The 2019 CrossFit Games were the 13th CrossFit Games and were held from August 1–4, 2019, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. The 2019 Games were the first to operate under a new set of qualification rules. It was also the first year to allow a team to be composed of members that did not share a gym affiliation. The men's competition was won by Mat Fraser, the women's by Tia-Clair Toomey, and CrossFit Mayhem Freedom won the Team competition, all of whom also won the 2018 games.
Qualification
For this season, the Games qualification procedures were overhauled. For the first year since 2008, the CrossFit Games no longer hosted a regional qualifier and instead sanctioned independently run events around the world. The events were trademarked as "Sanctionals" by CrossFit, LLC, and were used to qualify participants in the Men, Women, and Team divisions for the 2019 Games. In previous years the CrossFit Open was used to determine which athletes and teams qualified for the Regionals. In 2019, each Sanctional was either by invitation or through its own open qualification process. The CrossFit Open still occurred, but was used to qualify directly to the Games. Team rules were also changed so that members no longer needed to be from the same CrossFit affiliate. Individual athletes qualified for the 2019 CrossFit Games in one of four ways by order of precedence: becoming a national champion in the 2019 CrossFit Open, finishing in the top 20 men or women worldwide in the Open, winning a Sanctionals event, or by select invitation at the Games' discretion. The first set of qualified athletes came from the top-ranked man and woman from each country, with at least one CrossFit affiliate in good standing, that completed each Open workout as written in the Rx'd category after video review. After the Open was completed, a total of 123 men and 117 women qualified for the Games as national champions pending final review. After the national champions were determined, the next 20 overall male and female worldwide finishers in the Open qualified for the Games. The 2019 Sanctionals consisted of 15 sanctioned events that took place between December 2018 and June 2019. The events were the Dubai CrossFit Championship, Australian CrossFit Championship, Wodapalooza, CrossFit Fittest in Cape Town, CrossFit Strength in Depth, Asia CrossFit Championship, Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge, CrossFit Italian Showdown, Brazil CrossFit Championship, CrossFit Lowlands Throwdown, Down Under CrossFit Championship, Reykjavik CrossFit Championship, Rogue Invitational, CrossFit French Throwdown, and the Granite Games. The male, female, and team winners of each of the events qualified for the Games and if a Sanctionals event winner has previously qualified for the 2019 CrossFit Games, the qualifying place for that competition would be awarded to the next highest finisher who has yet to qualify for the games. The final method of qualification allowed for the CrossFit Games to issue four at-large bids. No other details were provided by the CrossFit Games rulebook, but invitations were given to professional obstacle course racer Hunter McIntyre and ten-time CrossFit Games competitor Ben Smith following social media campaigns.
Individual
Following the qualification procedure, there were 148 men and 134 women that had qualified and registered to attend the CrossFit Games in the Individual competition. Due the significantly higher number of participants, the Games implemented cuts after each event. After the first event, each field was cut to 75 competitors. After the second, it was cut to 50 competitors and then by 10 participants following each subsequent event until only 10 remained. The first event took place on August 1.
The snatch weight for the event was for men and for women. The event was won by both defending champions, Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey.
Event 2: Second Cut
As fast as possible, each competitor accumulated 800 meters on a rowing machine, then lifted two kettlebells from the shoulder to overhead for 66 repetitions, and then finished with of handstand walking. The weight of each kettlebell was for the men and for the women. Fraser won the men's event again, while Danielle Brandon won the women's side.
Competitors ran four laps around a course carrying a weighted rucksack. The weight increased by each lap, from 20 pounds on the first lap to 50 pounds on the last. Lukas Högberg and Emily Rolfe won the event.
Event 4: Sprint Couplet
sled push
Bar muscle-ups; 18 for men and 15 for women
sled push
The competitors started the event by pushing a sled, then completing the required number of muscle-ups on a pull-up bar, and then finished with another sled push to the finish line. The event was won by Matt McLeod and Amanda Barnhart.
A traditional CrossFit workout, the competitors performed five handstand push-ups, then ten squats, followed by fifteen pull-ups. After the pull-ups, they started back at the handstand push-ups and repeated the order until the 20 minute mark. The event was won by Noah Ohlsen and Kari Pearce.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Event 6: Sprint Course
Three-round bracket elimination sprint course. In heats of five, competitors ran through a course. The top ten in the first round advanced to the second round, and then the top five in the second round moved on to the final run. Saxon Panchick and Kristin Holte won the event. Following the event, only the final ten competitors participated in the remainder of the competition.
The dumbbell weight was for the men for the women. Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey won the event.
Event 8: Clean
The event consisted of progressively heavier weights that each competitor must clean. The men started at and the women started at. If multiple athlete failed to complete a lift at the same weight, they went to a tie-breaker bar, where they then cleaned for men and for women five times. The time to complete the five lifts and run to a finish line was the tie-breaker score. The event was again won by defending champions Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey, with a and clean, respectively.
A swim to a buoy in Lake Monona and back to shore, then immediately grabbing a paddleboard for a 1,000-meter paddle on the same course. The event was won by Matt McLeod and Tia-Clair Toomey.
Ringer 1 and Ringer 2 were separately scored events, with Ringer 2 beginning seven minutes from the start of Ringer 1. In Ringer 1, the competitors alternated between riding an air-resistance stationary bicycle and repetitions of hanging from gymnastic rings and touching their toes to the rings. In Ringer 2, the athletes alternated between completing burpees and jumping up to touch the rings as a target and overhead squats with a barbell. The men's weight on the barbell was and the women's was. Katrín Davíðsdóttir won both women's events, while James Newbury won Ringer 1 and Mat Fraser won Ringer 2 for the men.
Event 12: The Standard
30 clean and jerks
30 ring muscle-ups
30 snatches
For the final event, a combination of three standard CrossFit workouts were done back-to-back-to-back: "Grace", muscle-ups, and "Isabel". The weight for both barbell movements was and for the men and women, respectively. The event was won both Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey, who also both repeated as CrossFit Games champions.
