The men’s field at the 2024 Rogue Invitational brings together the best athletes from the world of CrossFit.
- At this year’s competition, fans will see eight of the athletes who finished in the top 10 at last year’s Rogue Invitational. And similar to the 2024 CrossFit Games, there is no clear-cut favorite for the event.
Over the last two years, we have seen the Rogue winner determined by a few seconds in the final event, and 2024 could be the same. So, get your popcorn ready because we’re here with our podium picks for this epic showdown.
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The Favorites
Looking ahead to the competition in Aberdeen, Scotland, there are six men we’d expect to be in a battle for the top spot, which includes the top five athletes from the 2024 CrossFit Games.
Brent Fikowski
The past two years for “The Professor” can be summed up as “so close.”
This year, we watched as he struggled through the last two events of the Games, squandering a 41-point lead to a third-place finish.
In 2023, he finished just off the podium in fourth place at Wodapalooza, the Games, and the Rogue Invitational.
- At the 2023 Rogue Invitational, he was tied with Roman Khrennikov in points but lost the tiebreak.
If you look at Fikowski’s 2024 season with a glass-half-full approach, you’ll see that he finished on the podium at TYR WZA (second), the West Coast Classic (second), and the CrossFit Games (third).
Can the podium streak continue in the last major competition of the year and Fikowski’s career?
Dallin Pepper
Dallin Pepper’s career-best season was overshadowed by James Sprague’s victory at the 2024 CrossFit Games. Despite that, he has quickly climbed the leaderboard during his three trips as an individual to the Games.
- He finished 19th in his rookie year, fifth in 2023, and ended on the podium in second place this year.
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In the two long monostructural events at the 2024 Games — “Run Swim” and “Track & Field” — Pepper lost by a combined 78 points to Sprague. These two events were Pepper’s worst of the competition, but he finished just 21 points behind Sprague in the overall standings.
Recent Rogue Invitationals have started with a long event, and if Pepper can limit the damage there, he has a strong chance of finishing on the podium once again.
James Sprague
The Fittest Man on Earth is out to prove that his Games win was no fluke.
- At this year’s CrossFit Games, Sprague only had two event finishes outside of the top 10 and has shown he has top-end capacity with an event win at the Games and two at the North America West Semifinal.
The question is if he can handle the heavier weights we see at Rogue. He finished 21st in the Clean Ladder at the Games, and 14th in the Snatch Ladder at Semifinals, his worst finish in both competitions.
Jayson Hopper
When looking at Jayson Hopper, two numbers stand out: four and seven.
So far in 2024, Hopper was fourth at TYR WZA in Teams Division, the North America East Quarterfinals, the Syndicate Crown, and at the CrossFit Games.
- Hopper has finished seventh in all three of his appearances at the Rogue Invitational.
Hopper has also finished better at Rogue than he has at the CrossFit Games in 2021 and 2023. (In 2022, he was seventh in both.)
The programming at the Rogue Invitational plays to Hopper’s strengths, so it’s possible to see him improve on his Games performance for the third time in four years.
Jeffrey Adler
Adler has been the best CrossFitter in the world over the last two seasons, and he’s finished on the podium at the Rogue Invitational in all three of his appearances.
- During this time, he has won the CrossFit Games, the CrossFit Open, the North America East Semifinals twice, the North America East Quarterfinals once, and finished second in the Rogue Invitational.
Adler was one of the athletes who chose to withdraw from the CrossFit Games this summer, so we didn’t get to see him defend his crown.
We’d expect him to be ready to pick up where he left off at the Semifinals as the best CrossFitter in the world right now.
Patrick Vellner
Patrick Vellner is one of only three athletes to compete at every Rogue Invitational.
In his five previous appearances, he has had two victories, two second-place finishes, and a fourth.
- It should be no surprise to see the 2023 Rogue Invitational champion in the mix to defend his title.
Vellner has won at least one individual competition every year since 2018. Can he keep that streak alive and become the only man to win the Rogue Invitational three times?
Podium Picks
- Jeffrey Adler
- Dallin Pepper
- Patrick Vellner
Dark Horses
Justin Medeiros
Justin Medeiros is only two years removed from his back-to-back run as Fittest Man on Earth and two-time Rogue Invitational champion.
- His CrossFit Games didn’t go as he hoped, with an eighth-place finish in 2024. This showing marked his second consecutive year outside of the top five at the Games.
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That said, Medieros’ win at the West Coast Classic Semifinal in May showed us that he has recovered from the injury that held him out of competition last offseason and that he can beat the best in the world on any given day.
Chandler Smith
Chandler Smith made another trip to the CrossFit Games this year as a member of CrossFit Invictus, so he didn’t receive the individual accolades he usually does.
- With less of a spotlight this year, it’s easy to forget Smith’s second-place finish at the 2022 Rogue Invitational revitalized his career and helped launch him to a seventh-place finish at the 2023 CrossFit Games.
Smith has won the strength event in consecutive years at the Rogue Invitational and is always a threat to finish on the podium.
It’ll Be Close
While we don’t know much about the competition, we do know it’ll be close.
- A lot of this is splitting hairs with the men on this list. A list that could easily include Sam Kwant and Ricky Garard after they finished 6th and 7th at the Games this year.
With a stacked field, chances are it’ll all come down to the money bars in the final event.
More About the 2024 Rogue Invitational
- Our 2024 Rogue Invitational Women’s Podium Picks and Dark Horses
- 2024 Rogue Invitational Athletes to Tackle Horizontal Pegboard – The First Since ELFIT 2022
- Celebrating the 2024 Rogue Invitational Legends Roster
Featured image: @rogueinvitational / Instagram
