Anikha Greer had a feeling.
A feeling that after completing this year’s In-Affiliate Semifinals, she had finally done enough to earn her invite to the CrossFit Games – a dream she had been chasing since 2018 when she was a teenager.
So Close…
Anikha Greer was in ninth grade when she first felt the hurt.
The hurt of missing out on qualifying for the CrossFit Games by one spot.
- Sitting in math class, she watched her name flip from 20th to 21st “about six times in the span of about 15 minutes. And then it flipped to 21st and I’m watching the clock and it just stays there,” Greer told the Morning Chalk Up in 2021 about the first time she missed qualifying for the Games as a teenager in 2018.
By 2021, the then 18-year-old from Prince Edward Island in Canada had grown somewhat accustomed to feeling as if she were almost cursed.
- In 2019, Greer finished 15th in the Age Group Online qualifier, which would typically have earned her a ticket to the Games. However, that year, only the top 10, instead of 20, received invitations.
- The following year, in 2020, Greer finally achieved her goal. She qualified for the Games in the 16-17-year-old division, only to have that qualification revoked when the teen division was canceled at the Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since moving up to the individual division, the trend continued; Greer has found herself on the wrong side of the cutline by one spot at Semifinals three more times.
- In 2021, Greer finished sixth at the Atlas Games Semifinals, where five athletes qualified. Additionally, she placed 12th at the North America East Semifinal in both 2023 and 2024, when 11 women qualified.
Re-Working Herself for 2025
After last year’s Semifinals, as Greer processed the pain and disappointment of missing by one spot again, eight-time Games veteran Brent Fikowski told her something “that rocked me,” Greer said.
- He told her, “You have to be OK with being the person who is just trying to do the thing. If you’re only going to be OK with being the person who does the thing and is the CrossFit Games athlete, it’s not sustainable,” Greer remembered of Fikowski’s words.
In that moment, she realized that she was “not OK with just trying to be the person who is good at fitness.” At that time, she felt in her heart that she would only be OK if she actually achieved her all-time dream of qualifying for the Games.
That’s when Greer recognized she was far too consumed with making it to the Games, and her life lacked balance.
After last season’s disappointment, she took a step back and “found purpose outside of just [chasing] the title of CrossFit Games athlete,” Greer explained.
- “It was an awakening for me. I put a lot of work into my head over the past year… And a lot of aspects of my life improved,” she continued.
Heading into the 2025 CrossFit Games season, Greer found herself in a place she had never been before.
- “This is the year I think I cared the least about going to the Games,” she admitted.
Part of the reason for this was her mindset shift, but another reason, she explained, is that she is also competing in the inaugural World Fitness Project (WFP) season. Thus, the Games no longer feel like the be-all and end-all for elite CrossFit athletes.
- “Having [the WFP] to put my focus on was something that allowed me to take a little bit of the pressure off of just the CrossFit Games. There was definitely a part of me that wasn’t as bought into the CrossFit Games this year as younger me was, like 14-year-old Anikha, who exclusively wanted to do that,” she said.
Enter the In-Affiliate Semifinals
Greer, a Training Think Tank athlete residing in Miami, FL, traveled to Alpharetta, GA, to complete five In-Affiliate Semifinals workouts alongside several elite athletes, including Travis Mayer and Keara Napoli.
The first workout she completed was Heavy Isabel – 30 snatches for time at 155 pounds. Greer’s goal was to finish in under five minutes.
She decided to ignore the clock and simply put her head down, listening to her body to determine when to lift.
- When Greer completed her 30th rep, she looked up and saw her time: 3:53. She couldn’t believe it.
Greer proceeded to log four more workouts she was very satisfied with, and didn’t feel the need for any last-minute redos.
The only thing left was waiting for the leaderboard to populate.
Though Greer knew the weekend had “gone so well,” and everyone was telling her, “there’s no way 11 people were more consistent than you,” she was nervous. She had been here before, too many times, and wasn’t going to make assumptions.
- “Deep down, I felt [good], but obviously with my history, I was incredibly nervous that I was going to have messed up something,” she said.
And then, all of a sudden, shortly after 5 p.m. Pacific time when the submission window closed, Napoli shouted, “Anikha, you’re fifth.”
The Waiting Game
As exciting as the news was that she was sitting in fifth place in the world, Greer also recognized that her videos would be scrutinized and that penalties were yet to be issued.
Unable to turn off her mind, Greer revisited all of her workout videos, multiple times, searching for anything that might be flagged as a penalty.
- “I can’t stop. I am so bad for that, because I have so much online qualifier trauma that I will watch every single one of my videos and I’m like, ‘Is this rep perfect?’” she admitted.
Eventually, her coach, Max El-Hag, told her, “You need to stop,” she said.
To ease her mind, El-Hag sent Greer’s videos to a few judges, each reassuring Greer that her reps were perfect.
Feeling calmer, Greer flew to Indianapolis, IN, for the WFP’s Tour Event I.
On Day 2 of the competition, right after the grueling Echo Bike and sled push event, Greer felt ill.
- “I have never been more nauseous in my entire life. For two hours,” she said.
She grabbed a garbage can. As she hovered over it, trying not to vomit, someone told her to check her email, as CrossFit HQ had apparently begun validating scores.
So, still bent over, Greer picked up her phone to check.
It was official. All five of her scores had been validated.
- “And the nausea just went away,” she said, laughing.
Once the leaderboard was finalized the following week, Greer moved up from fifth to fourth overall.
Looking Ahead
At the start of the season, Greer’s “lofty goal” was twofold: “Make the Games and get a [WFP] Pro Card.”
One down, one to go, and Greer is in a good position to reach her second goal.
- Greer finished 14th in the Pro Division at Tour Event I, and at the end of the season, the top 20 point earners will earn a Pro Card for the 2026 season.
As for her first Games, she isn’t putting pressure on herself and is trying to keep it simple.
- “As I continue to train for the Games and as more workouts are announced, I’ll set some goals for the Games, but I think for my first experience, it’s just to perform and not get in my own way,” Greer said.
That being said, even though she has finally achieved her long-time goal, she feels like she is just getting started, as this milestone is but “the start of a new chapter,” she explained, because even though the CrossFit Games has been her goal for the last eight years, it “was never my end goal,” she said.
She added: “I always want more.”
More CrossFit Stories
- Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr Wins the 2025 Torian Pro — Is It Really Her Farewell to CrossFit?
- Training Partners Reunited – Olivia Kerstetter and Chris Ibarra Punch Their Tickets to Albany
- 2025 Syndicate Crown: How to Watch, Leaderboard, and 5 Things to Know
Featured Image: Scott Freymond
