The Norwegian CrossFit Championship turns in a strong performance. The Fittest Documentary is available for presale, and Alexis Johnson suffers a big injury.
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 Monday, the 17th of February, 2020. It was quite the weekend for CrossFit, so buckle up for a LOT of new stories this morning.
Norwegian CrossFit Championship Results
The Norwegian CrossFit Championship made its Sanctional debut this weekend, sending two elite athletes and an elite team to the 2020 CrossFit Games. Hosted at a gorgeous mountain resort during the Norwegian winter, the whole thing was a spectacle of awesome proportions. On the men’s side, local National Champion Nicolay Billaudel looked to have the thing wrapped up before a late surge from Griffin Roelle took the top of the podium. This will be Roelle’s first time competing at the CrossFit Games as an individual after competing on a lower-ranking team in 2018.
On the women’s side, Gabriela Migala and Andrea Solberg took first and second, respectively. Both have already qualified for the 2020 CrossFIt Games, so the invite for the event goes to third place finisher Sanna Venäläinen.
For teams, The Progrm takes home the CrossFit Games invite. On the team was Jamie Headon, Ella Wunger, Joshua Wichtrup, and Matilde Garnes.
Eddie Hall to Attempt World Record Grace Time
Strongman champion and multiple world record-holder Eddie Hall is going to attempt a record Grace time on February 23rd at the CrossFit European Championships in Colchester. The workout is 30 clean and jerks with a 135-lb barbell. As far as the record goes, according to BarBend, “Dan Bloch once performed Grace in 59 seconds. In 2018, Laurence Shahlaei posted a video on YouTube of himself doing it in 55 seconds. As far as official record marks are concerned, there hasn’t been one recognized by the CrossFit organization nor by the Guinness Book of World Records.”
Buttery Bros “The Fittest” Documentary
Marston and Heber of the Buttery Bros have received a lot of buzz this week from the release of their trailer for “The Fittest” documentary, which promises to pick up where they left off with the Fittest on Earth series before CrossFit laid off their media teams. The film documents the journey of athletes through the 2019 CrossFit Games. I have the link to the trailer for you, but you can also preorder the film (slated for an April release) exclusively on iTunes right now.
Alexis Johnson Season Ending Injury
Multiple CrossFIt Games athlete Alexis Johnson posted to Instagram this week that she has torn her right achilles tendon and has a projected nine month recovery time. Johnson had qualified as a member of team Odd Squat to the 2020 CrossFit Games. Their reported alternate, McKenzie Flinchum, will be stepping in to replace her on the team roster while she rehabs and recovers.
Grateful Dead Bob Weir and CrossFit
72-year-old Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, is hooked on CrossFit. Men’s Health did a feature story on the legendary rockstar. Talk about inspiration. Weir tells Men’s Health, “At my age, if you let it go, it ain’t coming back.” And that’s the motto to live by.
Except you can earn it back, if you’re looking for inspiration, I’m in the process of moving to New York City this weekend and I’m staying in a hotel next door to Hell’s Kitchen CrossFit. The gym is the home to member Jacinto Bonilla, who has the Jacinto Storm workout named after him, gaining one rep for every year of age he trains at. It hit 80 reps in 2019. It’s never too late to start.
And that’s it for news about CrossFit for Monday, February 17th. Thanks for listening. Please be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. For WODDITY, I’m Ben Garves. Chat tomorrow.
