CrossFit® trainer Ben Bergeron has been staggering out his top ten favorite moments on his Instagram from the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games. Bergeron own CrossFit New England and has coached over six CrossFit Games champions including the current 2-time Fittest Man On Earth™ Mat Fraser, the 2-time Fittest Woman On Earth™ Katrin Davidsdottir, a handful of masters athletes, and a team (to multiple Affiliate Cup wins).
Check out Bergeron’s top 10 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games moment below.
10. Madison
To start the list, Bergeron mentions and pays homage to the new CrossFit Games host, Madison, Wisconsin. Within his post Bergeron writes, “No discussion of the 2017 Games would be complete without mention of the new host city. Madison. is. awesome. It feels like a really big small town… or a really small big town.”
9. Brooke Wells
Wells is one of Bergeron’s athletes and excels in strength movements. In Bergeron’s post he writes how Wells overcame some challenges the biking event, even though she’d only been on a bike a handful of times before the event.
He writes, “If you grew up riding bikes, you don’t have to think about things like dismounting quickly, when to change gears or pedaling through turns—your body just instinctively does it. Not so for @brookewellss.”
8. O-Course
For number eight, Bergeron talks about how the obstacle is one of his favorite events of the CrossFit Games for testing an athlete’s abilities. He write, “We talk a lot about building the world’s the fittest athletes, and we spend a lot of time in the gym doing it. But if we’re talking about the world’s fittest, the test should encompass a lot more than what someone can do in the gym. You have to be able to apply it to the real world.”
7. Morning Routine
How do you get ready every morning? Bergeron discusses that sometimes the quiet moments are often the best, “Every morning, @katrintanja and I had the same routine. I’d wake up and head to her room. She was usually in some state of getting ready, so I’d grab her bags and take them downstairs to the valet, then come back up and hang out until she was ready.”
6. Heavy 17.5
In number six, Bergeron discusses his love for the CrossFit Games reusing an Open workout, but making it heavier. He writes, “It was the first time the @crossfitgames had retested an Open workout at the Games, and the heavier barbell was a nice touch. Back in the athlete area, I told @katrintanja that Heavy 17.5 for her was going to feel like regular 17.5 felt for me.”
5. 2,223 Intervals
Bergeron talks about his love for the interval work:rest ratio event. He says, “And if you’re trying to find the fittest, it’s an appropriate test that fit nicely within the programming—who can put the pedal down, recover and recoup? The work/rest format was very different than say, doing 4 rounds of the same workout for time.”
4. Dottir Showdown – Women’s Final
This event was an epic display of athleticism for the female competitors. In an exert from Bergeron’s lengthy post he writes, “The women’s final was probably the single most epic moment of the 2017 Games. The extraordinary spectacle that was the Fibonacci Final owed a lot to programing—the event was so perfectly crafted that there was virtually no separation between the top women throughout the HSPU and KB deadlifts.”
3. Katrin’s Favorite Games
Bergeron and Katrin Davidsdottir shared a special moment after the Games when they were discussing the weekend. For the first year since 2015, Davidsdottir didn’t finish on top, but she was okay with the outcome.
In Bergeron’s post he writes, “But when Katrin returned from the awards ceremony, she wasn’t down. She wasn’t emotional. I’m not sure what I expected, but Kat was as clear-eyed as a raptor. We dove into the weekend in the car on the drive back, and we ended up pulling over into a parking lot so that we could go through the 10 pages of notes I had taken throughout the week. We stayed there for over an hour, just talking and thinking.”
2. Mat’s Final
Fraser was ahead by over 200 points going into the final event. Him and Bergeron both knew that he had to complete the minimal work in the final event to stand on the podium. As usual, this wasn’t an issue for Fraser, “Before Mat went out onto the floor, I told him to soak it all up. Make some memories. You’ve earned this. Enjoy it. And as he locks out his last set of deadlifts, you can see him doing it. A smile spreads across his face.”
1. Cole Sager Wins Spirit of the Games
This is an award given to an athlete that CrossFit HQ feels is embodied everything CrossFit stands for throughout the weekend. Sager finished 17th on the weekend, and is one of Bergeron’s elite male athletes.
In Bergeron’s post he writes, “Cole winning Spirit of the Games was my favorite moment of the 2017 Games, for so many reasons. I can’t think of a more deserving person for that award. It’s easy to say all the right things. A lot of people talk about integrity. A lot of people would say that they act with other people’s best interests at heart. Very few people live, breathe and personify those values the way Cole does.”
Feature image from @benbergeron Instagram page / CrossFit Games live coverage.
