The 2020 Wodapalooza Fitness Festival is a four day fitness extravaganza that will take place from February 20th through the 23rd (Thursday-Sunday) in Biscayne Bay, Miami, Florida.
Wodapalooza serves as a CrossFit Sanctionals event similar to the Dubai CrossFit Championships and Rogue Invitational, where the the winner of the men’s, women’s, and team divisions earn invitations to the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games taking place in Madison, Wisconsin on July 29th through August 2nd.
[Related: Here’s how to watch the 2020 Wodapalooza Fitness Festival]
Athletes Competing At Wodapalooza
Last year’s Wodapalooza saw some of the biggest names in the sport take the stage including winners Patrick Vellner and Tia-Clair Toomey, both of whom won their respective divisions in the 2020 CrossFit Open.
Aside from Vellner and Toomey, other notable names confirmed for Wodapalooza include 2020 Open runner-up Kari Pearce, 2019 Dubai CrossFit Champion Sara Sigmundsdottir, 2019 USA National Champion Dani Speegle, Chandler Smith, Noah Olsen, last year’s CrossFit Games Wildcard Invite Ben Smith, and Brooke Wells.
It goes without say that the roster heading into this event is absolutely stacked with premiere CrossFit athletes.
The team division is also drawing some big names with Team Victory Grips, Team Wit, Team GOWOD, and the 2019 CrossFit Games Champion Team Mayhem Freedom (who are coming off a win at Strength in Depth UK), to name a few.
Cash Prizes for Top Placing Athletes
Earning a top spot at Wodapalooza can be pretty lucrative. Here is the prize payout for top finishers of the event:
Individual
- 1st Place – $50,000 and qualification for the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games
- 2nd Place – $30,000
- 3rd Place – $20,000
- 4th Place – $15,000
- 5th Place – $10,000
Team
- 1st Place – $20,000 and qualification for the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games
- 2nd Place – $12,500
- 3rd Place – $10,000
- 4th Place – $8,000
- 5th Place – $6,000
The Rest of The Fitness Festival
Alongside the Sanctionals competition, there are plenty of other events taking place at Wodapalooza including a two separate Teenage divisions for athletes 13-15 and 16-18 years of age, six distinct Master’s divisions (scaling every four years starting at age 35 up to 60+), two Adaptive Standing, and two Adaptive Seated divisions.
In addition there is also open registration for a Scaled and a Beginners division. All athletes competing in the Scaled or Beginners divisions will have had to take part in the Wodapalooza online challenge, a two-part online workout challenge that took place in August and September of 2019 for individuals and December 2019 for teams.
Speaking of teams, there are also four team divisions (all consisting of two male and two female athletes, four total per team) competing at Wodapalooza in addition to Elite. They are RX, Intermediate, Scaled and Beginners.
Wodapalooza Weightlifting Faceoff
The Weightlifting Faceoff is a one day event that is open to all qualified athletes that registered in advance by:
- submitting results from a previous USA Weightlifting event
- submitting via video their heaviest olympic lifts
This event uses a bracketed head-to-head format. The sixteen top qualifiers for the men’s and women’s divisions will compete for a $2,000 cash prize. In 2019, we saw Matt Rattay and Anni Vuohijoki claim victories, while Team USA Weightlifter Alyssa Ritchey won the event alongside Fernando Reis in 2018.
The Gauntlet
The Gauntlet is an individual event where athletes move through three stations each containing a different workout or challenge and has a duration of an hour. There are heats on Thursday the 20th and Friday the 21st. It is open to anyone who wishes to compete in the Scaled, Intermediate, or Rx Individual divisions. There are no teams in the Gauntlet.
New in 2020 is a finals Gauntlet that will take place on Sunday, February 23rd, and will include the top finishers from the heats earlier in the weekend.
Wodapalooza Strong
This is the second year for Wodapalooza Strong, a Hybrid strength event that combines traditional strongman movements with functional fitness movements. Wodapalooza Strong consists of seven events and is adding a Novice division this year.
The top finisher of this event receives a $1,000 cash prize.
Wrapping Up
This is bound to be one of the biggest events in fitness this year. With top CrossFit athletes coming from all over the world to compete in the Sanctionals competition and world class athletes taking the platform in the Weightlifting Faceoff, Wodapalooza is sure to be something you’ll want to keep your eyes on next weekend.
Wodapalooza FAQs
When is the Wodapalooza Fitness Festival?
The 2020 Wodapalooza Fitness Festival will take place on from Thursday, February 20th to Sunday, February 23rd. The CrossFit Sanctional event will take place all four days.
In addition the Weightlifting Faceoff, Gauntlet, and Strong events will also take place during event weekend.
Who won Wodapalooza last year?
In 2019, the Wodapalooza Sanctional was won by 2020 CrossFit Open champions Patrick Vellner and Tia-Clair Toomey.
Both Vellner and Toomey are confirmed to compete at the 2020 Wodapalooza Fitness Festival.
What is the prize for winning the Wodapalooza Sanctionals?
The top finishing individual male and female each receive $50,000 and an invite to the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games.
The top finishing team receives a$20,000 and an invite to the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games.
Feature image from Wodapalooza’s Instagram page:@wodapalooza
