Semifinals Spotlight: Europe’s Rising Star, Colin Bosshard, Eyes CrossFit Games
Colin Bosshard might not be a household name in the CrossFit world, especially outside of European circles. However, the two-time Fittest Man in Switzerland heads into the 2024 Semifinals looking to build on the momentum of the past 12 months and qualify for the CrossFit Games at the end of the weekend.
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Remind me: Colin Bosshard made his first appearance as an individual at Semifinals in 2023, finishing in 12th place, one spot below the cutline for the CrossFit Games.
“Since it was my first time at the Semifinals, I didn’t expect at all to qualify for the Games,” Bosshard told the Morning Chalk Up in an interview. “I was there to compete and gain experience.”
- “My biggest takeaway was knowing that I can compete against the best in Europe. My mentality and the way I approached workouts have changed a lot since then. I’m more confident in my abilities,” Bosshard concluded.
The off-season: The Madrid Championship, one of the toughest off-season competitions in CrossFit, was the first major off-season competition of Bosshard’s career. His results were nothing short of impressive.
- Bosshard finished a respectable fifth, behind 2023 top-10 Games finishers Lazar Đukić and Jonne Koski, as well as Games veteran Travis Mayer and 2021 CrossFit Games athlete Luka Đukić.
- During the competition, Bosshard earned four top-five finishes in seven events.
In November, Bosshard became the 2023 IF3 World Champion, finishing 33 points ahead of CrossFit Games team athlete Morten Rasch Arnesen, who took second. During the competition, Bosshard finished first or second in five of the seven events.
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The 2024 Games season: Bosshard is off to a hot start in 2024. He had a career-best finish in the CrossFit Open this year, coming in 86th place. This included the third-fastest time in the world on Open Workout 24.1.
He also claimed a career-best finish in the Quarterfinals, improving from 36th in Europe last year to 16th in 2024. His 2024 Quarterfinals performance also includes the world record time in Event 2.
Looking ahead: Going into the Europe Semifinal, Bosshard will be among a handful of athletes battling for 10 Games spots.
When looking at the Semifinal programming this year, Event 2 and Event 3 fall right into Bosshard’s wheelhouse.
- Neither event is overly technical; they’re just long, grinding workouts. They’re similar to 2024 Quarterfinals Event 2, where he had the best time in the world, or Quarterfinals Event 1, where he had the fourth-best time in Europe.
Semifinal Event 4 (which includes rowing and handstand walks) is another potential homerun event for Bosshard. He had a ninth in Event 6 from last year’s Semifinals, which included handstand walks. And at the 2023 Madrid Championship, he placed second in the handstand walk event behind Jonne Koski.
The make-or-break event for Bosshard will likely be Event 5, the 2016 Regionals Event 1 Snatch Ladder repeat.
- In this event, athletes are required to complete two squat snatches at the final bar of 265 pounds (120.2kg).
Returning to last year’s Semifinals, Bosshard’s best lift was also 265 pounds during the max snatch event.
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If Bosshard could finish in the top half of this event, it would go a long way toward helping him secure his ticket to the CrossFit Games.
- For reference, this event was most recently programmed at the 2021 West Coast Classic Semifinal, where Dillon Youngman’s 20th-place men’s time was 10:49.05.
The bottom line: Over the last 12 months, Bosshard has shown that he can compete at the highest level in the sport.
With the Europe Semifinal on the horizon, he seems well positioned to build on his 2023 appearance at Semifinals and punch a ticket to Fort Worth.
Featured image: @internationalfunctionalfitness // @colinbosshard