froning, Josh Bridges, and Dan Bailey.
Who Won the 2020 CrossFit Open?
The other story we’re watching this morning is that CrossFit finalized the CrossFit Open leaderboard and National Champions list last night. Justin LoFranco at the Morning Chalk Up wrote a great breakdown of all the major happenings, but here are some of the larger takeaways:
- Three male athletes in the top-20 are likely to go team, which opens spots up for Sean Sweeney, Connor Duddy and Brent Fikowski. We have a similar situation on the women’s side, which is good news for Marykay Dreisilker, Sasha Nievas and Danielle Brandon.
- Ben Smith has officially qualified for his 12th CrossFit Games. With the help of his 2019 wildcard invite, he’s paving the way and setting all kinds of records for his longevity. Which is why I cracked a joke about wishing for some Ben Smith knees in my year-end rap song last week.
- Even though Patrick Vellner is officially the winner of the CrossFit Open, Jeffrey Adler has been named the National Champion of Canada. This is because National Champion competition happens among a nation’s peers, so awarded points are different. Vellner performed better relative to the world, while Adler performed better among Canadians. You could say he’s the most Canadian, eh?
- With his win, Patrick Vellner is officially the first non-American to win the CrossFit Open on the men’s side. Mat Fraser and Rich Froning have had somewhat of a monopoly on the title.
And that’s it for news about CrossFit for Tuesday, January 7th. Thanks for listening. Please be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. For WODDITY, I’m Ben Garves. We’ll chat tomorrow.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait…I have some gossip. The Los Angeles Times is reporting Coach Greg Glassman (you know, the founder and Chairman of CrossFit) is selling his home in Hawaii with an asking price of about $7 Million. You better believe the home has the three-car garage converted into a gym. They have some cool pictures. Okay, carry on!
