On Monday, CrossFit announced the individual In-Affiliate Semifinals workouts, giving us a clearer picture of what this weekend’s online competition will look like for the men and women competing for 11 invitations each to this summer’s CrossFit Games in Albany, NY.
Remind Me
Athletes must complete the five workouts between Thursday at noon PT and Sunday at 5 p.m. PT at an affiliate in good standing, with a head judge and a floor judge. Additionally, they must submit videos of each workout.
The Workouts
Before we discuss who we believe will do well, let’s consider the workouts.
The five workouts present a strong, balanced test of fitness. However, to summarize the weekend’s programming, it appears that top athletes who prefer heavy lifting and high-volume gymnastics will excel, while those who do not will likely find it challenging to finish within the top 11.
Additionally, with only five workouts, each one represents a significant 20% of the total; therefore, a poor score in such a large field of athletes could eliminate an athlete from contention.
- Workout 1 and Workout 3 both have a seriously heavy component – high reps of heavy back squats (275/185 pounds) in Workout 1 and 30 snatches for time (225/155 pounds) in Workout 3, “Heavy Isabel.”
Considering these two workouts make up 40% of the points this weekend, athletes like Games veterans James Sprague, Haley Adams, and Emily Rolfe, who don’t traditionally crush heavy workouts, might have a hard time coming back from these two tests.
- That said, Sprague showed that he closed the gap in strength events at TYR Wodapalooza in January. And Adams placed sixth in “Heavy Isabel” at the Mayhem Classic, demonstrating the strength work she has put in over the off-season. (Rolfe placed 16th of 18.)
As for the high-rep technical gymnastics this weekend, Workout 1 features a significant volume of muscle-ups and handstand walking, while Workout 5 — a 30-minute AMRAP of a 1000-meter row, 30 toes-to-bar, and six rope climbs — requires serious grip and upper-body pulling stamina. Finally, Workout 2 includes 110 GHD sit-ups.
- Ultimately, anyone who can’t handle a high volume of these gymnastics skills is likely to struggle in at least two of the five workouts.
It can be argued that the weekend lacks an extended, pure conditioning test, as well as any odd objects or non-traditional CrossFit events, which are common at the CrossFit Games but difficult to program in the online format.
- Workout 5 is a 30-minute AMRAP featuring multiple 1,000-meter row intervals. However, since not much time can be gained on a row, the workout will likely focus more on toes-to-bar and rope climb stamina.
- Meanwhile, Workout 4 is non-technical and light; however, it serves more as a test of athletes’ willingness to hurt, as well as their burpee and light barbell cycling speed, than a cardiovascular endurance test.
With all that being said, here are three men and three women we expect to find themselves well in the top 11 and en route to Albany by the end of the weekend.
6 Athletes to Watch
Jeff Adler
It’s tough to find a weakness in the 2023 CrossFit Games champion’s game.
Adler has long been known as the strong guy, so he should have no problem with the strength elements this weekend. He has also improved his muscle-ups, which were a weakness early in his career, to the point where they’re arguably now a strength.
- Case in point: Adler won the muscle-up event at the 2023 CrossFit Games, which involved 35 muscle-ups.
Not only do this weekend’s workouts bode well for Adler, but he has also consistently proven himself to excel at online competitions.
- Adler never finished outside the top five in any of the four Quarterfinals from 2021 to 2024 and has also won the CrossFit Open twice.
Dallin Pepper
Dallin Pepper is another athlete we expect to be pleased with the workouts this weekend, particularly since there is no significant running involved aside from the shuttle runs.
- When we look at last year’s CrossFit Games, Pepper’s two lowest finishes were on “Lake Day” — an endurance event with a 3.5-mile run and an 800-meter swim — and “Track and Field,” a one-mile run followed by a sandbag sprint. He placed 15th and 22nd, respectively.
Furthermore, Pepper is known for his strength, so we don’t expect him to struggle with any heavy elements this weekend, and his gymnastics skills are quite solid as well.
- Pepper’s coach, Matt Torres, said this about his athlete: “His biggest strength is how well-rounded he is. It doesn’t matter what is thrown his way: heavy dumbbells, AMRAP burpees, heavy snatches for a lot of reps, rowing and rope climbs, heavy squats, and ring muscle-ups. I don’t see a weakness in any of those events.”
That’s great news for Pepper, since all of that will be in this weekend’s programming.
Jonne Koski
On one hand, Jonne Koski might seem like a strange pick, as he’s well known for being a strong swimmer and runner, both of which are absent this weekend. Additionally, he just competed last weekend at Wodland Fest in Málaga, Spain, so he might not be fully recovered.
On the other hand, Koski may have a chip on his shoulder after finishing one place out of a Games spot.
Last season, the nine-time CrossFit Games athlete missed qualifying for the Games by just one spot in the Europe Semifinals, so there’s a good chance Koski could be more fired up than ever this weekend.
- His ace card: Koski has long proven himself in online competitions. He became the first athlete to win both the Open and Quarterfinals in the same year, in 2024, and he also qualified for the CrossFit Games via the online Last Chance Qualifier in 2022.
So, while Koski’s body might not be as recovered as that of other athletes this weekend, he has the experience and the online competition chops, so our money is on him finishing in the top 11.
Alexis Raptis
For the past two seasons, Alexis Raptis has finished sixth at the CrossFit Games, demonstrating that she can more than hold her own against the best in the world.
Additionally, we know Raptis can crush “Heavy Isabel,” which she proved at the recent Mayhem Classic when she finished third in a time of 4:45.
- With the first three IPQEs in the bank, all of which have included “Heavy Isabel,” Raptis’ time ranks sixth best. Three of the athletes with faster times have either already qualified for the Games or are not competing in the CrossFit Games season (Abigail Domit, Seung Yeon Choi, and Elisa Fuliano).
Additionally, Raptis also took a top-three finish in Workout 4 at the Mayhem Classic, which closely resembles Workout 2 this weekend.
- Workout 4 at the Mayhem Classic consisted of three rounds for time of 50 GHD sit-ups, a 100-foot dumbbell overhead walking lunge with a 70-pound dumbbell, and a 100-foot handstand walk.
- Workout 2 this weekend features a total of 110 repetitions of dumbbell overhead walking lunges with a 70-pound dumbbell, along with GHD sit-ups that we know Raptis can crush.
Arielle Loewen
Arielle Loewen is another athlete who can seemingly do it all. She may not win strength events, but this is not a weak spot for her, and neither is her gymnastics.
Similar to Pepper, what makes Loewen great is her well-roundedness. At the 2023 Games, for example, she didn’t finish outside of the top 20 in any event.
- In the last three years of Semifinals, Loewen has never placed lower than 20th in any single test and has finished 13 out of the 19 total in the top 10.
Each of the five workouts this weekend will count for 20% of the total, making consistency essential and avoiding a low finish that could eliminate you vital.
All things considered, Loewen may just be as close as it gets to being a lock.
Anikha Greer
In the interest of full disclosure, we weren’t going to include Greer in this list because we don’t want to jinx her again by predicting she will finally qualify for the CrossFit Games after coming so close so many times.
Still, these workouts look specifically tailored for Greer to succeed.
- Greer is one of the best in the world at muscle-ups, excelling at all high-rep gymnastics skills, and is one of the strongest athletes in any competition. Her struggles, which have kept her out of the Games, lie in her running and longer conditioning-heavy workouts, both of which she gets to avoid this weekend.
While Greer’s snatching prowess has lagged behind her incredible clean and jerk and powerlifting strength, her snatch has improved significantly in recent months.
- In February, Greet posted a video of her 200-pound snatch personal best, so we think she’ll be just fine at Heavy Isabel.
One Big Thing
This weekend’s In-Affiliate Semifinals are arguably more similar to Quarterfinals of the past four years than they are to recent in-person Semifinals events.
Considering this, only 18 total athletes, including both men and women, have finished inside the top 30 in the Quarterfinals in all three past seasons.
- Four of them include Loewen, Raptis, Adler, and Pepper, which also bodes well for them this weekend.
Worth noting: We would have included Alex Gazan and Colten Mertens on our lists; however, Gazan has chosen not to compete and will focus on qualifying for the CrossFit Games via the Northern California Classic in June, while Mertens has already qualified for the Games through the Mayhem Classic.
- At the time of publication, some of our picks have not yet registered for this weekend’s In-Affiliate Semifinals, but we expect that they will all be competing.
The Big Picture
When it comes to competition, there are lots of unknown and unknowable factors, and there is always room for surprises. However, if history can help us predict the future, then our money is on Adler, Pepper, Koski, Raptis, Loewen, and Greer to finish in the top 11 and earn their invites to the 2025 CrossFit Games.
Featured image: Sara Ines Chew
