Sam Briggs To Retire Following 2022 CrossFit Season
The 2013 Fittest Woman on Earth® Sam Briggs will retire from competitive CrossFit following the 2022 season. The 40-year-old Briggs announced her retirement on Feb. 22, 2022, on Morning Chalk Up — two days before the first workout of the 2022 CrossFit Open is scheduled to release.
As many of you have suspected, this will be my last season competing in the sport. I originally started CrossFit in 2009…I knew straight away I had found my people; this is where I belonged.
Briggs’ CrossFit career is nothing short of prolific, holding her own on the sport’s grandest stage well into her late 30s. In her statement, Briggs said that she knew she was “nearing the end of [her] time competing” in 2020 but did not want her final experience at the highest level of the sport “to be an online competition.”
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Sam Briggs’ CrossFit Career
Briggs entered competitive CrossFit only a few years after the inaugural Games in 2007. She made her Games debut in 2010 and followed it up with an impressive fourth-place finish in 2011. After being sidelined by a knee injury in 2012, she emerged in 2013 fully committed to the sport — even leaving her job as a firefighter — and ultimately earned the title of Fittest Woman on Earth®.
Sam Briggs — CrossFit Games Results
- 2010 CrossFit Games — 19th place
- 2011 CrossFit Games — Fourth place
- 2013 CrossFit Games — First place
- 2015 CrossFit Games — Fourth place
- 2016 CrossFit Games — Fourth place
- 2017 CrossFit Games — Ninth place
- 2018 CrossFit Games | Masters (35-39) — Second place
- 2019 CrossFit Games — 18th place
- 2020 CrossFit Games — 25th place
- 2021 CrossFit Games — 21st place
In addition to her Games performances, Briggs also ranked first worldwide in the Individual Women division of the Open in 2013 and 2014 and first in the Individual Woman (ages 35-39) division from 2017-2019. She also scored gold at the 2018 Dubai CrossFit Championships
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Return to Firefighting
Following the 2022 CrossFit season, Briggs will return to her former position as a firefighter — she is studying to re-earn her “firefighting qualifications.” If all goes according to plan, she’ll join the fire academy in August 2022.
For the 2021 CrossFit Open, Briggs competed on The OUT Foundation‘s “OUT IN THE OPEN“ leaderboard. She still intends to raise money for charity via “crazy challenges” and potentially assume the role of a coach for other athletes in future CrossFit competitions post-retirement.
While Briggs is leaving competitive CrossFit behind, she will remain a part of the sport, training at two CrossFit boxes in Manchester, UK.
Featured image: @bicepslikebriggs on Instagram