The 2014 Crossfit Games Open is nearing the halfway point and 14.2 is officially in our rearview mirror. With two weeks in the books, the leaderboards are starting to take shape and they’re filled with names we’re all very familiar with. On the women’s side the top 25 is populated with stars like Camille, Webb, Letendre, Briggs, Thorisdottir and Horrell and the men’s side is arguably even more top heavy with Froning, Bridges, Smith, Khalipa, Panchik, Bailey, Holmberg, Forte, Golden and Maddox. While I personally may have some qualms about the programming so far, the cream is certainly rising to the top and ultimately that’s the main goal of the Open. The live announcement of 14.3 is right around the corner and HQ announced earlier this week that the throw down will pit long time Games veteran Stacie Tovar against last year’s 4th place Games’ finisher Alessandra Pichelli. This should be a great matchup regardless of what Dave Castro pulls out of his hat tomorrow night. Let’s take a look at these two ladies:
Tale of the Tape:
Stacie Tovar, 29 years old, lists herself as 5’5 and 144 pounds. Few female competitors can match Tovar’s Crossfit resume when it comes to longevity. She’s been a fixture at the Games every year since 2009, finishing at high as high as 12th in 2012. Her biggest accomplishment though might have been fighting through a fairly major shoulder injury during last season, yet still qualifying for the Games. She persevered through the injury during each and every event at Regionals and spent each night getting treatment in preparation for the next day. At the end she finished second, behind only Elisabeth Akinwale, and shortly after Regionals she was diagnosed with a low level grade 1 sprain of the infraspinatus and a fractured scapula. Despite the injury she still competed in the Games just a couple months later, finishing 20th overall with two top 10 finishes. Her worst finishes all included some form of overhead movement including a 30th in the clean and jerk ladder, a 35th in the 2007 event (pull-ups and push jerks) and a 29th in Cinco 2 (muscle-ups and handstand push-ups) . The bottom line is that when Tovar is healthy she’s capable of hanging with anyone in the Crossfit world.
Alessandra Pichelli, 27 years old, lists herself as 5’7 and 148 pounds. Her history is a bit shorter in Crossfit but there’s no doubt her star is still rising. After qualifying for Regionals as an individual in 2012, she decided instead to go team with Crossfit Diablo and finished third that year at the Games. In 2013 she branched out, finishing 12th in the world in the Open, winning her region with top five finishes in six events, including two wins, and finishing fourth overall in her very first Games appearance as an individual. At the Games she won the Legless event and logged four more top 10 finishes, but it is possible that burnout was a factor. In the first six events she averaged a seventh place finish (4 top 10’s and her win) but in the final six events her average finish was 13th (one top 10).
Head to Head
We have much less data to compare this week, as opposed to last week, so we’re focusing on the Open WODs from the previous two years (plus the two already this year), last year’s Regionals and Games events. In total we have 29 events, of which Pichelli has won 18 of them. If you narrow down our scope to just the Open and Regionals WODs though, it’s a much closer race with Pichelli holding a narrow 9-to-8 margin. One interesting note between these two competitors when looking at just the Open WODs is how often their scores are similar. In seven of the twelve WODs since 2012, they are within 5 reps of each other, including being separated by only four reps on 14.2. With a head to head matchup, that’s a fascinating stat and should bode for a great show.
Conclusion
As for picking a winner, I’d love to pick the gritty veteran, and Tovar’s numbers so far look great, but Pichelli is younger and should be much improved over last year. Pichelli recently competed with some other CF heavy weights on the Crossfit Tour in New Zealand, taking home the top spot over Ruth Anderson Horrell, so she appears ready to compete at any level. It should be tight race that will hopefully come down to the wire but Pichelli has to be the favorite.
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