Noah Ohlsen on 2023 CrossFit Games: “Good Chance It’s My Final Season Competing as an Individual Athlete”
Noah Ohlsen has been a mainstay of the CrossFit Games for a decade. Having made his Games debut as an Individual athlete in 2014, Ohlsen has not missed a Games appearance since and never ranked lower than 15th. If and when he returns to the Games in 2023, scheduled for Aug. 1-6, 2023, in Madison, WI, it will be his 10th consecutive appearance. According to a video he published on his YouTube channel on Oct. 10, 2022, it could be his last Games as an Individual athlete.
Check out the video below, where Ohlsen explains his rationale for potentially hanging up his shoelaces as an Individual athlete following the 2023 Games:
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Ohlsen recorded the video from his backyard in Miami, FL, and discussed his disappointment with his 12th-place finish at the 2022 CrossFit Games. For reference, here is Ohlsen’s Games career thus far:
Noah Ohlsen — CrossFit Games Finishes
- 2014 — Eighth place
- 2015 — Eighth place
- 2016 — 15th place
- 2017 — Fourth place
- 2018 — Sixth place
- 2019 — Second place
- 2020 — Fourth place
- 2021 — 10th place
- 2022 — 12th place
Ohlsen’s 12th-place finish did not meet the expectations he had for himself on the biggest stage in the sport:
I not only want to be a top 10 CrossFit Games athlete, but I want to be on the podium, I want to win. That’s been my goal for the last decade.
Given the current setup of Ohlsen’s life and career, he has plans and aspirations beyond the Games — “creatively, family-wise, entrepreneurially, philanthropically” — though he will give his final Individual season everything he has to claim the title of Fittest Man on Earth® from two-time reigning champion Justin Medeiros.
I don’t want to just continue on that hamster wheel of trying to win the CrossFit Games falling short.
As many elite CrossFitters have done before — most notably four-time Fittest Man on Earth® Rich Froning — Ohlsen still intends to compete in competitive CrossFit in the Teams division from the 2024 season onward. Ohlsen has already found success competing on a team, as he won the 2022 Wodapalooza competition alongside teammates Chandler Smith and Travis Mayer. Ohlsen mentioned having already spoken with Smith regarding plans to vie for the Team title at the CrossFit Games after the 2023 season.
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Ohlsen’s plans outside competitive CrossFit involve content production by hiring a media team around him. While he didn’t specify the content he’d aim to produce, it would fall into entertainment, inspirational, and educational categories. The CrossFit community will get a taste of that content throughout the 2023 CrossFit season, as Ohlsen will be sprinkling it across his social media as he tests out ideas.
Ohlsen’s next premiere competition will be the 2022 Rogue Invitational, scheduled for Oct. 28-30, 2022, at the Dell Diamond stadium in Austin, TX. He will also attempt to defend his Wodapalooza team title with Smith and Mayer in 2023. The 2023 CrossFit season kicks off with the Open, starting on Feb. 16, 2023.
Featured image: @nohlsen on Instagram