Does Australia’s Peter Ellis Have What It Takes to Make the CrossFit Games in 2024?

Peter Ellis is an up-and-coming Australian CrossFit athlete working his way up the leaderboard over the last two years. 

In December 2023, the 21-year-old dominated the Elite Men’s Division at the 2023 Down Under Championship in Wollongong, Australia. Consistency was key to his overall win, which saw Ellis finishing with two event wins, six top-three finishes, and no finishes outside the top 10. 

• While the win at the Down Under Championship was a huge confidence boost to the Australian athlete, Ellis’ focus is on a loftier goal: earning his first ticket to the 2024 CrossFit Games.

Ellis has made two Semifinal appearances, finishing 20th in 2022 and then narrowly missing out on a ticket to the Games in 2023, where he finished an impressive 5th at the Torian Pro. 

Ellis’s 2024 season plans: With only three spots available in Oceania, there’s no room for weaknesses or errors. Last year, Ellis managed to secure three second-place finishes at the Torian Pro. 

Coming into the 2024 season, this up-and-coming athlete has focused on attacking his weaknesses, as he said in an interview with The Morning Chalk Up: “The biggest thing I’m trying to work on is consistency, because even though I do well in some events, I need to make sure that’s across the board, and that’s why I did well at the Down Under Championship.”

Ellis has made some major life changes in the lead-up to the 2024 CrossFit Games season, including leaving his day job as a plumber so he can focus solely on his training:

• “My whole day will revolve around training for Torian this year. I’m going to give it a real good crack to make it to the Games,” the 21-year-old said. 
• “When I was plumbing full-time, I would work 8 [hours], sometimes 10 hours a day, and [then] go to the gym and train for 2-3 hours,” he said.

Since leaving his job as a plumber, Ellis has been able to focus on his recovery. Now, he’s sleeping better, is fueled adequately between workouts, and has time for mobilization:

• “When I was working before, I was only training once a day. I [would] get home from the gym and still [be] wired; it takes me a while to calm down… then I’m up at 5:30 AM the next morning again for work,” Ellis said.
• “[Now], I might be doing the same amount of volume [as before], but I’ve split it up into two sessions, so the intensity goes up. I’ll have 100% energy in the morning. Go home, eat, rest, recover, then 100% energy in the afternoon,” he said. 

Ellis’s drive to be the best is apparent. But where does it come from? 

In 2019, when he was 17 years old, Ellis and his father made the lengthy journey from Australia to the U.S. to watch the CrossFit Games as spectators, as he remembers. 

“My dad took me over there [to the Games]… and I was fully addicted, and all my decisions from that point have been about how I can get back there as a competitor,” he said. 

The bottom line: Ellis is hungry to make it to the Games, and he’s overhauled his life to give himself the best chance of achieving this. But that’s not all he’s striving for: “The long-term goal is obviously to win everything and to be the best in the world; there’s no point in aiming below that.” 

We’re excited to see what the 2024 season brings for Ellis. Could 2024 be his year?