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CrossFit Games

11 Fascinating Facts to Celebrate Cole Sager and Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson’s 11 CrossFit Games Qualifications

June 12, 2024 by Dave Charlton

At the 2024 CrossFit Europe Semifinal, Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson (BKG) became the first CrossFit athlete to earn a trip to 11 consecutive CrossFit Games. 

The following week at the North America West Semifinal, Cole Sager joined him in this exclusive club.

In recognition of their 11 invitations to the CrossFit Games, here are 11 fascinating facts from each man’s career.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Björgvin K. Guðmundsson (@bk_gudmundsson)

[Related: Best Weighted Vests]

Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson

1. BKG is one of only three men to have finished on the CrossFit Games podium in both Carson, CA, and Madison, WI. He finished third at the 2015 CrossFit Games and third again in 2019.

  • Mat Fraser and Patrick Vellner also stood on the podium in both Carson and Madison

2. He won Murph at the 2015 CrossFit Games with a time of 38:36.21 and finished fifth in the partitioned version of Murph tested at the 2016 Games (38:06.84).

3. Guðmundsson has the most top-10 CrossFit Games finishes in a career with eight.

  • He’s tied with Mat Fraser and Noah Ohlsen

4. In 128 career CrossFit Games events, BKG has only finished worse than 25th in 12 of them. Six of the 12 happened in 2014, which was his rookie year at the Games.

5. Guðmundsson has 12 straight top-100 finishes in the CrossFit Open.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CrossFit Games (@crossfitgames)

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6. He has 14 top-10 finishes in CrossFit Games events with a time domain greater than 20 minutes.

7. BKG and Gabriela Migala are the only athletes to finish in the top five in Quarterfinals in the European Region for all four years the system has existed.

8. Guðmundsson has eight top-five event finishes at the CrossFit Games in events that include running.

9. He is one of eight athletes to win events at Regionals (2016 and 2017 Meridian Regional), Sanctionals (2019 Reykjavik CrossFit Championship), and Semifinals (2021 Lowlands Throwdown). 

  • Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, Patrick Vellner, and Kara Saunders are also athletes who join BKG in this accomplishment.

10. BKG is well-rounded — in the events he has finished in the top five at the CrossFit Games, 36 different movements have been tested.

11. At the 2016 and 2017 Meridian Regionals, Guðmundsson finished in the top five in 12 out of 13 events.

Cole Sager 

1. Cole Sager won the rope climb/thruster workout at both the 2015 and 2016 West Regional.

2. He is one of six men to win both a Regional (2014 North West Regional) and a Semifinal (2021 West Coast Classic).  

  • Roman Khrennikov and Brent Fikowski are among the other five men to achieve a Regional and Semifinal victory.

3. Sager has three top-five finishes in pegboard events at the CrossFit Games. The only athlete with more top-five finishes on the pegboard is Mat Fraser with four.

4. Sager and Scott Panchik are the only men to finish fifth in a Regional and then top five in the CrossFit Games the same year.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CrossFit Games (@crossfitgames)

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5. He has top-10 event finishes at the CrossFit Games in events that involved all of these odd object movements: Sled push, cylinder carry, sandbag carry, pig flips, snail push, banger, rescue Randy, and the yoke. 

6. Sager is seventh all-time among men for CrossFit Games points earned with 5,778.

7. He is tied for fourth all-time with five career top-five finishes in thruster events at the CrossFit Games.

8. He has six career top-five CrossFit Games event finishes in workouts that included running.

9. Despite all his success at the Games, Cole Sager has only one CrossFit Open finish in the top 10.

10. He has six career event wins in workouts that involve rope climbs/legless rope climbs.

11. Prior to his CrossFit career, Sager was a walk-on athlete on the Washington Huskies NCAA football team, where he played on special teams for four years.

Featured image: @samuelveducheau_, @thefittestshots, and @crossfitgames / Instagram

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