Davidsdottir Fails to Climb Leaderboard on Day 3, Moves On to Last Chance Qualifier

With the fastest split on the women’s side at 8:31, nine-time CrossFit Games competitor Katrin Davidsdottir crossed the Strength in Depth finish line with an arm pump to celebrate an Event 6 win.

But her effort was too little, too late.

Starting the final day of competition in sixth place, Davidsdottir needed a big push to qualify for her tenth trip to the Games. Ironically, first up on the docket for Day 3 was the 2014 Regionals rope climb event, the same workout that kept Davidsdottir from progressing her season that year.

• In her book Dottir, co-written with Rory McKernan, Davidsdottir remembers the iconic moment in her career as “embarrassing” and wholly negative, but has also said it was the moment that motivated her to get back to the Games.

Davidsdottir had a chance for redemption with the legless rope climbs eight years later, but the event once again ended up as the downfall of her season when she placed 18th. This comes as no surprise, as legless rope climbs have been a weakness for Davidsdottir even at the peak of her career in 2015 and 2016, but a recent change of pace after moving back to Iceland to train with new coach Jami Tikkanen could have brought improvement to the gap in her performance.

Alas, Davidsdottir went into the final event of the weekend in ninth place, needing to use the ‘classic CrossFit’ 21-15-9 triplet to her advantage. She finished the workout 14 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, taking 100 points for herself.

Unfortunately for Davidsdottir, it wasn’t enough to earn a ticket to Madison this August. The 2015 and 2016 ‘Fittest Woman on Earth’ finished the weekend six points out of a Games qualifying spot, one of two former champions to miss the cut at Strength in Depth.

Taking sixth place overall, Davidsdottir will have a chance to redeem herself once again during the Last Chance Qualifier next month.