2023 CrossFit Open Workout 23.1 To Be Announced On Feb. 16, 2023
The 2023 CrossFit Open is set to begin on Feb. 16, 2023, and the first workout — 23.1 — will have a live announcement in Madrid that day. As is typical of Open workout announcements, two elite Individual male and two elite Individual female competitors will go head-to-head as the first athletes worldwide to perform the workout. They are:
- Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson
- Lazar Đukić
- Laura Horvath
- Gabriella Migała
The announcement for the 23.1 announcement was made via an Instagram post on the CrossFit Games page on Jan. 24, 2023. This article will be updated when the workout is announced on Feb. 16, 2023, at the Caja Mágica Stadium 3 in Madrid, Spain. The main show starts at 9 p.m. CET/3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT and can be watched live at games.crossfit.com.
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Elite Individual Male Matchup
The elite Individual male athletes battling it out in Open workout 23.1 are the eighth and ninth Fittest Men on Earth®: Lazar Đukić and Bjorgvin Karl Guðmundsson, respectively. Đukić has two career appearances at the CrossFit Games. He finished ninth in his debut in 2021 and eighth in 2022. Guðmundsson has been a mainstay of the Games since 2014. In his nine career Games appearances, he’s only finished outside the top nine once: his debut when he ranked 26th.
Guðmundsson ranked 32nd in the worldwide Open in 2022 and fifth in Europe. Đukić was well behind him in both marks: 273rd worldwide in the 2022 Open and 91st in Europe. The gap between them closed in the 2022 Quarterfinals when Guðmundsson ranked first in Europe and Đukić ranked third.
Đukić ranked first to Guðmundsson second at the 2022 CrossFit Lowland Throwdown Semifinal and then remained a single rank apart for the 2022 Games in Madison, WI. Guðmundsson has been the predominant male European CrossFitter alongside Jonne Koski for the bulk of the past decade, but Đukić is surging in the ranks to make this matchup a must-watch.
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Elite Individual Female Matchup
Horvath had a stellar 2022 CrossFit season. She ranked third at the 2022 CrossFit Games behind six-time champ Tia-Clair Toomey and runner-up Mal O’Brien. Horvath went on to win the 2022 Rogue Invitational. In her five career appearances at the Games, she’s reached the podium three times — second in 2018 and 2021, third in 2022.
Migała has ranked in the top eight at the Games over the past two seasons, finishing sixth in 2021 and eighth in 2022. She bested Horvath in the 2022 worldwide Open by 90 ranks — Migała was 13th overall and fifth in Europe to Horvath’s 103rd worldwide and 34th in Europe.
The pair battled for the top of the podium at the 2022 CrossFit Lowland Throwdown, but Horvath emerged victorious with the overall win, and Migała took home the bronze. With Toomey sitting out the 2023 season as she is pregnant with her first child, Horvath and O’Brien are the top contenders to assume the throne. However, Migała has posed a legitimate threat to win every contest she’s entered over the past several seasons, and 2023 could be her year to strike it big.
A limited number of tickets will go on sale on Jan. 27, 2023. They are available to the public to witness the 23.1 live announcement in person. Additional information can be found at games.crossfit.com.
Featured image: @crossfitgames on Instagram