Crossfit Games 14.2 Continues to Take the Open in a Different Direction

Dave Castro and Crossfit HQ unveiled the Open WOD 14.2 tonight live from Miami, Florida at I am Crossfit and the live throw down between Talayna Fortunato and Camille Leblac-Bazinet didn't disappoint. I was wrong about the WOD, the movements and the winner of the throw down but, two weeks into the Open, one thing is becoming very apparent; the Crossfit Open isn't for everyone anymore. I wrote leading into the Open that it had two goals, to get the fittest to Regionals and to also be inclusive so that athletes from all different ability levels could participate. Through the first two weeks though, I think the second goal no longer exists.

First let's talk about the workout, it's an overhead squat and chest to bar pull-up ladder where you have 3 minutes to complete two rounds of 10 OHS at 95/65 pounds and 10 C2B pull-ups. If and when you complete that, you have another three minutes to complete another two rounds of 12 of each and so on until can't complete them within the 3 minutes. It's a brutal combination and although the weight is relatively light, both the OHS and the C2B pull-up are a step above basic movements.

While an athlete of my stature generally approaches every WOD with the only goal being survival, I do think I'll try to mimick Talayna's plan. She said afterwards that she wanted to do the OHS unbroken, then break up the C2B as needed. That will be my plan as well, for as long as I can manage. OHS are certainly not a strength of mine and anytime I'm gasping for breath, which will certainly happen after some C2B pull-ups, they are particularly awful.

Predicting Crossfit Games Open WOD 14.2

Its prediction time again as Dave Castro is set to announce the Crossfit Games Open WOD 14.2 this evening. Last week I took a huge swing and miss as I put too much faith in pictorial evidence and Castro zigged when I fully expected him to zag. I hinted a couple days ago that I had a new theory I was working on though and now it’s time to take it for a test drive. First let’s go over some basic assumptions:

• I assume we can completely remove double unders and snatches from the available movements for 14.2. I think double unders are totally gone for the remainder of the Open. Snatches may resurface in later weeks but not for 14.2.
• I’m also assuming that clean and jerks will not show up in 14.2 because so many people used them as a way to break up the snatches. Clean and jerks will definitely show up later in the Open but I don’t think we’ll see them this week.

Sadly those are the only two assumptions with which I have any confidence. That does eliminate three movements though and if we take a look at the remaining movements that have been used in previous Opens, we’re left with thrusters, burpee, toes-to-bar, chest to bar pull ups, box jumps, muscle-ups, wall balls, deadlifts, push-ups and overhead squats. Now remember that theory I was working on…..it’s basically centered on what the “mainsite” programs leading up to the Open announcement. Going back to the first WOD of last year, the mainsite has at least somewhat avoided the movements that will be in each Open WOD in the days leading up to the announcement. For example as of the night of the announcement of 14.1, the closest the mainsite had gotten to double unders or snatches was a WOD with triple unders 11 days prior. Going back to 13.5 last year (thruster and C2B), it had been four days since they’d programmed either of those movements. Looking back at 13.1 (snatches and burpees), neither of those movements had been touched in the previous week. Now this certainly isn’t a fool proof theory, but when grasping at straws is all you’ve got, you gotta roll with what’s available. So I’ve been keeping an eye on the mainsite this week hoping it would eliminate several more eligible movements and I didn’t have a single ray of hope until last night. That’s when they posted a WOD that included 125 burpees!! That means if my theory holds true, we can eliminate burpees from our list as well, meaning we’re left with: thrusters, toes-to-bar, chest to bar pull ups, box jumps, muscle-ups, wall balls, deadlifts, push-ups and overhead squats.

Crossfit Open WOD 14.2: Talayna Fortunato vs. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet

The matchup for the live announcement of 14.2 has been announced and you can bet that these two headliners will not disappoint. Together these two boast six appearances at the Games, five of which ended with top 10 overall finishes including one podium. Talayna Fortunato and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet are no strangers to the Crossfit spotlight; in fact both of them were also a part of last year’s live announcements. Fortunato was teamed against Kristan Clever in 13.3 (150 wall balls, 90 double unders and 30 muscleups) and despite jumping out to an early lead, Clever got the best of Fortunato by four reps. Leblanc-Bazinet was pitted against eventual 2013 Games Champion Samantha Briggs in 13.5 (wicked Fran ladder) and she destroyed Briggs when she was able to advance to the 12 minute round, winning by 69 reps. With two very solid veterans like this, we are sure to get a great throw down.

Games Veterans Missing from 14.1 Crossfit Open Results

Every sport lives and dies with star power and the Sport of Fitness will be missing some of their stars this year. We know for sure that Zachary (ZA) Anderson will be out this year with a back injury, thanks to his Facebook page. There are also a handful of Games veterans who's names are suspiciously absent from the 14.1 results leaderboard. While I was inclined to think it might be some late validation issues, the Games Update Show this evening dropped a delicious tease at the end of their five minute show. They ended with a comment about big names being absent from the leaderboard and that it would be something addressed in tomorrow's update show. So we do know there will be some big name athletes who won't be returning in 2014. Here are list of possible "absentees"

• Mikko Salo: he was first one that caught my attention earlier today. It looks like he's registered but he doesn't have a score yet. 
• Matt Chan: exact same scenario as Salo and Chan tweeted this evening "he forgot the Open started last week." While that totally impossible, it does sound like he won't be competing in 2014, for whatever reason.
• Aja Barto: he's from my region so I might be more familiar with him than most be he's a veterans Games athlete. It doesn't even look like he's registered this year. I found an article right before the 2013 Games where he talked about the strain of running a gym and training full time. He talked about the possibility of giving up the competition side to focus on his gym. He's also very big into Olympic lifting so he might have gone that route as opposed to CF.

Zachary Anderson Out of Crossfit Open 2014 With Back Injury

While we're unsure of the status of Miko Salo, Zachary Anderson (ZA Anderson) has confirmed, via his Facebook page that he will miss the 2014 Games season due to a back injury sustained while performing 14.1. Anderson exploded on the scene last year by winning the South East region and then following that up with a solid top ten finish at the Games. Anderson is still fairly young (25 years old and still hasn't been Crossfit for two years so it's probably safe to say this won't be last we see of him on the big stage.


Hopefully he recovers quickly and Anderson makes a big run in 2015. I'm searching last year's games roster for others who haven't submitted scores yet for 14.1. We'll try to have a full list tomorrow morning. Stay tuned......

Mikko Salo Out of Crossfit Open 2014?

Mikko Salo might be one of the most popular Crossfit athletes in the history of the sport, and he
might also be the most ‘snake bitten’ athlete as well. Salo won the 2009 Games, finished 5th in 2010 and has never been the same since. In 2011 he suffered a busted ear drum during very first workout of the Games, which included an ocean swim. He completed the WOD but had to withdraw himself from the competition. In 2012 he was recovering from knee surgery and couldn’t even compete in the Open. Last year it looked like he ready to challenge for the title again when he finished second in the Open (behind only Rich Froning) and finished second in his region. Just a week shy of the Games though, Salo suffered an abdominal injury that forced his to withdraw yet again. Now his 2014 Games season might already be in jeopardy.

Wrapping Up Crossfit Open WOD 14.1

Crossfit Open WOD 14.1 is in the books and the leaderboards are filled with names that we know and love. On the both the men’s and women’s leaderboard, top 25 reads like “who’s who” of Crossfit power houses with names like Dan Bailey Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Josh Bridges, Scott Panchik, Ben Smith, Graham Holmberg, Samantha Briggs, Rory Zambard, Michele Letendre, Kara Webb, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Annie Thorsdottir. Two names that I’ll be keeping an eye on this year also had very good weeks, Josh Golden (no relation to me by the way) and Danielle Sidell. Both these athletes were booted from the Open last year after HQ determined that their 13.2 submissions included reps that didn’t meet the standards. Sidell and Golden are both at least Regionals level athletes and should challenge for a Games spot this year. Sidell is just 25 years old and was fairly new to CF during last year’s Open so her best days are certainly ahead of her. Golden is a bit older, 31 years old, and in a stacked region with both Dan Bailey and Josh Bridges. Barring some very late submissions, Bailey and Briggs won the 14.1 weeks with 461 and 472 reps respectively. For some reason the results from the 2011 Open aren’t available on the Games site so we can’t compare those results yet (the article from HQ has to be in the works).

A couple other parting thoughts before we close the book on 14.1. While I didn’t like the first WOD of the Open starting out with double unders, I did like how this WOD left some “grey” areas for people to strategize more than they have for other WODs in the past. Ground to overhead leaves people a couple different options and I saw quite a few videos and read several posts on CF’s board about people playing around with snatches vs clean and jerks and a mixture of the two. Snatches would of course be faster but once fatigue sets in, clean and jerks can take over and help you get back to the double unders. I also saw some guys using women’s bars because it’s easier to ‘hook grip’ on the skinnier bar. While these options may not support the idea of “finding the fittest,” I do like the idea of allowing some strategy to come into play (the old “work smarter, not harder” mantra). I’ve always thought it would be really interesting if they had a WOD at the Games where there were say 100 reps of five different movements (just random numbers for this example), but athletes could partition and complete them in any order they wanted. That would really focus on strategy and the mental side of a person’s work capacity.

For a final thought, I think it surprised some people that Froning’s final score was worse than his 2011 score, but he also pointed out he’s incredibly stronger now than he was three years ago. His powerlifting and Olympic lifting numbers have gone through the roof in the last three years and it’s apparently cost him a bit of “motor” when it comes to light and fast WODs like this one. This has been a growing topic of conversation the last year or so as more and more top level Crossfitters are basically switching to almost entirely Olympic lifting sessions in the off season. The American Open, held a couple months ago in Dallas, included several dozen Games’ athletes including Aja Barto, Spencer Hendel, Josh Bridges, Kristan Clever, Andrea Ager, Candice Ruiz and Lindsey Valenzuela just to name a few. Smaller guys like Chris Spealler and Bridges have spoken about really having to focus their training on bulking up and getting much stronger to compete at the highest levels of the sport. Crossfit the last couple of years seems to have really pumped life back into American weightlifting and events at Regionals and the Games seem to go heavier and heavier each year. It does make you wonder if at some point we’ll see some kind of cyclical type of programming where HQ shifts a focus off of heavier weights and more onto longer, cardio type WODs.

Ok, closing the door on 14.1 and anxiously looking forward to 14.2, which should be announced in just a couple days. HQ hasn’t yet released which two athletes will be throwing down at the live announcement (which sucks because I could be working on a matchup article already if they had), but you can bet it’ll be a great show. I’m also formulating a new theory on predicting the Open workouts (since my last one crashed and burned big time) so keep an eye out for that. I should have a pretty good idea of what to expect Thursday morning. Check back early and often…..3, 2, 1..GO!