When it comes to power and speed, Brazil’s Gui Malheiros is like the Simone Biles of CrossFit: He never loses.
Last month, that power was put on full display at the 2025 TYR Wodapalooza during “Worth the Weight,” where athletes had three attempts to establish a max effort clean plus hang clean.
- Malheiros opened with 370 pounds before hitting 390 and 400 pounds, easily taking the event win.
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For anyone else, that would be a career milestone. For Malheiros, it was just another day doing what he does best.
When it comes to heavy or max-effort Olympic weightlifting events — and to full-out sprint-style events — Malheiros is truly unmatched, even against the best CrossFit athletes in the world.
He also tends to win easily and by large margins; it usually doesn’t even look like he’s maxing out most of the time.
Case in point: Malheiros won “Worth the Weight” at the 2025 TYR Wodapalooza by 20 pounds over the next best lifters, Austin Hatfield and Jack Farlow.
- In comparison, on the women’s side, two athletes — Anika Greer and Kyra Milligan — shared the event win with 255-pound lifts, while Dani Speegle and Laura Horvath were close behind with 250 pounds.
Gui Malheiros’ Dominance From 2021-Present Day
Here’s a look at some of Malheiros’ most dominant performances over the past four years.
2021 CrossFit Games
Malheiros won three events in his rookie season at the Games, all of them being weightlifting or sprint events.
- His first event win was the 550-meter sprint, which he took by three seconds over Will Moorad.
- His second event win came in a workout consisting of five rounds for time of a 250-meter run and one heavy clean. Malheiros bested Jeff Adler, another athlete known for both his clean and running prowess (now), to take the win.
- Finally, Malheiros won the max snatch event that year, lifting 305 pounds with ease.
2021 Rogue Invitational
Malheiros won both Event 2 and Event 7.
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- Event 2 was the “Bella Complex,” a barbell complex of one clean, one shoulder to overhead, one front squat, and one more shoulder to overhead. Malheiros lifted 367 pounds, winning by six pounds.
- Event 7 was a head-to-head, elimination-style sprint event, which Malheiros finished in 52 seconds, edging out Sam Kwant thanks to his pure speed across the finish line.
2022 CrossFit Games
In 2022, the max lift event was an uncharacteristic one: A sandbag ladder. The event, however, still allowed Malheiros to showcase his pure power.
- Four men were able to lift the heaviest sandbag — 340 pounds — leading to the tie break, which involved lifting three sandbags of varying weights for time. Once again, Malheiros’ pure speed and athleticism won out.
2024 Semifinals
Malheiros took the event record across all regions on the snatch ladder, an event that featured 30 progressively heavier snatches.
2024 Rogue Invitational
Finally, at the 2024 Rogue Invitational, the Duel IV — another sprint event — once again belonged to Malheiros.
- Malheiros went up against Brent Fikowski in the final, a head-to-head match-up of five up-and-over the hay bales, a 50-foot sled push, and four power stair step-ups with 300 pounds. He finished the sprint event in 35 seconds, three seconds ahead of Fikowksi.
3 Other Dominant Athletes
While Malheiros is our pick for the most dominant athlete of all time at what he is best at, he certainly isn’t the only athlete with a serious strength. So, we thought it was worth mentioning three other athletes who consistently dominate in one area of the sport.
Laura Horvath and Odd Objects
If there’s an athlete who comes close to being as dominant as Malheiros at a specific type of workout, it might just be the 2023 CrossFit Games champion, Laura Horvath. Her specialty: odd objects.
In 2023, four out of Horvath’s five event wins featured odd objects, including the “Pig Chipper,” a workout with 20 pig flips, which Horvath won by nearly a full minute over Arielle Loewen.
- She also won the “Ski-Bag” event, a workout with 50 heavy sandbag squats, as well as “Muscle-Up Logs,” a workout involving lifting a sandbag over logs.
- Finally, Horvath also won “Parallel-Bar Pull,” featuring a hand-over-hand sled pull.
Similarly, at the 2022 CrossFit Games, both of Horvath’s event wins featured odd objects: “Alpaca,” a workout with sled pushes and kettlebell clean and jerks, and “Back Nine,” which involved a yoke carry.
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Further, in 2021, Horvath’s single event win was Event 5, which included yet another odd object: a sandbag carry.
Finally, at the 2024 Rogue Invitational, Horvath had four event wins, while the seven-time Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr had five.
- Of those four event wins, three of them featured odd objects, including a single-arm Cyr Bell devil press in Event 5, up-and-over a hay bale and power stair steps in Event 6, and a single-arm Cyr Bell overhead walking lunge in Event 8.
Emily Rolfe at Long-Distance Running Events
Another athlete who always seems to be near, or at the front of the pack, every time there is a long-distance run is five-time Games veteran Emily Rolfe.
- Rolfe first made a name for herself in her rookie season in 2019 when she took an event win in “Ruck,” a 6,000-meter run with a ruck.
- In 2021, Rolfe took another event win, beating out Kristi Eramo O’Connell by one second in Event 10, a workout featuring toes-to-bar and three miles of running.
The 5k cross-country run at the 2023 CrossFit Games, though, was arguably when Rolfe showed just how dominant she can be.
- She cruised through the run well ahead of the next fastest competitor, Katrin Davidsdottir, who Rolfe beat by 38 seconds. Rolfe’s time was so good she would have been 14th in the men’s division.
Ultimately, Rolfe is such a good runner that she barely ever runs in training.
- After her bronze medal performance at the 2024 Games, where Rolfe finished third on “Lake Day,” a 3.5-mile run followed by an 800-meter swim, Rolfe admitted she didn’t do so much as a 5 km run all season, and the only time she added running to her training program was a couple weeks before the Games when she knew it would be tested in Fort Worth, TX.
While Rolfe might not be on Malheiros’ level of dominance at what she’s great at, she will always challenge for the win when it comes to longer-distance running.
Danielle Brandon at Handstand Walking
Finally, there’s Danielle Brandon and handstand walking. Or, in her case, we should call it handstand running.
- Remember that time in 2021 when Brandon annihilated the field in the intricate handstand walk course, taking the event win in 1:43, more than 20 seconds faster than the next fastest athlete in the sprint event?
And even when handstand walking is just one component of the broader workout, Brandon always excels.
- In 2019, in her rookie debut at the CrossFit Games, Brandon won “Second Cut,” a workout with running, KB jerks, and a 132-foot handstand walk.
- In 2022, Brandon won the “Skill Speed Medley,” which featured handstand walking, among other gymnastics skills.
- And again in 2023, Brandon took an event win in the “Inverted Medley,” a workout with handstand walking, free-standing handstand push-ups, 180-degree handstand pirouettes, and pullovers on the bar.
Ultimately, for the last five seasons, Brandon has proven that, if asked to get inverted, she’ll win more often than not.
The Bottom Line
While there are plenty of athletes who have specialties, nobody is quite as dominant as Malheiros at what he is best at: heavy or max effort Olympic weightlifting and full sprint events that rely on speed and raw athleticism.
- So, if you’re into sports betting, it’s wise to put your money on Malheiros in these instances.
Better yet, parlay your bet to include Horvath on the odd objects, Rolfe on a long run, and Brandon on her hands.
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Featured Image: Lydia Stadthoewer
